Bionic Bug Podcast

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 32. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on November 25, 2018.

I’m thrilled to deliver a bonus episode this weekend! This is to make up for the one we missed earlier in November.

Just one additional news headline for today:

“The Human Brain is a Time Traveler” published in the New York Times Magazine this weekend. This is a fascinating piece and worth reading several times. It looks at the inner workings of the human brain and how AI might augment or replace our ability to analyze the past and predict the future.

In neuroscience in the 1990s, scientists wanted to use scans of the brain’s “resting state” to compare scans of the brain doing certain activities. The theory was that the brain uses different amounts of energy depending on the activity. But it turned out that the brain’s resting state was more active that the brain’s active state.

This revelation was “one of the first hints of what would become a revolution in our understanding of human intelligence.”

When our brain is resting, it engages in time travel. And that’s unique to being human. Our brain’s ability to time travel is one thing that sets Homo sapiens apart from other mammals. This refers to our ability to go back in time and imagine things that occurred in the past, but also our ability to imagine ourselves in the future and to plan for future prospects.

“The seemingly trivial activity of mind-wandering is now believed to play a central role in the brain’s “deep learning,” the mind’s sifting through past experiences, imagining future prospects and assessing them with emotional judgments.”

The article examines how AI and machine learning might come to support human decision-making and potentially replace it.

For me, one of the more stunning revelations was how our use of smartphones prevent us from entering into the brain’s resting state. Before smartphones, how did we spend our downtime – reflecting on the events of the day or week and planning for the future. What are the consequences of filling all the gaps for human time travel with the use of the smartphone? If time travel is key to our being wise, are we becoming dumber?

Let’s turn to Bionic Bug. Last week, Lara had a strange conversation with Fiddler. Let’s find out what happens next.

The views expressed on this podcast are my own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 31. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on November 25, 2018.

Let’s talk tech:

My first headline is “Wanted: The ‘perfect babysitter.’ Must pass AI scan for respect and attitude” published in the Washington Post on November 23

Machine learning tools are beginning to impact our lives in big ways without us taking a moment to think through the limitations of such tools or the potential consequences. It’s scary.

This article describes new software tools/services driven by machine-learning to improve the screening of potential employees—in this case, babysitters.

Parents are increasingly turning to online services like Predictum to make choices about babysitters. This service leverages “artificial intelligence” to screen the social media activity of prospective babysitters to generate an automated risk rating. Babysitters are assessed for their risk of negative behaviors such as drug abuse, violence, bullying, and harassment.

The system is a black box – it spits out a number, but doesn’t explain how it produced its ratings.

The article talks about parents who previously thought their babysitter was trustworthy, but began to have doubts when the risk assessment score came back as a 2 instead of a perfect 1.

The system is based on the concept that social media shows a person’s character. I can imagine a future system also analyzing a person’s google searches, in which case I and all other fiction writers are doomed.

This is problematic on so many levels.

A computer software tools tends to produce more trust than human instinct. This is problematic if the tool is flawed. And I’ve never met a computer software that wasn’t flawed.

Unlike your standard computer software, humans don’t program the rules for machine learning tools. A machine learning tool determines rules based on patterns of data.

Here’s a question: how many of us are honest on social media? Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter lend themselves to the creation of online personas – designer versions of our true selves. Are the images we show to the public for consumption actually the full truth.

How well can these tools determine the context for social media posts? Can they decipher between sarcastic and serious posts? How do these tools distinguish between things people actually say and what articles or people they may be quoting.

According to the article, “The technology is reshaping how some companies approach recruiting, hiring and reviewing workers, offering employers an unrivaled look at job candidates through a new wave of invasive psychological assessment and surveillance.”

My second headline is “China blacklists millions of people from booking flights as 'social credit' system introduced” published on the Independent on November 23.

I’ve talked about such headlines before. Many of you know that China plans to fully implement its social credit system by 2020. This system tracks the behavior of citizens based on the their data and evaluates them for “trustworthiness”, which is determined by the behaviors the government wishes to encourage or discourage. Citizens with low scores will be denied access to travel, high-speed internet, good schools, certain jobs, certain hotels and even the right to own pets.

You might breathe a sigh of relief that at least you don’t live in China. Most democracies have resisted the alluring pull of monitoring technologies in the name of protecting privacy. Or have we? If our data trail is not being funneled to our government, then to whom are we giving the power? And do we trust them to do the right thing?

