IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2013 - 45

cloud computing (netpliances); and
d) the continuing need for stealth,
applied to the conduct of intelligence operations, is combined in
this project.
All presently defined stages of
intelligence activities to include,
briefly, collection of information,
analysis, interpretation, assignment of meaning, assessment of
error, correction (aka... learning),
communication with the cloud/
HQ, production of intelligence and
utilization for immediate tactical
decision-making or long term strategy, may be substantially altered
in terms of substance and time and
dimension as a result of our work
to engineer this kind of future
intelligence space. Fundamentally
this project is about the design and
effect of advancing technology
(hence the tendency to think sigint.
However, it is primarily focused on
a future variation of what we refer
to as humint today.
Fully-imagined and fully-realized, a squad of tactical combat
soldiers can simultaneously be a
tactical intelligence unit that via
the combined, force-multiplying
technologies that are the result of a
human information appliance platoon, will be able to provide intelligence outcomes beyond Libicki's
visions in 1996. To understand this
tactical platoon as a sort of "human
netpliance," let us break down the
concepts and components that
when combined make up a dynamic
"tactical information cloud" that
can perform all elements of the
intelligence process as noted above
(for example, in a combat environment in real time.) Readers who
are already familiar with these
steps in the intelligence process
will already begin to understand
the steps and technologies that we
have already employed to compress
time and reduce error in tactical
environments to date. What we are
describing here is an exponential
growth in kind and capability that
is a function of combining human
activities with greater technological

tools for data collection, analysis,
and communication.
We can understand that advancements in these activities to date
have chiefly come with the design
and delivery of advanced electronic IAs (non-implanted) to augment human observation, analysis,
decision-making and ultimately
action/behavior. Such devices have
provided the intelligence consumer
with great advantages. However,
they still take up space and interfere with stealth, and they are not
yet powerful enough, nor have they
truly achieved IA status (of talking to each other in constant and
stealth manner). But - what if they
could do so?
A particular kind of future
national security critical infrastructure is explored next for the
purpose of thinking about, in
advance, evolving complexity and
corresponding risk to this particular system for the purpose of
learning about how to build in survivability and resilience for operational purposes and for societal
outcomes as well.

The Intelligence Cyborg
The intelligence cyborg will do
what she/he has always done,
but in a more effective manner
with the same level of seamless
human/technical integration, but
via implantation of information
technologies. This kind of human
information appliance will be an
unremarkable diminishable entity
of tissue and hardware, not so different in kind from her/his civilian
cyborg counterpart.
We are suggesting that the evolution to these kinds of entities will
move apace in both the military
and civilian worlds as is already
the case. In fact, this may help
attenuate some of the potential ethical and moral problems that could
arise from military activities to
create cyborgs for strictly military
purposes and outcomes. If they
already exist as civilians (due to
the evolution of the marketplace),

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2013

the military can "assume" these
capabilities for their purposes as
they do with recruits now.
The human information appliance (HIA), in the form of an intelligence cyborg, will be monitoring
the world, communicating with
other like devices (platoon members), and enabling us to manage,
store, and compare information
quite effortlessly in the business of
the collection of information and
ultimately the production of intelligence. The appliance need not
be overtly conscious of all tasks or
even missions that are assigned to
it/her/him in order to execute and
complete them. Remote persons/
organizations will be able to task
various systems "on-board" to
acquire desired information even
independently of the primary individual/person that serves as the
platform for the IA. We can begin to
realize the potential for this device.
But let's go deeper. As Libicki did
in his Orbis article, we can imagine
a greater power to be achieved and
wielded in both the tactical environment and in a strategic one if
this technology were to be realized.
We need to invoke a few more
technological concepts to fully
understand the plausibility and
probability for the realization of
such entities. An advanced HIA
will be a cyborg that consists of
implanted technologies that enhance
the human senses. But the real force
multipliers will come in the form
of the implantation and integration
of IA hardware and software (code
and algorithms) that speed up the
process of analyzing environmental data that will be collected by the
other enhanced sensory devices.
CPUs, SSDs, memory cache, and
power devices are the technologies
necessary to realize these outcomes.
Importantly, other technologies,
especially medical and prophylactic in nature are necessary in order
to allow this to evolve so that the
symbiosis can take place without
deleterious outcomes. Psychological and neurological research and
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2013