DARPA 101

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 Ben and Matt.

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
From UFOs to 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.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the stuff they don't want you
to know. Audio show.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
I'm Ben Bullett and I'm Matt Frederick.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Matt. 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.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Right, Yeah, sure, we're talking about something that is large
fairly old, not that old and important.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, So who could that be? Is that a person?
Is it Wilford Brimley?

Speaker 3 (00:47):
I believe it is a thing. It is a thing.
Make it a thing, or let's say an agency.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
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, real life mad science, paid for
by US taxpayers.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
This is the closest thing you'll ever get to the
fringe division. That's real.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
That's a really good comparison. And this also you mentioned
the history there, Matt. It's surprisingly old. It is just
for me it.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Well, can we get into kind of the history of it,
or do you want to explain more about what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Let's jump right into the history.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
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 nineteen fifty seven.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
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.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
Was there, absolutely was. They successfully launched a satellite before
we did, and it was seen as a massive threat.
So one 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

(02:23):
doing up there as well as on the ground.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
And we have just a dovetail on that. We have
some more information about that in one of our Friday
videos that features the role of secret satellites during the
Cold War. Right, Oh, yes, we do, and so DARPA
was created with this idea or excuse me, ARPA later
to become DARPA in nineteen fifty eight, was created with

(02:47):
this idea that the United States should always endeavor to
have a technological edge over friend and foe.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Yeah, superiority they called it.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
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 EPA,
the FDA, a bunch of other acronyms that end with A,
they operate in a much more top down style and

(03:20):
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, DARPA is actually kind of small.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
Yeah, it's it's fairly small. I don't have numbers on that.
Do you have numbers about actual employees, well confirmed employees.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
See, ah, yeah, I'm glad you said that. We don't.
And actually, no one in the public is going to
have a number that everyone agrees on. And that's because
DARPA does a lot of so contracting right, And DARPA
also has some classifications that don't really lend themselves to

(04:09):
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.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Which then split off into NASA and the NRO, the
National Reconnoisance Office, 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. Yeah,
they created the ARPINET in nineteen oh I think the

(04:45):
contract was awarded in nineteen sixty nine.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
And ARPAET, well, that might sound kind of familiar to
some people, Matt, what is arpaet.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
Arpinet is kind of the zygo of the internet that
then I like that it then created the web, the
internet in the web and all of 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, but thankfully the

(05:17):
people at BBN, Bolt, Bernak, and Newman decided they could
do it, they sent in a largely detailed proposal and
they got the contract and then in that was in
nineteen sixty nine, and then in nineteen seventy six they
had the first wireless transmission. So they jumped from nineteen

(05:38):
sixty nine to figuring out how to network computers buy
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 hard to think about because around I don't even
know exactly what time that came around. For consumers.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
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, I certainly no problem. But these guys are
into a lot of stuff. Right on another House Stuff

(06:18):
Work show, 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 the DARPER Urban
Challenge is a multi faceted competition. There are teams from

(06:39):
private entities. There are 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'SMO when it works out, and DARPA's IMO is

(07:02):
to fund other research agencies.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yeah, 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.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
True story. DARPA has no publicly acknowledged laboratories or scientists
of its own. They have program managers who sort of
farm out this research 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.

(07:42):
Should I do it now or should it away?

Speaker 3 (07:44):
And well, let's get into it. I want to hear.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Okay, thank you, the tDCS devices.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
Oh man, you're hung up on this.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
I'm hung up. I am 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 integrating human beings, human brains, and technological advances.
So they've found this thing called or they didn't find it,

(08:13):
but they've started using a thing called t DCS transcranial
direct current simulation. Anybody who's watched our video shows knows
that I am indeed hung up on this. So just
a quick recap. The idea is that through low level
electrical stimulation of specific parts of the brain, we can
not only improve somebody's learning ability, we can also improve

(08:37):
their memory retention and a couple of other neat mental tricks.
And what's more, this change stays with you after the exposure.
DARPA is using this to train snipers, to research pilot
training time. It's a brave new worlds.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
And are you Are you trying to do some of
this on your own veny research?

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah? Absolutely, I am fully on board with this. The
technology is maybe dangerous, but it's relatively simple to build.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
Now.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
I think at this point, Matt, you and I should
do a CoA and say we are not telling anyone
to build.

Speaker 3 (09:15):
It, certainly not, but if you want to know more
about it, watch our Deceptive Brain series episode three. Yeah,
but don't do it yourself.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
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 have any particular projects of DARPA
that you're interested.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
I do, But I'm going to kind of take it
back to the history again. Really fascinate something that really
fascinated me again that we can 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 a desert storm, correct, and it's called simnet
And that was the first time they started using their

(09:56):
networked computers to create an actual real world war simula
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.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
And it was essentially a video game like think of
Battlefield or Arma or 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

(10:33):
kind of war simulation and he pushed to have a
lot more of this. And it 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

(10:54):
combat warriors through all these different types of video games
with the top down strategy war games, the first person
shooter war games, and the tank simulators. Sure?

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Or how long how far are we from the first
drone simulator game?

Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yeah? And an enders game? Right? Yeah? And the kids
who are who think they're playing a game but they're
actually bombing people with predator drones spoiler alert.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
The book's been out for a while, and 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 met we run into

(11:43):
a lot of rumors, a lot of disconcerting facts. Most definitely,
if you like like us, are a little bit weirded
out by some of the amazing improvements and robotics, then
DARPA is your go to for a sleepless night.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
Yeah, speaking about improving the human not only the brain,
but good golly, some of those wow did I say,
good golly? Good golly some of those Some of the
the exoskeletons that are being produced, some of the innovations
in nanotechnology that they're coming out.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
With, bionic prosthetics that actually do have the ability to
relay sensations heat, cold, pain.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
There's a lot of interesting and quite frankly frightening things
that they're coming up with.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
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 ASA, for example. You can actually go to DARPA's
website and see their requests for proposals and see what
opportunities they have for you, your agency, or your crew

(12:55):
of local mad scientists to get that mad science cooking
with gas.

Speaker 3 (13:01):
Ben, I hate to do this. I'm so sorry, man.
I liked where you were going there, by the way,
but the lightest flashing that means we've got to get
out of here. Somebody else needs to use the studio.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Ah 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 nowhere near done.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
No, not at all. We have so much more to cover.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
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 United States Real Life Mad
Science Department. You can drop us line on Facebook, right, Matt.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
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.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
From more on this topic and other unexplained phenomenon, visit
test tube dot com slash conspiracy stuff. You can also
get in touch on Twitter at the handle at conspiracy Stuff.