Let’s turn to Bionic Bug. Last week, Rob, Lara and Vik went to check out Linda’s apartment, but just missed her. Let’s find out what happens next.

The views expressed on this podcast are my own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 30. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on November 18, 2018.

First off, a personal update. I’m excited to announce that I’m in the midst of producing an audio book for Bionic Bug.I’m currently auditioning professional narrators and expect the project to be finished in early 2019.

I apologize for the break in releasing podcast episodes. I’ve been recovering from a nasty sinus infection the past few weeks, and my voice continues to be scratchy. You’ll probably notice if you listen to the next chapter of Bionic Bug. I hope you enjoyed the bonus episode where I interviewed Samuel Bennett, an expert on robotics, AI and Russia. Check out the episode and the show notes, which include links to his recent publications.

Let’s talk tech. Just two headlines for this week.

“Jon and Daenerys United in First Pic from Game of Thrones’ Eighth and Final Season,” published on Nov 1 on SyFy.com

“Production on the final season stretched to 10 months and includes another year of post to tackle the challenging visual effects.”

“Season 8 is anticipated to showcase what's being touted as the biggest battle in TV history, which took an unprecedented 55 nights to shoot.”

“And the whole process has been so secretive that HBO has taken to deploying "drone killers" to take out any drones that might have been flying above the set to spy on the action.”

“HBO Literally Shooting Down Drones To Prevent Game of Thrones Season 8 Spoilers”

“Shaped like a gun, a "drone killer" is aimed at any flying nuisance and shoots out a beam, disabling the drone and driving it back down to the ground. IXI Technology in Yorba Linda, California is responsible for the technology, which costs about $30,000 a pop. The company's also supplied new gadgets to the U.S. military for over three decades.”

“Are Killer Robots the Future of War? Parsing the Facts on Autonomous Weapons,” published on Nov 15 by Kelsey Atherton in the NY Times.

This article addresses a fundamental question: should machines be allowed to make lethal decisions in battle.

Until now, these decisions have been made by humans. Even though autonomous systems exist today, a human remains in the loop to make the ultimate decisions on destroying targets.

But we’re moving into an era where autonomous systems are becoming more intelligent and thus more capable of making such decisions. One of the challenges is the decision-making speed of machines exceeds that of humans. When one country decides to go fully autonomous on the battlefield, others may be compelled to follow. Because as Paul Scharre has said: speed kills.

Check out his book Army of Noneon Amazon.

This is a fantastic article to introduce you to the key issues and I encourage you to read it.

Let’s turn to Bionic Bug. Last week, Lara found important clues at Sully’s townhouse, and Rob and Lara got locked in the safe room. Let’s find out what happens next.

The views expressed on this podcast are my own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

This is a special episode of the Bionic Bug Podcast streamed LIVE on YouTube on November 12 at 7:00PM EST. Join me for a riveting interview with Mr. Samuel Bendett to talk AI and Robotics. Mr. Bennett is currently a researcher at the Center for Naval Analyses and specializes in robotics and Russia. He is also a Fellow in Russia Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council.

Mr. Bendett has over 15 years of program and project management experience with US government, Department of Defense and private sector. Currently conducting research on the Russian defense and security issues, as well as the emergence of unmanned warfare. Formerly an Assistant Research Fellow at the National Defense University, working on emerging and disruptive technology for the Department of Defense policy development and concept of operations.

If you’re interested in reading more, check out some of Sam’s latest articles:

Samuel Bendett, "Here’s How the Russian Military Is Organizing to Develop AI,” Defense One, 20 July 2018.

Samuel Bendett, "In AI, Russia Is Hustling to Catch Up,” Defense One, 4 April 2018.

Samuel Bendett and Elsa B. Kania, "Chinese and Russian Defense Innovation, with American Characteristics? Military Innovation, Commercial Technologies, and Great Power Competition,” Strategy Bridge, 2 August 2018.

The views expressed on this podcast are my own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 29. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on November 4, 2018.

Last week, I was at the United Nations in New York City where I spoke about the digitization of biology at a side event of the UN Security Council Committee on Resolution 1540 hosted by the Bolivian and Swedish missions. I’m happy to say that my remarks were well received. It was thrilling to be a speaker in the same room where I was once a junior staffer taking notes. I’ve included some pictures in the show notes.

