DARPA FACES SENATE AXE

Under increased scrutiny for a series of con­tro­ver­sial pro­grams, the Pentagon’s far-​​out research arm has had its pro­posed bud­get for next year slashed by hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars in the Senate.
Some of the cuts to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency were expected: Lawmakers have been try­ing for the bet­ter part of a year to excise the noto­ri­ously far-​​reaching Terrorism Information Awareness data­base pro­gram.
But oth­ers seem to have come out of reg­u­la­tory left field. Widely hailed research into using the brain to con­trol robotic limbs, and train­ing the mind to func­tion on lit­tle or no sleep, will come to an end if the Senate’s ver­sion of the Defense Department Appropriations bill becomes law.
“Darpa got too much of the wrong kind of pub­lic­ity, the kind that invites mock­ery and ridicule, and now the agency is pay­ing the price,” Steven Aftergood, with the Federation of American Scientists, wrote in an e-​​mail.
My Wired News arti­cle exam­ines what gets lost if the cuts go through.
THERE’S MORE: As reported here in June — and in the cur­rent Village Voice — the Senate Armed Services Committee has ordered an inves­ti­ga­tion into Darpa and other mil­i­tary research cen­ters, to see whether the labs are stick­ing to their char­ters of fund­ing fun­da­men­tal sci­ence.
AND MORE: “We all may pay the price if DARPA’s bud­get is slashed,” writes Phil Carter. “The over­whelm­ing major­ity of DARPA projects go nowhere — but they do stim­u­late research in basic sci­ence and applied sci­ence areas that would oth­er­wise not be funded. To some extent, we all ben­e­fit from this kind of sci­en­tific research, just as we ben­e­fit from basic sci­ence research done on the MIT or Berkeley cam­puses. For decades, DARPA has been one of the most vibrant fed­eral agen­cies in exis­tence with respect to inno­va­tion and out-​​of-​​the-​​box think­ing. It has also spurred devel­op­ment in uni­ver­si­ties and the pri­vate sec­tor through its cre­ative ideas and fund­ing grants. We will all suf­fer if this agency takes a big hit.“
AND MORE: “Some DARPA pro­grams may be worth­while, such as one to study the effects of sleep depri­va­tion and ways to com­bat it. But, it looks like the baby will be thrown out with the bath water,” adds Jeralyn Merritt. “In our view, Poindexter tar­nished the rep­u­ta­tion of the agency, mak­ing Congress skep­ti­cal of just about every­thing bear­ing its name. Good rid­dance, Admiral.”

September 16th, 2003 | Uncategorized | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.