November 8, 2013 • 14 mins
It's true: the United States really does have something like a real-life mad science department. But what is DARPA? What do they do, exactly, and what role have they played in pioneering top-secret science? Learn more with Matt and Ben.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
From UFOs two, Ghosts and government cover ups. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to now. Hello, everybody,
Welcome to the stuff they don't want you to know.
Audio show. I'm Ben Bullet and I'm met Frederick Matt.
(00:24):
Today we are gonna do a little introduction to something
that we often mentioned in our videos, but we don't
get enough time to really explain. Right, Yeah, sure, we're
talking about something that is large fairly old and that
old and important. Yeah, so who could that be? Is
(00:45):
that a person is at Wilford Brimley. I believe it's
a thing. It is a thing. Make it a thing,
or let's say an agency. Ah, yes, an agency. What
we are talking about today, ladies and gentlemen, is DARPA,
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. This is no fooling,
(01:06):
real life mad science paid for by US taxpayers. This
is the closest thing you'll ever get to the fringe division.
That's real. That's a really good comparison. And um this
also you mentioned the history there, Matt. It's surprisingly old.
It is for it, well, can we get into kind
of the history of it or do you want to
(01:26):
explain more about what it is, Let's jump right into
the history. Okay, So if you want to know about
the history of DARPA, you have to look at an
agency called ARPA, which is the same as DARPA. Just
take off that defense from the front of it, the
Advanced Research Projects Agency, and it's a Cold War creation,
something that came out of kind of the fear of
the Soviet Union's power, especially after they launched Sputnik in
(01:49):
nineteen fifty seven MM. At this time, the Department of
Defense was very concerned that there might be a weapon gap,
a technology gap in the Cold War, and there was there.
There absolutely was. They successfully launched the satellite before we did,
and it was seen as a massive threat. So one
(02:10):
of the first things that ARPA looked at was getting
man into space, or at least American man into space,
and also putting satellites up of our own so that
we could monitor what the Soviet Union was doing up
there as well as on the ground. And we have
just the Dovetail and that we have some more information
about that in one of our Friday videos that features
(02:34):
uh the role of secret satellites during the Cold War,
right oh, yes, we do. And so DARPA was created
with this idea excuse me. ARPA later to become DARPA
N was created with this idea that the United States
should always endeavor to have a technological edge over friend
(02:55):
and foe. Yes, superiority they called it. Yeah. So it's
weird because this kind of mandate also makes it a
bit different in comparison to other government agencies, like if
you think of other government agencies, the E, p A,
the f d A, a bunch of other acronyms that
end with a UH. They operate in a a much
(03:18):
more top down style and they're much larger than DARPA.
It's weird because for all the mentions that we hear
about DARPA in the world of theories and also the
world of frightening technology of the future, UH, DARPA is
actually kind of small. Yeah, it's it's fairly small. I
(03:38):
don't have numbers on that. Do you have numbers about
actual employees, well confirmed employees. See, ah, yeah, I'm glad
you said that. We don't. UM And actually, no one
in the public UH is going to have a number
that everyone agrees on. And that's because DARPA UM does
a lot of up contracting, right, And DARPA also has
(04:03):
some classifications that don't really lend themselves to any sort
of public information. So I guess at this point we
should go ahead and make it clear. DARPA started with
satellites and with the Moon missions, right, which then split
off into NASA and the n r O, the National
(04:24):
Reconnissance Office, uh, and then they had to focus on
different things. And one of the main things they were
focusing on was information technology. And that's again if we
want to kind of continue with kind of the things
we've been talking about lately, especially on our show. They
created the arpanet in nineteen oh I think the contract
(04:46):
was awarded in nineteen sixty nine. And Arpanet, well, that
might sound kind of familiar to some people, met what
is our bonnet. Arpanet is kind of the the zygo
out of the Internet that then like it then created
the web, the Internet in the web and all of
(05:06):
the things that we use now online. It was just
the first networking of computers. It's the first time it
ever happened. A lot of people thought it couldn't happen um,
but thankfully the people at b B N. Bolt Burnack
and Newman decided they could do it. They sent in
a largely detailed proposal and they got the contract and
(05:28):
then in now was in nineteen sixty nine, and then
in nineteen seventy six they had the first wireless transmission.
