Joe Lane
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According to a variety of sources, roughly 25 million soldiers were killed in World War II. Along with tens of millions of civilian casualties, World War II was far and away the deadliest in recent history. The staggering death toll associated with the Second World War was due in large part to the technological advancements designed to create obscene and efficient killing machines.

Technology has always had a part in war, and with the invention of drones, GPS, and jets, for example, technology may play an even bigger role in modern warfare than it did in World War II.

Last week, Newsweek reported that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency was working on an implantable chip that would transform soldiers into super-human “cyborgs.”

The “brain-machine” interface, as it is being called, would change war forever and create a new world for everyone — even those far outside the realm of international conflict. The integration of this chip, which the Newsweek article indicates would be a steppingstone into such integration for civilians, could mean irreversible changes in mankind that may be taking technology too far.

The chip would be implanted in the brains of soldiers and would produce a “neural interface” for them. Although it would reportedly be no larger than one cubic centimeter, it would represent the first time such human-computer integration would occur, outside of Hollywood, of course.

The agency’s relatively new Neural Engineering System Design research program, which is responsible for the chip, claims that it wants to increase brain neuron interactions from tens of thousands to millions at a time.

On the surface, the idea of increasing the mental capabilities of soldiers (and eventually the public) seems like an interesting and promising idea. However, the realities behind the premise are not so encouraging.

I was born in 1995. I was barely old enough to remember what I was doing on 9/11 and barely young enough to be considered part of the generation being referred to as “digital natives.” Children born after the late-1990s in the United States — and other parts of the world — have grown up with a computer (or three) in their houses and iPhones in their pockets. Constantly, our elders criticize us for our incessant use of technology.

Moreover, the incessant use of this technology has largely been in the realm of social media, entertainment, and distraction. That is to say that despite having virtually all of mankind’s knowledge at our fingertips, few among us can claim to use the technology to its full potential in that arena.

With the invention of Defense agency’s “brain-machine,” the U.S. military is, in essence, approaching a whole new definition of incessant.

When Google débuted Google Glass, the technology world was thrilled with the wearable-tech advancement. But critics questioned the need for such nonstop technological integration, and just two days ago, according to Reuters, several social-media accounts for the product “went black”; they were shut down entirely. The homepage for the Google Glass website now reads, “Thanks for exploring with us. The journey doesn’t end here.”

Consumers were quick to grow weary of the constant incorporation of technology brought on by Google Glass that they seem to so crave. If the same technology were incorporated directly into the human brain — to become one with the delicate nature of our minds — the regrets may prove even greater than with the invention of Google Glass.