National security neuroscience and the reverse dual-use dilemma

Marks (2010) argues that national security applications of neuroscience are prone to both ethical concerns and hype. Perhaps, but we tend to overestimate the impacts of technologies in the short term yet underestimate their impacts in the long term (Brooks 1983). While the development of applied neuroscience is in its infancy, the long-term applications and impacts of neuroscience are likely to be both powerful and profound. Military and intelligence agencies, with the most at stake from such applications in terms of both benefits and risks, recognize the potential of neuroscience to revolutionize intelligence gathering and warfare.