Project Gecko is now available both in paperback and ebook. You can purchase the paperback on Amazon.The ebook version is currently only available on Kobo.I’ll include the links in my notes if you’re interested.

This month, I’m participating in Nanowrimo which stands for National Novel Writing Month. This is a challenge in which hundreds of thousands of novel writers attempt to write 50K words in one month. I am writing Genomic Data, the third novel in the Lara Kingsley Series and hope to finish it by the end of the month.

Let’s talk tech:

My first headline for this week is “Slightly heavier than a toothpick, the first wireless insect-size robot takes flight” published on cnbc.com on November 2.

Engineers from the University of Washington have managed to fly the first wireless insect-size robot. This work has been going on for some time, the key challenge being the weight of the power source.

The engineers created the “RoboFly, a robo-insect powered by an invisible laser beam that is pointed at a photovoltaic cell, which is attached above the robot and converts the laser light into enough electricity to operate its wings.”

The engineers designed a circuit to boost the power in the solar cell to power the robot’s wings and a microcontroller that acts as its brain. The RoboFly can only take off and land at this time, but they are working on a way to steer the robot.

They expect such robots to be fully autonomous within five years.

Of course, if you’ve been listening to me read Bionic Bug, you know why I like this story. Robot insects have been constrained by the weight of power sources and electronics. Live insects are self-powered; work to control the flight of insects has advanced more quickly.

My second headline is “Can we predict when and where a crime will take place?”published on bbc.com on October 30. Cops in the UK are using algorithms and big data to predict where and when crimes will occur and adjusting their policing accordingly. The idea is that crime prediction leads to crime prevention.

Sound familiar? In Minority Report (1956), a short story by Philip K. Dick, a set of precogs are able to see and predict all crime before it occurs, eliminating crime in a future society. Instead, people are arrested and tried for precrimes based solely on the logical progression of their thoughts.

There is historical precedent for these practices. In the past, police would use hot spot analysis based on past crime patterns to determine where to post officers. Predictive tools offer a way to show where crime will take place based on a wide range of factors.

But what about bias? Some allege the system has learned racism and bias, leading to increased policing in areas with high crime rates and to self-fulfilling prophecies.

Let’s turn to Bionic Bug. Last week, we learned Lara’s fate from her beetle bites and put the pieces together on Fiddler’s plot. Let’s find out what happens next.

The views expressed on this podcast are my own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 28. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on October 28, 2018.

First off, I have a personal update. On Tuesday of next week, I’m headed to the United Nations in New York. I’ve been invited to talk about the digitization of biology at a side meeting of the UN Security Council on Resolution 1540. My colleagues and I published a paper on this topic. I’ll include a link in the show notes in case you’re interested in reading it. This is a particularly exciting opportunity for me since I began my career in WMD working as a Junior Political Officer at the UN where it was part of my job to track developments in the Security Council on various WMD-related resolutions.

Let’s talk tech. A few headlines caught my attention this week:

“Designer babies aren’t futuristic. They’re already here” published in MIT’s Technology Review on October 22.

Many of you know that I’m working on my third novel in the Lara Kingsley series called Genomic Data. One of the themes I’ll be addressing in my novel is that of designer babies and related issues.

You may have watched the movie Gattaca in the 1990s which is a story about a naturally born man trying to navigate a world full of fully-grown designer babies who are not only viewed to have all the advantages, they are given preference over naturally born humans.

That future is here. Our knowledge of the human genome, vast repositories of genomic data combined with well-established procedures of in-vitro fertilization means that we are on the cusp of allowing parents to customize their children.

Parents are already selecting embryos for health purposes.

The only thing stopping us from picking traits in the near-term is public opinion.

“In general, Americans approve of using reproductive genetic tests to prevent fatal childhood disease, but do not approve of using the same tests to identify or select for traits like intelligence or strength.”

One of the major issues is that IVF and genetic screening are expensive. That means only the wealthy population can afford giving their children genetic advantages from the start.

“Microlight3D Offers a New Kind of Microscale 3D Printing” published on October 18 at 3Dprint.com

One feature of advanced technology that I find fascinating (and scary) is our ability to study and manipulate matter at smaller and smaller scales, invisible to the human eye.

A company called Microlight3D is capable of producing parts at the microscale—100 times smaller than a strand of hair. “These microscopic parts have a wide variety of applications, including in micro-optics, microfluidics, micro-robotics, metamaterials, and cell-biology.

