The US Intelligence Community Apparently Wants Someone to Build Them a Brain [Updated]
Are you a postdoctoral researcher with a hankering to help the US government hone its brain-warfare skills? Well, Uncle Sam has just the job for you!
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) recently posted an opportunity online for a postdoctorate fellow who will “examine how BNNs work and determine if they can be manipulated.” For those of you unfamiliar with neuroscience acronyms, BNN stands for “biological neural network”—the nervous system of a living creature.
The fellowship was posted by the National Intelligence Council on Zintellect, a job-listing site with openings available through ORAU, a consortium of universities with postdoctoral programs focused on research and education in the scientific community.
Specifically, the gig entails building a biological neural network that is trained to classify images and then trying to fool it to misclassify the images. In other words, building a brain and figuring out ways to manipulate it. The listing includes two possible ways to manufacture a biological neural network: “in vitro with neuron cell cultures or slices” or “with detailed physiological models of BNNs.” It does note that, in this particular program at least, human testing isn’t authorized.
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