So they beat they They jumped from nineteen sixty nine
to figuring out how to network computers by a landline
to just what seven years later, then they've got the
first wireless transmission. And when you think about in nineteen
seventy six that there was wireless communication occurring, that's that's
(05:53):
hard to think about because around I don't even know
exactly what time that came around for consumers. Oh yeah,
a vast swath of the world still does not have
that technology and so that that's amazing. But it's not
just the Internet. And Matt, stop me if I start
to sound as though I'm making an infomercial for DARPA.
(06:13):
But these guys are into a lot of stuff right
um on another house stuff Workshow We've covered something called
the DARPA Urban Challenge, which is an annual competition to
create an autonomous vehicle, you know, like the Google Car
and uh, the DARPA Urban Challenge is a multifaceted competition. Uh.
(06:37):
Their teams from private entities, their teams a lot of
teams from universities, and they try to build the software
necessary to create a car that can go through the
open road and then also navigate treacherous urban environments. And
they've had a lot of success. This is one of
the key examples of DARPA's m O when it works out,
(07:00):
and darpat MO is too fund other research agencies, Yeah,
to to put out a call for a technology that
doesn't necessarily exist yet and extrapolation on current technology and
then whoever can do it the best gets a contract
from them through the government, and then they get to
do it. Yeah. True story. DARPA has no publicly acknowledged
(07:24):
a lot laboratories or scientists of its own. They have
program managers who sort of farm out this research. Uh,
and there's a lot of research. Oh man, I am
trying so hard right now not to bring up my
absolute favorite hobby horse of DARPA. Should I do it
now or should well, let's get into it. I want
(07:45):
to hear. Okay, thank you the t dc S devices. Man,
you're hung up on this. I'm hung up. I'm so
hung up on it. The technology is there. One of
DARPA's huge drives is to make a soldier of the future, right,
not necessarily human, but still uh, integrating human beings, human
(08:06):
brains and uh technological advances. So they've found this thing
called or they didn't find it, but they've started using
a thing called t dc S transcranial direct current simulation.
Anybody who's watched our video shows knows that I am
indeed hung up on this. UM. So just a quick recap.
The idea is that through uh low level electrical stimulation
(08:30):
of specific parts of the brain, we can not only
improve somebody's learning ability, we can also improve their memory
retention and a couple of other neat mental tricks. And
what's more, this change stays with you after the exposure. UH.
DARPA is using this to train snipers, to research pilot
(08:52):
training time. It's a brave new worlds and are you
Are you trying to do some of this on your
own Beny research? Yeah? Absolutely, I am fully on board
with this. The technology is maybe dangerous, but it's relatively
simple to build. Now. I think at this point, Matt,
you and I should do a c O A and
(09:12):
say We are not telling anyone to build it, certainly not.
But if you want to know more about it, watch
our Deceptive Brain series episode three. But don't do it yourself.
It don't tell people that we told you to do it.
We just say that it's interesting. And that's not all
DARPA's doing. Do you do you have any particular projects
(09:33):
of DARPA that you're interesting. I do, But I'm going
to kind of take it back to the history again.
Really something that really fascinated me again that we can
extra extrapolate upon. So they came up with this thing
during the Gulf War, the first invasion of Iraq by
the United States. Desert Fox it was, it was a
desert storm, correct, and it's called simnet, And that was
(09:54):
the first time they started using their network to computers
to create an actual real world war simula lation of
one of the battles, the Battle of seventy three Easting,
and it was one of the last major tank battles
that has occurred in the world. And it was essentially
a video game like think of Battlefield or armor or
(10:19):
I don't know, Command and Conquer kind of in a way. Also,
And it's really interesting to me because This was the
first time using this kind of technology to do this,
and the Defense Secretary at the time, Dick Cheney, was
extremely interested in this kind of war simulation and he
pushed to have a lot more of this. And it
(10:39):
makes me think about the video games of today and
whether or not they're kind of they're kind of I mean,
they are war simulators. But are we, let me ask
you this, are we teaching our children, including myself in
this category, to be combat warriors through all these different
types of video games with the top down strategy war games,
(11:00):
the first person shooter war games, and the tank simulators. Sure?
Or how long how far are we from the first
drone simulator game? Yeah? And and enders game? Right? Yea?