“FLIR Nano Drone Creating a Buzz for Military,” published on dronelife.com on October 22

Speaking of microrobotics, my next headline involves a tiny drone system called the Black Hornet Vehicle Reconnaissance System. It is designed to be integrated with and launched from a robust vehicle.

These drones are tiny, one of the world’s smallest so far, about the length of a pen and flies with a single rotor. It can fly up to 25 minutes in close quarters and up to a mile. It is virtually undetectable from 15 feet away. It provides live video feed to the operator on a chest-mounted display. The total system of two drones, a controller and a video screen weighs less than three pounds

The company describes the missions of the tiny drones as “situational awareness, threat detection and surveillance.”

It could also be used by law enforcement and first responders.

“Mystery of how black widow spiders create steel-strength silk webs further unraveled” published on October 22 at sciencedaily.com

Continuing the theme of very small stuff, my next headline addresses the popular topic of spider silk.

Scientists have been trying to synthesize spider silk or produce it on a mass scale for decades. Using instruments to see what goes on inside of black widow spiders to produce steel-strength spider silk, scientists think they have a new model to produce synthetic materials.

If they are able to “replicate the natural process to produce artificial fibers at scale, it would be transformative.”

Let’s turn to Bionic Bug. Last week, Lara went to Maggie’s apartment in a panic after being bitten by a swarm of bionic bugs. She was terrified of being infected with the plague. Luckily, Maggie had supplies on hand to test the saliva of the beetle for the bacteria. What were the test results? Let’s find out.

The views expressed on this podcast are my own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 27. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on October 21, 2018.

I’m excited to deliver a bonus episode this week. There’s been so many interesting tech headlines lately, I couldn’t resist sharing more. Especially since recent headlines have featured technologies I use in my fiction novels.

I’m thrilled to announce that Project Gecko is now available as a paperback on Amazon. I’ll include the link in my show notes. I hope you check it out!

My first headline is not a headline, but rather a YouTube video to demonstrate the rising quality of “deep fakes”. In Project Gecko, I use fake photos as a tool of blackmail. This week, I watched a short video where a young Harrison Ford has been inserted into the new Hans Solo movie. Here you can see for yourself how authentic such videos can be and ponder the potential implications for social media, politics and elections.

My second headline is “How Swarms of Super Intelligent Drones Are Taking Over Live Entertainment” published on gizmodo.com on October 10, 2018. Of course, you’ve probably already seen a drone show at a major sports event. A few years ago, Lady Gaga took stage during the Super Bowl half-time show and sung to a swarm of drones above. There was also a drone show at the Winter Olympics in February. This is becoming increasingly more common, which fits nicely with the drone show featured at the start of Bionic Bug.

My third headline is “Volocopter flying taxi sets down in Singapore” published in newatlas.com on October 18, 2018. German aviation startup Volocopter has tested an 18-rotor electric aircraft in Dubai, essentially a passenger drone. It has plans to begin testing in Singapore and launching the first-ever taxi service by drone. This is particularly fun because Lara makes her fear and dislike of passenger drones clear in the beginning of Bionic Bug. In Project Gecko, she must confront that fear head-on and decide if she’s ready to take a ride.

Finally, several weeks ago, I talked about how police were able to determine the identity of the Golden State killer by comparing his DNA profile to those loaded up in a free online genealogy database. Several additional headlines on this issue came out recently. The first is “The DNA technique that caught the Golden State Killer is more powerful than we thought” published on theverge.com on October 11, 2018. Several scientists have published a research paper in Science Magazinesuggesting that nearly an entire population could be identified using a small base of samples. These scientists have “devised a way to extrapolate from incomplete samples, building out a broader picture of the genome than was originally tested. Taken together, those techniques would allow researchers to identify nearly anyone using only existing samples, a frighteningly powerful new tool for DNA forensics.” What does this mean? It may not matter that you haven’t had your DNA mapped or uploaded into a database, soon your identity may be determined from any DNA samples you leave behind.

Okay, that’s scary, right? Let’s turn to Bionic Bug for some comic relief (or maybe not). Last week, Lara was attacked by a swarm of bionic bugs. Will she get the plague? Let’s find out what happens next.

The views expressed on this podcast are my own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 26. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on October 20, 2018.

