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DARPA Wants Matrix-style Virtual World for Cybergeddon

theregister.co.uk — The US military's famed scientific wingnut farm, DARPA*, has released full details of its planned "National Cyber Range" - a mighty network which could be configured to simulate the cyberspace battlefields of the future. This would allow America's fighting nerds to train for the net conflicts of tomorrow, mounting attacks on simulated enemies..

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  • str3ama, on 05/11/2008, -0/+14just remember DARPA was in-part responsible for the advent of the Internet. See how far they have come..
    • pitlord, on 05/11/2008, -1/+1Seems like they could just as easily have compared this project with a Holodeck on Star Trek.
      >.>
      Nah, that might make the military look like nice guys, we can't have that.
      -_-

  • tunafizzle, on 05/11/2008, -2/+18Don't forget DARPA stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. This means that they are pretty bad ass. They have a budget well over $3,000,000,000 and only report to senior heads at the DoD makes them pretty damn serious.

    Some wiki entries of some of the few known projects that DARPA has headed or heads:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Shadow
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Application_and ...
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Energy_Liquid_La ...
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Zones_That_See
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MQ-1_Predator

    Liquid Laser = autowin.
    • birdadderley, on 05/11/2008, -0/+4One program that I was working on for a while was called the Cyber Warefare Integration Network or CWIN at Northrop Grumman (http://www.is.northropgrumman.com/profile/systems_ ... They spent a ton of money on these conference rooms, spread across the USA at different sites, that were linked into some of the different systems' components at those locations (Global Hawk, E2C Hawkeye, F/A-18, B2, Joint STARS, etc...). The point was to have 2 teams (red vs blue) that could use theses systems in real-time in a simulated environment to have mock battles. They had partnerships with SGI and NVIDIA to produce some awesome graphics cards. The simulated environment were these high quality landscaping of Vietnam. Pretty cool stuff.

      I just miss the privacy glass they had... http://www.inhabitat.com/2006/02/19/super-smart-pr ... - (i think it was $800 sq/ft). I would just turn that on and off all day and I'd be pleased... (plus the video wall was cool too... 4 x 124" rear projections linked together by a wall processer. We were watching TV channels on that thing at once)
    • arjie, on 05/11/2008, -0/+4Not to mention the incredibly cool Urban Challenge: http://www.darpa.mil/GRANDCHALLENGE/
  • anteyekon4myst, on 05/11/2008, -3/+13Skynet
    • Bovorik, on 05/11/2008, -2/+3T3 was on tv again last night - the most underrated of the Terminator films.
  • jeffinfremont, on 05/11/2008, -4/+12...and so it continues. Kurzwell called it. The Singularity truly is near.
    • Shadowgamers, on 05/11/2008, -6/+3I can't wait for Kurzwell to buckle under the amount of vitamins he's taking
    • pitlord, on 05/11/2008, -2/+1Sure, nobody BEFORE Kurzweil ever prophesied the end of the world or a global awakening of consciousness.
      >.>
      Yeah, he was the first.
      /sarcasm off
      Dumbass.
      -_-
  • TVarmy, on 05/11/2008, -1/+8So it's just like Team Fortress 2 mixed with Uplink with a few bots added in?
  • snap326, on 05/11/2008, -0/+3It will be interesting how true their vision stays true to what they have outlined in the proposal(s) https://www.fbo.gov/utils/view?id=c330660f00c9820d ...
  • Shadowgamers, on 05/11/2008, -0/+5'Range must also be able to function as a time machine'
    ChronoTroopers here we come
  • A11YND, on 05/11/2008, -2/+12This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
  • ainulindale, on 05/11/2008, -4/+2It seems the dawn has come for the enternal rule of gamers and computer geeks,
    we will control all.
    • KibibyteBrain, on 05/11/2008, -0/+2Are you implying that gamers are really good at staying a step ahead of hackers and staving off attacks against servers? Thats what this is, basically a simulated network with simulated attackers and other parameters. Actually, as much as I enjoy my games, most Senior IT workers and engineers I know do not really play games or visit web 2.0 sites or anything. Most are just too old, really. And it makes sense, what does wasting time have to do with technical success?
  • snap326, on 05/11/2008, -0/+5I mean yeah, virtual worlds, virtual environments, and matrix like stuff, sounds great. I just hope they have a good plan for getting it done. I mean i read some of their proposals and it seems like they have a whole lot of work to do. wow, thou it would be nice to see how many different types of setups they use, and their lab environment for testing everything out.i wonder what type of servers, and how many different types of sytems they will be using, and the software to tie everything all together...
    • TheOther1, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1They will probably have fewer than you think. A few huge bad-ass boxes that can host all types of virtual machines, "not only the software on the machine, but hardware to the interrupt level, chipset, and peripheral cards and devices..."
  • insanebrain, on 05/11/2008, -0/+6Whow. . so now we are building a matrix INSIDE a matrix.
    • pitlord, on 05/11/2008, -0/+2Where else would we build it?
      >.>What makes you think THIS matrix is the original?
      -_-
      Couldn't there be another matrix above this one?
      o.O
  • Amnesia10, on 05/11/2008, -1/+3A Cyber war zone? As Kevin Costner would say "Build it and they will come?
  • Trigononamous, on 05/11/2008, -0/+2"This would allow America's fighting nerds to train for the net conflicts of tomorrow, mounting attacks on simulated enemies..."