And the kids who are who think they're playing a
game but they're actually bombing people with predator drones spoiler alert.
(11:20):
The book has been out for a while. And uh
that that is a very good point, like at what
where's the threshold? At what point does it move from
being a game to being something that is clearly training?
I like that question very much. I also think it's
important when we go to DARPA as a subject, Matt,
(11:41):
we run into a lot of rumors, a lot of
disconcerting facts. If you, like like us, are a little
bit weirded out by some of the amazing improvements in robotics,
then DARPA is your go to for a sleepless night. Yeah,
(12:02):
speaking about improving the human not only the brain. But
good golly, some of those Wow did I say, good Goali?
Good golly some of those uh, some of the uh,
the exoskeletons that are being produced, Uh, some of the
innovations in nanotechnology that they're coming out with, bionic prosthetics
that actually do have the ability to relay sensations heat, cold, pain.
(12:27):
There's a lot of interesting and quite frankly frightening things
that they're coming up with. Yeah, and this is just
the stuff that we know about that is publicly acknowledged. Now.
DARPA is a little more open than some areas of
the US government, like the like s A, for example.
You can actually go to DARPA's website and see their
(12:48):
requests for proposals, uh and see what opportunities they have
for you, your agency, or your crew of local mad
scientists to uh get that mad science really cooking with gas.
Ben I hate to do this. I'm so Sorry, man,
I liked where you're going there, by the way, but
the lightest flashing that means we've got to get out
(13:08):
of here. Somebody else needs to use the studio, right, Okay, Well,
hey what about this, Matt? What if we make this
a two parter. Oh, that's a great idea, because we're
we're nowhere near done, No, not at all. We have
so much more to cover, So stay tuned to hear
the conclusion of our two part series on DARPA. In
the meantime, let us know what you think about the
(13:29):
United States Real Life Mad Science Department. You can drop
us line on Facebook, right Mat, Yeah, we're conspiracy Stuff.
You can also find us on Twitter We're at conspiracy Stuff,
or you can send us an email. We are conspiracy
at Discovery dot com. From more on this topic, another
unexplained phenomenon, visit test tube dot com slash conspiracy Stuff.
(13:54):
You can also get in touch on Twitter at the
handle at conspiracy Stuff.
From UFOs two, Ghosts and government cover ups. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to now. Hello, everybody,
Welcome to the stuff they don't want you to know.
Audio show. I'm Ben Bullet and I'm met Frederick Matt.
(00:24):
Today we are gonna do a little introduction to something
that we often mentioned in our videos, but we don't
get enough time to really explain. Right, Yeah, sure, we're
talking about something that is large fairly old and that
old and important. Yeah, so who could that be? Is
(00:45):
that a person is at Wilford Brimley. I believe it's
a thing. It is a thing. Make it a thing,
or let's say an agency. Ah, yes, an agency. What
we are talking about today, ladies and gentlemen, is DARPA,
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. This is no fooling,
(01:06):
real life mad science paid for by US taxpayers. This
is the closest thing you'll ever get to the fringe division.
That's real. That's a really good comparison. And um this
also you mentioned the history there, Matt. It's surprisingly old.
It is for it, well, can we get into kind
of the history of it or do you want to
(01:26):
explain more about what it is, Let's jump right into
the history. Okay, So if you want to know about
the history of DARPA, you have to look at an
agency called ARPA, which is the same as DARPA. Just
take off that defense from the front of it, the
Advanced Research Projects Agency, and it's a Cold War creation,
something that came out of kind of the fear of
the Soviet Union's power, especially after they launched Sputnik in
(01:49):
nineteen fifty seven MM. At this time, the Department of
Defense was very concerned that there might be a weapon gap,
a technology gap in the Cold War, and there was there.
There absolutely was. They successfully launched the satellite before we did,
and it was seen as a massive threat. So one
(02:10):
of the first things that ARPA looked at was getting
man into space, or at least American man into space,
and also putting satellites up of our own so that
we could monitor what the Soviet Union was doing up
there as well as on the ground. And we have
just the Dovetail and that we have some more information
about that in one of our Friday videos that features
(02:34):
uh the role of secret satellites during the Cold War,
right oh, yes, we do. And so DARPA was created
with this idea excuse me. ARPA later to become DARPA
N was created with this idea that the United States
should always endeavor to have a technological edge over friend
(02:55):
and foe. Yes, superiority they called it. Yeah. So it's
weird because this kind of mandate also makes it a
bit different in comparison to other government agencies, like if
you think of other government agencies, the E, p A,
the f d A, a bunch of other acronyms that
end with a UH. They operate in a a much
(03:18):
more top down style and they're much larger than DARPA.