First off, a quick personal update. Last week, I was unable to record a podcast episode because I was in Austin for a writer mastermind event. I’m still processing everything I learned talking to fellow writers about my fiction and author business. Perhaps, my biggest takeaway is that I should develop a presence on Medium. I’m certain that most of you have read a post from medium.com at one point or another. It is a platform designed specifically for quality content by the world’s most insightful writers, thinkers, and storytellers. I will be posting articles regularly building upon the content in this podcast. If you’re interested in learning more, I hope you follow me there.

While in Austin, I have the opportunity to visit my first Amazon bookstore. What’s the big deal, you say? It’s just a bookstore. Actually, it’s a different experience than most book stores and it comes down to curation and displays. Your typical bookstore is curated by the traditional publishers; if you’re an Indie publisher, you can’t get into most of these bookstores unless one features local authors. The different spaces and displays in a bookstore are like real estate for purchase to the highest bidder. In some cases, placement on the tables out front go for tens of thousands of dollars. The cheapest real estate in a bookstore is on the shelves in a spine-out layout. Face-out displays cost more. In an Amazon bookstore, the readers curate the selection. That’s right, you choose the books. Simply put, the highest ranking books in different genres are featured in an Amazon bookstore. Each book is face-out and has rank information listed. The face-out displays make for an entirely different experience for browsing. You don’t have to know what you’re looking for, you can simply browse covers and pick up ones that interest you.

Let’s talk tech:

Last time, I mentioned the news headline about the alleged hardware hack by China, which sent ripple effects through technology and national security circles. There’s has been much debate since the article that’s worth discussing.

Since the publication of the article, Amazon and Apple have denounced the veracity of the story. Most recently, DHS issued a statement during a Senate hearing rejecting the claims made by the Bloomberg article.

My first headline for this week is “The security community increasingly thinks a bombshell Bloomberg report on Chinese chip hacking could be bogus” published on businessinsider.com on October 13.

The article raises doubts about the claims made in the bombshell article. Even if the article is wrong, however, government and technology experts are saying that such a scenario is possible. And I think that’s what is key. Today, everything increasingly depends on electronics, which use chips produced overseas. Such a hardware hack could provide back doors into computer networks.

My next headline is related and even more distressing than the hardware hack. “Many of the US Military’s Newest Weapons Have Major Cyber Vulnerabilities: GAO” published on Defense One by Patrick Tucker on October 9, 2018.

The GAO has assessed the U.S. military’s weapons systems and found them vulnerable to cyberhacks. “Using relatively simple tools and techniques, testers were able to take control of systems and largely operate undetected, due in part to basic issues such as poor password management and unencrypted communications.” If you’re interested reading more, you can read the report

Again this is a function of our reliance on computers connected to networks and/or the Internet. If not secured properly, they are exposed to a wide range of cyber-vulnerabilities

My last headline is a bit of good news. While emerging technologies pose new risks, they can also help to solve national security challenges.

Thanks to John Hornick for posting “Infill Creates a “Fingerprint” for Tracing 3D Printed Items Back to Their Sources” published on 3dprint.com on October 17, 2017.

Researchers have figured out how to “trace a 3D printed object to the printer on which it was made.” This could be extremely helpful in tracking 3dprinted guns and other dangerous items as well as serve as a deterrent to making illegal items using 3D printers. There is a precedent for this on laser printers. You may not be aware but when you print documents on a laser printer, there are invisible dots that can identify the originating printer. In fact, that is how an NSA contractor was charged for leaking classified documents in 2017. Law enforcement officials were able to trace documents leaked to the media back to an NSA printer and determine that one of six people could have printed it using time stamps. From there, they were able to determine which of the six had contact with the media outlet.

Let’s turn to Bionic Bug. Last week, Lara conducted a stake out on Fiddler and his daughter and nearly came into contact with the rogue scientist’s beetle swarm. What happens next?

The views expressed on this podcast are my own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 25. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on October 7, 2018.

Two episodes in one weekend? Yeah, that’s right. Next weekend, I’m heading off on my final trip of the year. I’m going to Austin, Texas for a writer event. I wanted to make sure you don’t wait too long for the next chapter, so I’m doing double duty this weekend.

Let’s turn to what I think was the biggest tech story last week.

“The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies” published on Bloomberg Business Week on October 4.

