Art, obsession, and identity
The seeds of the technology that allows us to surf the net as well as everything else on the internet were sown by the development of ARPANET, which is essentially the technological predecessor of the internet.
As you’re reading this on a screen, you are using technology that wouldn’t be able to exist (at least it’s highly unlikely) if DARPA didn’t invent ARPANET.
The concept was originally described as an “intergalactic computer network” that allowed computers to communicate with each other. ARPANET went online in 1969 after funding was secured to develop it three years previous, but it wasn’t until around 1990 when the world wide web was developed that everybody else could get involved.
When you’re driving around in your car using your GPS, it’s easy to assume that the technology came from whatever company made it, but that’s DARPA too!
BigDog, the quadruped robot created by Boston Dynamics, was funded by DARPA. For years DARPA has funded private organizations working on projects that may have practical military use.
This technology is still what is most widely used in GPS systems around the world, although the EU’s Galileo satellite system looks promising in offering a better alternative.
DARPA has said they’re attempting to turn real insects into cyborgs through implanting technology in them in 2006 (this photograph is not a prototype).
The results are pretty impractical and inconsistent. For example, you can stimulate a cockroach to turn left, but then it may get used to it and not respond anymore.
Using a constellation of satellites for navigation and tracking goes back to a concept developed by DARPA in the 1940s.
The four-legged dog can travel on a wide range of terrain (including in mud, on ice, up hills, etc.), and was intended to carry heavy gear for soldiers.
It was developed in 1973 and was only available to the US military for a decade until a Korean Airlines flight was shot down in the USSR, who then gathered what was left of the wreckage and the technology was made freely available.
If you’ve never used a TOR browser, you’ve probably still heard of it in the context of cybercrime. The onion router (TOR) was created by DARPA.
The GUI (pronounced “gooey”) and mouse that we operate computers with were developed by DARPA, too.
It’s used to access the dark web. Essentially people can transfer information undetectably. Journalists often use it for transferring files and for publishing in countries with strict press laws.
When you walk, run, leap, or are just carrying something, the exoskeleton is doing the work. Its sensors can tell what movement a person intends to make, and then it moves with that person.
HULC was deemed a failure for one main reason. Even though it was intended to carry its weight, it made certain movements harder and tiring to do. But it has been successfully used in the healthcare sector, for instance.
It allows people to act anonymously on the internet by directing signals relaying through thousands of free, worldwide, and voluntary overlay networks to conceal the user's location.
The Human Universal Load Carrier (HULC) isn’t well known, but it’s quite the piece of equipment in the military sense. Essentially it’s a hydraulic-powered exoskeleton that helps soldiers carry up to 90 kg (just under 200 lbs).
CALO, which also means soldier’s servant in Latin, was designed to learn, take instructions, measure, and take note of experiences.
Siri, Apple’s digital virtual assistant, began as a DARPA project. Back in the early 2000s, DARPA developed CALO, an acronym for Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes.
They were attempting to understand how it affects radio waves and the nature of the ionosphere itself. However, the project was dropped by the US military in 2014.
See also: Inventors killed by their own inventions
Located in Alaska, the project is joint between the US Air Force, US Navy, DARPA, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It researches plasma trails by lightning and much more.
HAARP, or the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, has been at the epicenter of many conspiracy theories for years, presumably because they investigate the Earth's upper atmosphere, the ionosphere.
It satisfied all of the requirements that it was created to meet, but it has one major flaw: it is too loud for military application.
In the 1980s, DARPA teamed up with the US Navy and Lockheed Martin to develop a stealth ship, which resulted in the Sea Shadow (IX-529).
It’s been around for a lot longer than most people realize. It was first demoed in 1968, and although it was a much more basic version of the technology, it laid the framework for the interface of today.
The Sea Shadow (IX-529) is a boat that looks like a mix between something belonging to a Bond villain and an alien hovercraft. It could avoid radar detection, but came to an end when it was attempted to be sold to the highest bidder and nobody bid. It was eventually sold for scrap and dismantled.
Today, DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), a United States Department of Defense research and development agency, is working to make human-level AI, micro-physiological systems (engineering human tissues), quantum processing technologies, and much more. A lot of the projects in development sound farfetched, like something from a sci-fi film, but if what they have succeeded to invent in the past is any indication of what they will come up with in the future, humanity is in for a wild ride!
To discover some of the craziest developments by DARPA, click through this gallery.
In 2019, they have a different plan" to use insects to develop artificial intelligence exploration (AIE) proposals.
Looking at DARPA and the agency's craziest inventions
The internet, GPS, Siri, and much more!
LIFESTYLE Technology
Today, DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), a United States Department of Defense research and development agency, is working to make human-level AI, micro-physiological systems (engineering human tissues), quantum processing technologies, and much more. A lot of the projects in development sound farfetched, like something from a sci-fi film, but if what they have succeeded to invent in the past is any indication of what they will come up with in the future, humanity is in for a wild ride!
To discover some of the craziest developments by DARPA, click through this gallery.