Rough Draft

This morning at 2:51 I finished my senior project on PTSD. I maximized my page limit by 3 pages so sadly was not able to include an economic stand point on my topic. As apart of the treatment for PTSD within war victims the government has 12 million currently invested, and 26 million more if benchmarks are met. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is being funded by the government to create a chip that can be inserted into military officers to reach within the soft tissue of the brain to record and predict PTSD. The chip will provide the ability to monitor electronic waves within the brain as well as transmit it's own electric currents to regulate healthy levels of brain activity. The chip creates controversy because ethically it can be viewed as an over-controlled/robotic form of medicine. The easy solutions is to state that playing God isn't ethical. However, i would like to question what is the difference between the chip and a pace maker placed within the heart. Is inserting technology into the brain any different from the heart? I believe that the government should continue to fund the project because the economical benefits will be reaped with great prosperity. The average individual has the opportunity and i would encourage to invest in the company's heading up the project.

DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is the head-runner for some of the greatest inventions of all time. For example the invention of thermal imagery in the late 1950's used to provide the military with the capability of using night vision. The company's who decided to invest and partner with DARPA such as Honey Well and Texas Instruments are now house-hold mulit-million dollar companies. ARPENET, DARPA's inside government network, eventually became the internet. This led to the rise of Google, a company which gave back to their investors 344 times their intial investment.  The reign of Google produced over 1,000 millionaires as the stock skyrocketed. DARPA's program , "Sketch Pad" with the construction of this program scientists produced the first PC containing a word processor, a printer, file folders, scroll bars, drop-down menus and multi-tasking. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates eventually commercialized the product which only led to a massive industry of stocks in the Silicon Valley such as Apple, Microsoft and Dell. Once DARPA's inventions take the leap of leaving the hands of the government they  have proven to make investors rich, and by rich i mean the kind that only produced by inventions that change the world. Examples of these inventions that have rolled out of DARPA's doors are the GPS, microchip, computer mouse, Cloud computing and the personal computer. Investing Daily states, "The bottom line is DARPA is the “invisible hand” behind some of history’s great financial growth stories. Most investors don’t know it. Most financial analysts don’t want to believe it. They’d prefer to believe Silicon Valley did it all by itself. No help from the government. But the truth is those who were privy to DARPA’s pipeline of innovation had the chance to claim a stake in the next wave of millionaire-making technology." 

The higher stakes involved in investing in a company the greater chance for a moral dilemma. If those investing in the technology of computers knew what computers would create ten years down the road would they invest? Its a question they still battle with today amidst drowning in stacks of cash.

When DARPA announced their new-found project in chips to treat and prevent PTSD one would assume that the product is a guaranteed success. I believe the product very much could be. Medically this is the first product that DARPA has pushed forward with full force. The question remains is placing a chip inside the brain of military officers "playing god" or reducing the value of humanity? I do not believe so. The military for years has forced officers to take pills to keep them awake and make them more aware. Snipers also take drugs to take away any "shakiness" and make them calm so they can accurately shoot. During the Vietnam war the military gave steroids and performance enhancing drugs to give the the extra push in combat. Whats the difference in a drug flowing through your bloodstream than a monitor sending out electronic waves?

However, could the initiation of brain chips within the military involve into a new world beyond simply those in combat. It was thought computers would only be used in the work force and communication but we can all see how that had an adverse affect. What would i do?  Econimcaly speaking HECK  yes i would invest! DARPA has a stellar record not to mention support and funds from the government to create a project that is bound for success. On the moral issue do I want to be one of the millionaires down the road sitting in a mansion surrounded by a population of people encrypted by computers with chips controlling their brain? Now both are extreme but i think before you support something financially you must be prepared to support it and stand by it when it fails or backfires. However this blog is economical so go ahead invest in DARPA and reap the rewards of the stock market.