If you’ve been following the news about China, you know their government is making an aggressive push to acquire a technological edge and using all sorts of tactics to do this. You’re probably also aware of how the U.S. has outsourced production of a wide variety of goods to China, including electronics.

If this story is true, the implications are enormous for national security. A U.S. company based on Oregon sells servers for storing data to their customers. The servers were produced by another company based in San Jose. The Oregon company sent a number of these servers to a third-party tester in Canada. That’s when they discovered microchips the size of a rice grain embedded in the servers. The company has sold servers to the Department of Defense, the CIA, the Navy, Amazon and Apple. The chips allowed hackers to install a door into networks and access data.

Both Amazon and Apple refuted the report.

In any event, this article brings home the fact that we entering a whole new world of conflict. One that occurs in the digital world rather than the physical one.

Let’s turn to Bionic Bug. Last week, Rob and Lara interviewed Ashton and learned more details about Fiddler’s plans. However, he was hesitant to say too much. Let’s find out what happens next.

The views expressed on this podcast are my own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 24. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on October 6, 2018.

First off, I have a fiction update. I’m excited to announce that my first novel, Bionic Bug, is now available as a paper back on Amazon. To find it, type in bionic bug fiction. I’ll also include the link the show notes.

The release is especially timely given a headline in the New York Times last week. My first tech headline for this week:

“Viruses Spread by Insects to Crops Sound Scary. The Military Calls It Food Security” by Emily Baumgaertner in the New York Times on October 4.

This article is about DARPA’s Insect Allies Program, which has three technical areas—viral manipulation, insect vector optimization, and selective gene therapy in mature plants. DARPA wants to improve the resilience of crops against drought, floods and even foreign attacks by genetically modifying them to be more resilient with gene therapy. And they want to do this through a virus that will be carried by insects. Typically, classical plant breeding would be used to improve crops, but this takes a long time. Moreover, scientists are unable to address emerging threats quick enough. Using an army of insects, quick and comprehensive modifications to crops to ensure food security.

The project kicked off in 2016 seeking proposals by scientists and researchers. Universities and companies have already received the awards to begin this work. For example, scientists at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI), the University of Minnesota, the University of California, Davis, and Iowa State Universityreceived a four-year $10.3 million award in 2017.

Why is this project making the news now? A group of scientists recently published a warning in Science magazine about the dangers of controlling a swarm of insects and the equally troubling prospect of inadvertently creating biological weapons. In fact, they’re alleging that doing so might be breaching the Biological Weapons Convention, an international treaty prohibiting the development and use of dangerous pathogens and toxins as weapons.

DARPA published its rebuttal last week, defending its project and disagreeing with the claims made by these scientists. Notably, DARPA is not funding open release projects at this time. All work under the project will be conducted inside.

If you’ve been listening to my podcast from the beginning, you know that I’ve envisioned the scenario the scientists warn about. In my novel, Bionic Bug, a rogue scientist genetically modifies a swarm of beetles to carry a disease—a particularly frightening form of a biological weapon, invoking images of the plagues from the Bible. Aside from DARPA’s good intentions and my concerns about food security in the U.S., I’m inclined to agree with the dangers of controlling such a swarm. If for some reason, we are not able to control what happens with this flying gene therapy mechanism, we could undermine the goal of food security in the first place.

My second headline is “A Controversial Virus Study Reveals a Critical Flaw in How Science Is Done” by Ed Yong in the Atlantic on October 4.

This article continues the debate around the horsepox experiment carried out in Canada a few years ago, the results of which were published last January. As you may recall, scientists were able to reconstruct the horsepox virus, a cousin of the smallpox virus, from genomic data. They ordered sequences of the virus’s genome from companies and stitched them together. Once they had the full genome, they inserted it into a cell and booted up the organism, recreating the virus from scratch. They were able to do this in under 6 months for about $100K. This experiment has led to concerns about bad actors doing the same thing with the now eradicated smallpox virus.

If you’re interested in the debate surrounding research that can be used for good or bad, I encourage you to read this piece.

Let’s turn to Bionic Bug. Last week, Lara, Rob, and Vik visited Beautific Creations to investigate the source of the stolen botulinum toxin that killed Sully. And they got much more than they bargained for, including the capture of Sully and Fiddler’s assistant, Ashton Grant. Let’s find out what happens next.

The views expressed on this podcast are my own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.