The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind by Michio Kaku

Author:Michio Kaku [Kaku, Michio]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Technology & Engineering, Life Sciences, Science, General, Neuroscience, Physics
ISBN: 9780385530835
Google: 4SiwAAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2014-02-25T21:24:53+00:00

MIND CONTROL AND THE COLD WAR

Another reason for the chilly reception of Dr. Delgado’s work was the political climate of the time. It was the height of the Cold War, with painful memories of captured U.S. soldiers being paraded in front of cameras during the Korean War. With blank stares, they would admit they were on secret spy missions, confess to horrific war crimes, and denounce U.S. imperialism.

To make sense of this, the press used the term “brainwashing,” the idea that the communists had developed secret drugs and techniques to turn U.S. soldiers into pliable zombies. In this charged political climate, Frank Sinatra starred in the 1962 Cold War thriller The Manchurian Candidate, in which he tries to expose a secret communist “sleeper” agent whose mission is to assassinate the president of the United States. But there is a twist. The assassin is actually a trusted U.S. war hero, someone who was captured and then brainwashed by the communists. Coming from a well-connected family, the agent seems above suspicion and is almost impossible to stop. The Manchurian Candidate mirrored the anxieties of many Americans at that time.

Many of these fears were also stoked by Aldous Huxley’s prophetic 1931 novel Brave New World. In this dystopia, there are large test-tube-baby factories that produce clones. By selectively depriving oxygen from these fetuses, it is possible to produce children of different levels of brain damage. At the top are the alphas, who suffer no brain damage and are bred to rule society. At the bottom are the epsilons, who suffer significant brain damage and are used as disposable, obedient workers. In between are additional levels made up of other workers and the bureaucracy. The elite then control society by flooding it with mind-altering drugs, free love, and constant brainwashing. In this way, peace, tranquility, and harmony are maintained, but the novel asked a disturbing question that resonates even today: How much of our freedom and basic humanity do we want to sacrifice in the name of peace and social order?

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