    Do we get to ride Metal Gears, too?
  • yonoz, on 05/11/2008, -1/+7"I don't know what kind of weapons will be used in the third world war, assuming there will be a third world war. But I can tell you what the fourth world war will be fought with -- stone clubs."
    Albert Einstein
  • woodchuckrules, on 05/11/2008, -0/+3Harsh realm was a show that premiered the same year of the first matrix film. Sounds like that is what they want to create.
  • edebolt, on 05/11/2008, -1/+3Any Snowcrash fans out there? Have to say both Gibson and Stephenson have laid out a fairly likely internet future in their Sci Fi works. When the Metaverse comes then I can't wait for the Librarian program.
    • coresnake, on 05/11/2008, -0/+2Hell yeah bitch I'll stay in there getting infoloaded 24 hours a day :D And without the disadvantage of sore eyes afterwards!
      • edebolt, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1who are you calling bitch Cornhole? Those are fighting words. I am gonna laser your avatar into oblivion.
  • LokitheComplex, on 05/11/2008, -1/+4Quagmires of the future.
    So I guess military industrial complex won't be making any simulations that say any wars are a bad idea?
    • Corrosionx, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1They do, and they say "this is what we need to avoid talking about"
  • JasonCox, on 05/11/2008, -1/+3When can I jack in?
  • nberkopec, on 05/11/2008, -0/+2Why is it that out military thinks hacking is some sort of glorious "cyber-warfare", with battlefields and such? Real hacking is usually boring, it certainly isn't glorious, and it often involves hundreds of hours in front of screens. Typing. And, maybe, some clicking.
    • AgentGulo, on 05/11/2008, -0/+0probably bcus they realize war itself isn't glorious but portraying it that way is kinda played out so they need something to spice things up a little 'for the love of God and Country!'
  • verkon, on 05/11/2008, -0/+2I am so gonna create a hack for this...
  • Corrosionx, on 05/11/2008, -0/+2Why even get out of the simulation? Just declare the simulation winner the real winner and make all treaties accordingly.
    • pitlord, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1There was a Star Trek episode like that. It ended badly…
      >.>
  • Skelly11, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1we're all DOOMED !!!!!
  • SilverBlade2k, on 05/11/2008, -0/+2"You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes."
  • pitlord, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1Wow, that is sweet!
    (8^D
    Can I get one for my living room?
    ^^
    No? Damn, guess I'll have to enlist then. Sometimes a REAL gamer just has to make sacrifices to play with the latest hardware.
    >.>
  • mavsman4457, on 05/11/2008, -0/+3It's called VR training.
    • askthequestion, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1whats next? . . . metal gear?
  • masonry01, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1I love it, the enemy is knocking at the front door, and the nerds are off playing computer games....
    "But we pwned you in the game...?"
  • wautrey, on 05/11/2008, -0/+0Oh bitching, so we ARE getting a Harsh Realm! Chris Carter would be proud!
  • LingNoi, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1I wanna play the army mmo, planetside sucks.
  •  

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