It would be possible then to see the ISN as a producer of “substantive” text, engineering its very substance—nanotechnology—within the materiality of writing, as if grammatical sign and technical object were indexical. “The idea” of the whole project to incorporate nanodevices into military uniforms is explained through text alone, as a continuous inscriptional inventory that contains the present in itself—a conveyor of present particles—while simultaneously generating the scientific future and setting it off at a distance. We are asked to “imagine”the future of soldier nanotechnologies as a culmination of alphabetic writing, a giving-forth or materialization of the technical substance abiding within. “Imagine the psychological impact”: imagine the invincible powers enabled by those invisible particles at the hypothetical end of this sentence,those particles that are the “end goal” or the “referent” of this sentence as much as they might appear at the space of its final destination, its conclusive period, its full stop. We are directed to think textually, to visualize nanodevices through the medium of print and the analog unreeling of its content towards a deferred future.
But at the same time, certain elements of Thomas’s description seem to“leap” out at us from another order of narration entirely, one perhaps defined less by analog progression toward an inevitable period than by fragmentation and radical juxtaposition. Even the imaginary abutment of nanoparticles with their material signifiers, where the future goal and the period of writing overlap in space and time, exceeds the notion of self-contained text; it is instead more like the conjunction of text with its own illustration. There is a conceptual practice involved here for which the idea of a substantive writing—a writing with “no need of illustration”—appears insufficient. This impression deepens when we read the ISN’s published research mission:
[T]he ISN’s research mission is to use nanotechnology to dramatically improve the survival of soldiers. The ultimate goal is to create a 21st century battlesuit that combines high-tech capabilities with light weight and comfort. Imagine a bullet-proof jumpsuit, no thicker than ordinary spandex, that monitors health, eases injuries, communicates automatically, and maybe even lends superhuman abilities. It’s a long-range vision for how technology can make soldiers less vulnerable to enemy and environmental threats. (Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies).
The origin of the Liquid Suit
Nanotechnology and Homeland Security: New Weapons for New Wars(2004)
“The tasks of modern soldiers might well be called superhuman and thus require superhuman characteristics to accomplish them”
Xombi(1994–1996). David Kim researches nanomedicine until demonic thugs break into his laboratory and murder him.
Luckily, he injects medical nanobots into his blood before dying: “Inside his body, the nanomachines were moving fast an
DMT, Aliens, and Reality — Part 1
Psychedelic drug phenomena do not justify radical new views of reality.
In the 1990s, psychiatrist Rick Strassman conducted pioneering research on the effects of DMT, described in his book DMT: The Spirit Molecule. This was the first time in over 20 years that the US government had allowed human studies on psychedelic drugs since such research had been effectively banned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra
The project studied the effects of psychoactive drugs, particularly LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, cocaine, AMT and DMT on people.
Dr. Robert Hyde
1991 Research reveals eight ex-nazi scientists (Kurt Blohme, who had experimented on humans in various concentration camps) brought to the U.S. in “Operation Paperclip”, were active in CIA- and Army- LSD-experiments at Edgewood Arsenal, MD during the 1950’s. Bridge conference on psychedelics in Palo Alto. Hakim Bey’s book “Temporary Autonomous Zone” (TAZ) is published.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgewood_Arsenal_human_experiments
Hyperreality, in semiotics and postmodernism, is an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, especially in technologically advanced postmodern societies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperreality