Danger from hybrid insects

The new technological wonder of DARPA(US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is the Cyborg Insect.

The HI-MEMS(Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) project of this agency is currently in its third year. The goal of this program is to create moths and insects having electronic controls implanted inside them, allowing them to be controlled by a remote operator.

An innocentlooking insect can give out useful information and help in spying over theenemies. Hat’s off to the team of researchers led by Hirotaka Sato for creatingcyborg beetles which are guided wirelessly via a laptop. But did they everthink that publicly announcing about these new creations could be dangerous to the mankind?

There isevery chance of people misusing it for their selfishinterests if it reaches the wrong hands at anytime. The chemical and biologicalweapons for e.g., have been misused by the Iraqi soldiers for killing the innocentKurdish people during Saddam’s regime in 1988. The AK-47 is already in theterrorist hands. Bombs and rockets have been handy for them since a long time.

If these new spying techniques reach the wrong handsthere is every chance of it being used for mass destruction purposes also. Agroup of these well directed insects might be capable of destroying crops wortha million. They can enter the borders of any nation with great ease and play adestructive role.

Now,ThePentagon's defense scientists want to create an army of cyber-insects that canbe remotely controlled to check out explosives and send transmissions. They might also spy on conversations. But during such operationsif any insect dies in the enemy territory, and get detected accidentally, then it might be a huge loss and dangerous too. After understanding the techniques used in insertingMEMS in insects, it will be easy for use. Terrorist groups like Al- Qaeda do have some brilliant brains working forthem. So, revealing new technical advancements in defense is not a wise movefor any of the Governments. It might be like digging our own graves.