Robots, exoskeletons, and invisible planes
It’s a government agency unlike any other, with sophisticated change as its mantra. When Steven H. Walker, acting director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), spoke at Harvard Wednesday evening, he first reminded his listeners just how much his agency, which develops technology for the military, has accomplished. “When we consider a project, we ask first if it’s something that can change the world,” he told interviewer Michael Sulmeyer, director of the Cyber Security Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. “In the 1960s, we decided we should think about connecting computers and having some way for them to talk to each other.” Then known as ARPA, the agency developed and in 1969 launched the ARPANET, the precursor to the modern internet. “In a succinct way, that’s what we’re looking for every day: breakthrough technologies that will give an advantage to our war fighters,” Walker said. “And I...