This is a re-post of an article I wrote for transalchemy. Here is the original link: http://transalchemy.blogspot.com/2009/11/1956-brainchips-indoctrinators-of.html
The article "Biocontrol," which appeared in TIME magazine (10/15/1956) is an eye opener, it quotes an Electrical Engineer (Curtis R. Shaffer) who casually discusses how the enslavement of man through brain chips will produce the "cheapest machine." The article was first brought to my attention in Vance Packards "The Hidden Persuaders" (1957), which is advertised as "a guide to the Age of Manipulation,"on Chapter 17: ("The Packaged Soul?") he writes:
"Eventually -- say by A.D. 2000 -- peraps all this depth manipulation of the psychological variety will seem amusingly old-fashioned. By then perhaps the biophysicists will take over with "biocontrol," which is depth persuasssion carried to its ultimate." [The Hidden Persuaders - Vance Packard, p.239]
TIME magazines article defines Biocontrol as "the control of physical movements, mental processes, emotional reactions and apparent sensory perceptions . . by means of bioelectrical signals which are transmitted and injected into the central nervous system of the subject." The article can be read in full online (link), here I have included the most important excerpts:
"A familiar horror of science fiction is the slave whose thoughts and actions are governed by an electronic gadget grafted into his brain. There might be some truth in this fiction, says Electrical Engineer Curtiss R. Schafer, who designs and develops electronic instruments for the Norden-Ketay Corp. of New York City. Electronics, he believes, could save a lot of work for the indoctrinators and thought-controllers of the future." ... "Cheapest Machine. "The ultimate achievement of biocontrol," says Engineer Schafer, "may be the control of man himself . . . Enslavement could be imposed upon the vanquished as a condition of peace, or through the threat of hydrogen bombing. Biocontrol could make this enslavement complete and final, for the controlled subjects would never be permitted to think as individuals. A few months after birth, a surgeon would equip each child with a socket mounted under the scalp and electrodes reaching selected areas of brain tissue. A year or two later, a miniature radio receiver and antenna would be plugged into the socket. From that time on, the child's sensory perceptions and muscular activity could be either modified or completely controlled by bioelectric signals radiated from state-controlled transmitters. "
The reference to "a socket mounted in the head" brought to my mind this scene (image) from The Matrix (1999).
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