Nightmare scenarios of a new era of war. A teacher's warning about weapons that erase soldiers' memories and combat skills

Unleashing brain-based weapons capable of erasing memories and incapacitating troops is a nightmare vision but no longer unthinkable in cognitive warfare, a neuroscientist has warned, The Sun reports.

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Malcolm Dando, a professor in the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford and author of a report on the growing threat of brain-acting weapons, warns of a perfectly plausible scenario in which untraceable drones would spray soldiers with hallucinogens.

“We have a history of things like this happening, and we're seeing massive changes in science and technology. And the concern is this: If you put those two things together, you're going to have a new set of agents capable of much more specific things than just sedation.”

He recalled a Ukrainian toxicologist's warning of a potential new threat that would be the product of an explosive combination: advances in neuroscience, pharmacology and artificial intelligence.

Regarding this theory, Dando, who was present at the meeting of the Convention on Chemical Weapons in The Hague, explains: “That's what we used to think about chemical weapons before. They were large, very dangerous and used on the battlefield. And what he's saying now is that with the drone capabilities are we somehow moving toward the scenario where drones are able to drop very specific amounts of chemicals in specific places?

“His idea is that these chemicals could be specially designed so that they leave no trace, so that we don't realize what happened. “He certainly made that distinction between old-fashioned chemical weapons — the massive, large-scale dropping of chemicals on the enemy — by drones releasing specific chemicals, in small amounts, and those that cannot be detected.”

Could Russia develop these weapons?

Professor Dando, who has written a paper on the subject with his colleague Dr Michael Crowley, fears that Russian aggression could eventually lead them to develop this technology.

In this regard, he recalls how Russia acted in the case of the siege on a Moscow theater in 2002.

Russian forces surrounded the building where nearly 1,000 people were being held hostage.

The intervention turned into a tragic incident after “fentanyl was pumped into the theater of operations” and soldiers stormed in, “they shot those who took them hostage and saved a large part of them”.

According to reports, 130 hostages died from the effects of the gas.

Professor Dando, who has a doctorate in neuroscience, says it would not be out of the question that rapidly advancing chemical agents could be used by Russia in a similar way.

“If we examine the history of efforts to create such weapons in the last century, in the middle of the last century, we accidentally discovered that certain chemicals could improve the condition of mentally ill people.”

“And that discovery then led to attempts by the military to find ways to use such chemicals for situations like interrogations and as a less lethal way to use chemical weapons on the battlefield.”

“They just didn't know enough about the brain and how it works. So, in the end, it all came down to trying to create chemicals that have a short-term sedative effect.”

“The difference between a lethal dose and a dose meant to induce sedation is very small, so they killed about 120 people doing that.”

A nightmare scenario in war

Perhaps the scariest scenario would be one where memories are altered, inserted or removed without consent.

On the battlefield the impact would be devastating.

Such technology would “wipe out” the memories of front-line soldiers, who would become confused and wonder in vain who they were fighting for and why, he added.

It would also be a means of “unlearning” staff to fight, he warned.

“Soldiers wouldn't know how to do it anymore. It takes forever to train a good soldier to operate effectively on the battlefield. He could be detrained.”

The neuroscientist said these scenarios could be prevented.

“So if you understand how memories work and you know that the main communication systems in the brain are through chemicals — neurotransmitters, neuromodulators — then it's at least possible to interfere very specifically with memory.”

“Right now, our view is that we can still stop it. But we have to be aware that in the future – and we're not talking about many decades – it may already have occurred and we can't stop it.”

The professor explained that Russia could “do exactly what it did in the theater siege”; on the other hand, “fentanyl can be present in much more severe forms.”

In this case, the use of so-called “non-lethal” agents – which incapacitate rather than kill – is a dangerous temptation that makes a mockery of the laws of war.

“A crucial point is that history shows that this path only leads to escalation: one side will not tolerate such an advantage for long, forcing both sides to develop increasingly dangerous substances, mirroring the deadly chemical weapons race of World War I.”Professor Dando explained

The cognitive war

There is a lot of material being developed within the military studying new forms of cognitive warfare.”

“Part of cognitive warfare would be direct attacks on the brain. And there is a lot of literature looking at what chemicals are currently available for direct attacks on the brain.”

“So that's found in the military literature — concerns about influence operations to change people's perception of what's going on in the world, disinformation operations.”

And within this range of cognitive warfare, direct chemical attacks on the brain are certainly considered.”

The expert explains that if scientific and technological progress accelerates as expected, the ability to commit these harmful acts will become a reality.

“AI is a technology that boosts everything”said Professor Dando.

“Applied to chemistry. From what I understand, artificial intelligence could be used to understand the grammar of chemistry, and therefore could be used to generate a vast array of alternative structures that could have specific effects.”

In an unlikely scenario, Professor Dando, who is soon to publish a book on the subject, also wonders how soldiers would behave if they encountered soldiers who were not dead but sedated.

“You can imagine a situation where the troops have just taken over the trenches and there are lots of people lying around – maybe dead, maybe recovering – what would you expect the attacking troops to do?”

“Under those circumstances, the laws of war would also erode, because my hunch is that some people wouldn't trust drug addicts to not pick up their guns and start over.”

“So a total mess.”

The military's interest in turning psychedelics like LSD into weapons dates back to the last century, culminating in the creation of the BZ agent.

However, those early experiments failed because the effects were random and far too unpredictable, Professor Dando said.

Decades of restrictive drug laws have stymied both military and medical research.

But modern neuroscience offers a much deeper understanding of how psychedelics affect the neural networks of the brain.

This advanced knowledge could soon provide the level of specificity needed to successfully weaponize these agents.

Chemical weapons on the front

Currently, in Ukraine, the ban on the use of anti-insurgency agents in war – provided for in Article 1 of the Chemical Weapons Convention – is being violated.

Professor Dando explained that military interest in this weapon system is nothing new and dates back to the 1950s.

“The Chemical Weapons Convention is the main means of preventing this type of attack and has a clause that allows for peaceful law enforcement, including counter-insurgency at the national level.”

“So domestic riot agents — we know exactly what they are — and they can be used as law enforcement agents. So there's a potential loophole in that.”

This scenario mirrors the catastrophic escalation of World War I, which began with “non-lethal” agents used to clean trenches and quickly evolved into truly lethal substances.

“Right now, the Russians are systematically violating Article 1 by using riot police and other agents to try to break the deadlock from the trenches,” Professor Dando added.

“And the danger is that if there are leaks like this within the Convention, eventually you end up saying, well, there could be a better agent, a better agent, a better agent.”

“So we have a history, we have current concerns, and on top of that we have the massive advances that have been made in understanding the brain. These have occurred steadily over the last 50 years or so, but in a significant way since the initiation of national and regional brain research projects.”