It's weird because for all the mentions that we hear
about DARPA in the world of theories and also the
world of frightening technology of the future, UH, DARPA is
actually kind of small. Yeah, it's it's fairly small. I
(03:38):
don't have numbers on that. Do you have numbers about
actual employees, well confirmed employees. See, ah, yeah, I'm glad
you said that. We don't. UM And actually, no one
in the public UH is going to have a number
that everyone agrees on. And that's because DARPA UM does
a lot of up contracting, right, And DARPA also has
(04:03):
some classifications that don't really lend themselves to any sort
of public information. So I guess at this point we
should go ahead and make it clear. DARPA started with
satellites and with the Moon missions, right, which then split
off into NASA and the n r O, the National
(04:24):
Reconnissance Office, uh, and then they had to focus on
different things. And one of the main things they were
focusing on was information technology. And that's again if we
want to kind of continue with kind of the things
we've been talking about lately, especially on our show. They
created the arpanet in nineteen oh I think the contract
(04:46):
was awarded in nineteen sixty nine. And Arpanet, well, that
might sound kind of familiar to some people, met what
is our bonnet. Arpanet is kind of the the zygo
out of the Internet that then like it then created
the web, the Internet in the web and all of
(05:06):
the things that we use now online. It was just
the first networking of computers. It's the first time it
ever happened. A lot of people thought it couldn't happen um,
but thankfully the people at b B N. Bolt Burnack
and Newman decided they could do it. They sent in
a largely detailed proposal and they got the contract and
(05:28):
then in now was in nineteen sixty nine, and then
in nineteen seventy six they had the first wireless transmission.
So they beat they They jumped from nineteen sixty nine
to figuring out how to network computers by a landline
to just what seven years later, then they've got the
first wireless transmission. And when you think about in nineteen
seventy six that there was wireless communication occurring, that's that's
(05:53):
hard to think about because around I don't even know
exactly what time that came around for consumers. Oh yeah,
a vast swath of the world still does not have
that technology and so that that's amazing. But it's not
just the Internet. And Matt, stop me if I start
to sound as though I'm making an infomercial for DARPA.
(06:13):
But these guys are into a lot of stuff right
um on another house stuff Workshow We've covered something called
the DARPA Urban Challenge, which is an annual competition to
create an autonomous vehicle, you know, like the Google Car
and uh, the DARPA Urban Challenge is a multifaceted competition. Uh.
(06:37):
Their teams from private entities, their teams a lot of
teams from universities, and they try to build the software
necessary to create a car that can go through the
open road and then also navigate treacherous urban environments. And
they've had a lot of success. This is one of
the key examples of DARPA's m O when it works out,
(07:00):
and darpat MO is too fund other research agencies, Yeah,
to to put out a call for a technology that
doesn't necessarily exist yet and extrapolation on current technology and
then whoever can do it the best gets a contract
from them through the government, and then they get to
do it. Yeah. True story. DARPA has no publicly acknowledged
(07:24):
a lot laboratories or scientists of its own. They have
program managers who sort of farm out this research. Uh,
and there's a lot of research. Oh man, I am
trying so hard right now not to bring up my
absolute favorite hobby horse of DARPA. Should I do it
now or should well, let's get into it. I want
(07:45):
to hear. Okay, thank you the t dc S devices. Man,
you're hung up on this. I'm hung up. I'm so
hung up on it. The technology is there. One of
DARPA's huge drives is to make a soldier of the future, right,
not necessarily human, but still uh, integrating human beings, human
(08:06):
brains and uh technological advances. So they've found this thing
called or they didn't find it, but they've started using
a thing called t dc S transcranial direct current simulation.
Anybody who's watched our video shows knows that I am
indeed hung up on this. UM. So just a quick recap.
