The veteran thing probably helps you get on the DARPA gravy train, which is no bad thing when it's for things that are actually useful. If the US government wants to throw a few hundred million dollars into developing bionic limbs, that's fine with me. It's just one step closer to my dream of having my brain implanted into a gigantic combat robot upon my death so that I can live on and fight superheros and such.

"This is Jonathon Smalls, head researcher for DARPA. He is trying not to be seen... he has spent $4 Billion dollars on a cloaking cylinder but unfortunately we can still see his eyes. BOOM!"

What's wrong with hand-made? We have yet to make a robot that has the ability of the human hand, with all of it's sensory inputs. It's puzzling, that some things are perceived to be best made by hand and others aren't.

Do you mean DARPA? The Defense research robotic car race? That's neat stuff.

This video is fun... but I not sure it tells us anything we don't already know about Ron Paul. I wish I knew where he stood on the funding the NSF, NIH, NIST, NRL, APL, DARPA, and other governmental institutions.

I would really like it if someone would answer that question.

I think it is very myopic to think that not funding research will help the American economy. Part of what make our economy so strong is that the government is willing to fund pure science research with no obvious long term benefit; like Colossal Magneto Resistance, the Rhybosime(not rhybosome), QCD, and Bose-Einstein Condensates. It is easy to scoff and say the private sector will pick those things up, but I am not sure they will.

There will always be loads of money flowing into DARPA's hands. It's not all things that kill you know. A lot of the research is to help our troops. DARPA has all sorts of branches, not jusr weapons. And even a lot of those weapons are less-than-lethal, like the ADS or the LRAD.

In reply to this comment by bamdrew:
A lot of pretty million dollar toys.

As a young researcher looking at a career of dependence primarily on government funds I wonder if making things that kill better would be more fundable than what I'm currently doing... which is kind of the opposite. Growth in DARPA funds sure are kicking the NIBIB's ass in this administration.

A lot of pretty million dollar toys.

As a young researcher looking at a career of dependence primarily on government funds I wonder if making things that kill better would be more fundable than what I'm currently doing... which is kind of the opposite. Growth in DARPA funds sure are kicking the NIBIB's ass in this administration.

Brilliant!

As a note, DARPA just announced a new challenge: to get an autonomous robot through an urban course, while avoiding other traffic and obeying all traffic laws. It'll be interesting to see how that one goes.

You're welcome!
I was particularly interested in the DARPA Challenge, as my company participated in it. We ah, didn't do so well (last place!) But hey,next year nowhere to go but up!

In reply to your comment:
“Thanks Firefly!

In reply to your comment:
“Lots of neat geeky stuff here. Pull up a chair and relax while I attempt to *save ””

For those who like to go right to the highlights,
After a three-minute intro, here’s a rough breakdown:
Minute 4: 3D technologies, with traditional screens and “fogscreens”
Minute 8: networked cars/smart houses. This includes a segment of the DARPA Grand Challenge: completely autonomous vehicles navigating a desert obstacle course.
Minute 18: humanoid robots, including a background on Honda’s ASIMO
Minute 24: future in cyber-security (yep, hackers still exist!)
Minute 31: next generation surveillance and biometric systems, including not only photographing citizens, but identifying as well.
Minute 38: archival recovery; holographic crystals with microscopic images.

Reln, it's too much a generalization to just say that everyone should agree with US military policy and just understand that this is the way the world works. When you are oppressed and attacked by Israel forces using US military technology who do you think they are going to blame exactly?

The reason that radical Islam has reached the point of active violent attack is becuase obviously no other form of dialogue seems to bring the US into the discussion of resolving the Palestine/Israel issue. Which needs to happen for this situation to resolve. Your kind of thinking would only clarify to most people that in reality is this a colonization and oppression of the arab people via Israel with Palestine and the US forces in Iraq. And make no mistake that there are many people willing to misguide their people into advocating violence.

It doesn't help at the same time when the US president so vividly uses hostile words towards the regime in Iran. But then again a perpetual war at the cost of an all volunteer army and declining morale, with the large $$$ to be made from military goverment contracts is just too much of lucrative business to disengage in. Surely we must find more reasons to implement the billion dollar military technologies the Pentagon, DOD and DARPA push at you.

Seriously you people seem to have no soul when it comes to what is actually going on in Israel when it comes to the issue of Palestine. Too brainwashed by the filtered coverage you receive via so called "FREE PRESS" administrated and analyzed by various Israel
interests.

People don't just reach the point of suicide bombings overnight. It shows that these people feel they have no other way out. But clearly that flies over you, clearly it's easier to label people psychologically deranged.

This is highly speculative based on a DOD 2020 reports, books and such?

Now if you read every DARPA and DOD report out there you realize that they are predicting events several years in the future without any real consideration towards economic, political or sociological considerations.

Space militarization cannot really happen, considering that such steps would be immediately countered by China and Russia. All they need to do is basically start selling off dollars switch to Euro's and collapse the US economy into a depression. This is not even considering how much resources, money, research it would require to introduce such a program.

Furthermore throwing all the funds into this program is sheer foolishness. They have already spent billions trying to make these systems work, especially the missile defense system, and derivatives such as the patriot missile system. This plan would be shot down to bits by both sides of the House and Congress not to mention the voting population. This is no longer a world were countries can stay isolationist, everything is depended on information, goods and supply chains. If aggressive actions escalated to tyranny by the USA, it would only bring more terrorist attacks, more attacks that don't use the usual military doctrine... Yes the US military is great in facing a mechanized army, but look how it cannot contain insurgents, and these technologies would only make such warfare all the more acceptable in the eyes of a enemy that cannot resist otherwise. Yes Space domination would mean power all over the world, but it's power at the expense of all the freedoms a society like the US enjoys, just like it came close to post 9/11.

There are no more US military bases in Uzbekistan. American military interests withdrew with the current problems faced in Iraq and tension from the local despotic goverment.

Loftly plans of control of Space echo the ones of controlling the communist domino effect or controlling Vietnam or the containing the problem Middle East. Surely they should understand that even best laid plans never usually work out.... It's hilarious how much totally wrong footage is being used to tell the story (e.g. soviets shown when it was talking about Nazi scientists taken during Op Paperclip, which was more based on the fact that the US saw that the USSR would be an enemy).

And if you are not convinced just look at US national debt numbers.

Tin foil conspiracies, am sorry to say.

If you are wondering why, it's a DARPA funded project to create pack mules for US soldiers. Go figure.

If this is a DARPA funded project am going to blow chunks and blow the Whitehouse up...