Read My Thoughts Darpa
As you have no doubt heard by now, the Dems have done their usual and cut defense spending into nothing. Many of the future warfighter programs that the military has been developing for years are now dead, leaving us – the men on the ground, without new equipment to keep us safe and alive. Such things as the F-22, the C-37, the DLOS Cannon, naval ships, and all that “Ghost Recon” stuff. All the current equipment is starting to show its years, and you can only modify an M-16 so much.
Anyway, while they are busy cutting the floor out from under our defense, we are busy giving millions of our tax dollars to Darpa. To do what you ask? How about develop telepathy. Yep. Telepathy. While it sounds cool and all, I can think of much better ways to spend the money. How about we give it to PEO Soldier to develop a fleece that CSM’s will actually let us wear in public! 
At least, that’s the hope of researchers at the Pentagon’s mad-science division Darpa. The agency’s budget for the next fiscal year includes $4 million to start up a program called Silent Talk. The goal is to “allow user-to-user communication on the battlefield without the use of vocalized speech through analysis of neural signals.” That’s on top of the $4 million the Army handed out last year to the University of California to investigate the potential for computer-mediated telepathy.
[...]
The military has been funding a handful of mind-tapping technology recently, and already have monkeys capable of telepathic limb control. Telepathy may also have advantages beyond covert battlefield chatter. Last year, the National Research Council and the Defense Intelligence Agency released a report suggesting that neuroscience might also be useful to “make the enemy obey our commands.” The first step, though, may be getting a grunt to obey his officer’s remotely-transmitted thoughts.
Wired
i’ve some problem with system and...
I’m no expert in defense spending. But these are some figures I gathered.
Congress appropriated $864 billion for war-related appropriations from FY2001 through part of FY2009 in supplementals, regular appropriations, and continuing
resolutions. (Via FAS.)
That averages about $108 billion a year.
Supplemental Appropriations Act, FY2009 (HR 2346), which passed the House last week, and which I think is what you’re talking about when you say we cut defense spending, appropriates $81.3 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yes, that looks like a 26.7 billion cut. However, it doesn’t include regular appropriations and continuing resolutions.
By the way, the $81.3 billion comes out to $988.00 per U.S. family. I’m not complaining, just putting it in a little perspective.