This is a fascinating Why Files about the secretive things DARPA is up to. Some have been good, and some have been very, very bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo68B3UG9VU

My TLDW: 51-minute video. Minute 1 is the intro, minutes 2 - 4 are an ad, resumes at minute 5.

The first segment is aboutl the history of DARPA and explains many of the amazing things that DARPA has invented: DARPA created the internet, micro-processing chips, GPS, cell phones, and AI. They’ve advanced the medical field by creating ultrasound, MRI, advanced prosthetics, diagnose illness earlier, and improve transplants surgeries… and this is the tip of the iceberg.

Then it goes into the creepy/disturbing things that DARPA has invented, such as self-guided bullets, bending light to make objects invisible, living construction materials, remote controlled rats, using insects to destroy crops, miniature flying cyborgs that look like flying insects, etc. They are working on autonomous killer robot soldiers, creating exoskeletons to make soldiers stronger with weapons inside the exoskeleton, and modifying humans to give them “superhuman capabilities” without any extra equipment, ie limb regeneration.

At the 22-minute mark, he explains that DARPA wanted to mass surveil everyone, but it was illegal for them to do so, they couldn’t manage so much data, and surveillance doesn’t work when people are aware of being surveilled. This led to DARPA creating a think tank — a private organization with no oversight — that disbursed DARPA funds to organizations such has the National Science Federation, which in turn gave the funds to companies that would do this surveillance for them, such as Google.

At the 30-minute mark, he explains how DARPA was behind creating and utilizing Agent Orange in violation of international war crime laws. The US continued to use it long after the US knew how devastating it was to both the locals and the American soldiers exposed to it. The US has never taken responsibility for this and still denies that it violated war crime laws or harmed people.

At the 40-minute mark the most damning statistics come out:

DARPA is an agency of 220 people with a budget of $4 billion dollars.

No transparency. Exempt from many laws other government agencies have to follow, such as hiring practices, managing personnel and managing budgets. The are allowed to fund projects via “other transactions” with no congressional approval or oversight. The defense contractor CEOs get to decide what DARPA funds, the same people who financially benefit from these contracts. DARPA is the agency that drives the military industrial complex, which is exactly what Eisenhower had warned us about decades ago.

He closes by pondering whether the good outweighs the bad.