The idea is that through uh low level electrical stimulation
(08:30):
of specific parts of the brain, we can not only
improve somebody's learning ability, we can also improve their memory
retention and a couple of other neat mental tricks. And
what's more, this change stays with you after the exposure. UH.
DARPA is using this to train snipers, to research pilot
(08:52):
training time. It's a brave new worlds and are you
Are you trying to do some of this on your
own Beny research? Yeah? Absolutely, I am fully on board
with this. The technology is maybe dangerous, but it's relatively
simple to build. Now. I think at this point, Matt,
you and I should do a c O A and
(09:12):
say We are not telling anyone to build it, certainly not.
But if you want to know more about it, watch
our Deceptive Brain series episode three. But don't do it yourself.
It don't tell people that we told you to do it.
We just say that it's interesting. And that's not all
DARPA's doing. Do you do you have any particular projects
(09:33):
of DARPA that you're interesting. I do, But I'm going
to kind of take it back to the history again.
Really something that really fascinated me again that we can
extra extrapolate upon. So they came up with this thing
during the Gulf War, the first invasion of Iraq by
the United States. Desert Fox it was, it was a
desert storm, correct, and it's called simnet, And that was
(09:54):
the first time they started using their network to computers
to create an actual real world war simula lation of
one of the battles, the Battle of seventy three Easting,
and it was one of the last major tank battles
that has occurred in the world. And it was essentially
a video game like think of Battlefield or armor or
(10:19):
I don't know, Command and Conquer kind of in a way. Also,
And it's really interesting to me because This was the
first time using this kind of technology to do this,
and the Defense Secretary at the time, Dick Cheney, was
extremely interested in this kind of war simulation and he
pushed to have a lot more of this. And it
(10:39):
makes me think about the video games of today and
whether or not they're kind of they're kind of I mean,
they are war simulators. But are we, let me ask
you this, are we teaching our children, including myself in
this category, to be combat warriors through all these different
types of video games with the top down strategy war games,
(11:00):
the first person shooter war games, and the tank simulators. Sure?
Or how long how far are we from the first
drone simulator game? Yeah? And and enders game? Right? Yea?
And the kids who are who think they're playing a
game but they're actually bombing people with predator drones spoiler alert.
(11:20):
The book has been out for a while. And uh
that that is a very good point, like at what
where's the threshold? At what point does it move from
being a game to being something that is clearly training?
I like that question very much. I also think it's
important when we go to DARPA as a subject, Matt,
(11:41):
we run into a lot of rumors, a lot of
disconcerting facts. If you, like like us, are a little
bit weirded out by some of the amazing improvements in robotics,
then DARPA is your go to for a sleepless night. Yeah,
(12:02):
speaking about improving the human not only the brain. But
good golly, some of those Wow did I say, good Goali?
Good golly some of those uh, some of the uh,
the exoskeletons that are being produced, Uh, some of the
innovations in nanotechnology that they're coming out with, bionic prosthetics
that actually do have the ability to relay sensations heat, cold, pain.
(12:27):
There's a lot of interesting and quite frankly frightening things
that they're coming up with. Yeah, and this is just
the stuff that we know about that is publicly acknowledged. Now.
DARPA is a little more open than some areas of
the US government, like the like s A, for example.
You can actually go to DARPA's website and see their
(12:48):
requests for proposals, uh and see what opportunities they have
for you, your agency, or your crew of local mad
scientists to uh get that mad science really cooking with gas.
Ben I hate to do this. I'm so Sorry, man,
I liked where you're going there, by the way, but
the lightest flashing that means we've got to get out
(13:08):
of here. Somebody else needs to use the studio, right, Okay, Well,
hey what about this, Matt? What if we make this
a two parter. Oh, that's a great idea, because we're
we're nowhere near done, No, not at all. We have
so much more to cover, So stay tuned to hear
the conclusion of our two part series on DARPA. In
the meantime, let us know what you think about the
(13:29):
United States Real Life Mad Science Department. You can drop
us line on Facebook, right Mat, Yeah, we're conspiracy Stuff.
You can also find us on Twitter We're at conspiracy Stuff,
or you can send us an email. We are conspiracy
at Discovery dot com. From more on this topic, another
unexplained phenomenon, visit test tube dot com slash conspiracy Stuff.
(13:54):
You can also get in touch on Twitter at the
handle at conspiracy Stuff.
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