Today, many people fear U.S. government surveillance of email and cell phone communications. With this program, the Pentagon aims to exponentially increase the paranoia. Imagine a world in which any insect fluttering past your window may be a remote-controlled spy, packed with surveillance equipment. Even more frightening is the prospect that such creatures could be weaponized, and the possibility, according to one scientist intimately familiar with the project, that these cyborg insects might be armed with "bio weapons." ("Weaponizing the Pentagon's Cyborg Insects," TomDispatch, March 30, 2008)
Called HI-MEMS, Turse reports that DARPA aims to transform "insects into unmanned air-vehicles." HI-MEMS program manager Armit Lal, an associate professor on leave from Cornell University described the research thusly at DARPA's annual symposium, DARPATech:
"[T]he HI-MEMS program seeks to grow MEMS and electronics inside the insect pupae. The new tissue forms around the insertions, making the bio-electronic interface long-lasting and reliable." In other words, micro-electronics are inserted at the pupal stage of metamorphosis so that they can be integrated into the insects' bodies as they develop, creating living robots that can be remotely controlled after the insect emerges from its cocoon.
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