...:: Days of Our Future ::...

Good news everyone, the giant ciborg beetles you all were waint for have finally arrived (?).

The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), are a secret group of supervillans that are always searching for the next big thing in warfare technological stuff.

Their latest development is simple. Bugs. Lots of them.
The Agency's Microsystems Technology Office has developed what they refer to as Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (HI-MEMS). Real insects filled with electronic circuitry, which could be guided using GPS technology to specific targets via electrical impulses sent to their muscles.
Ideal for surveillance missions they say in their website (yep, they have a website).

This may sound like science fiction, but they have been working on this since at least 2006.

According to Dr. Amit Lal, "The HI-MEMS program is aimed at developing tightly coupled machine-insect interfaces by placing micro-mechanical systems inside the insects during the early stages of metamorphosis. These early stages include the caterpillar and the pupae stages. Since a majority of the tissue development in insects occurs in the later stages of metamorphosis, the renewed tissue growth around the MEMS will tend to heal, and form a reliable and stable tissue-machine interface. The goal of the MEMS, inside the insects, will be to control the locomotion by obtaining motion trajectories either from GPS coordinates, or using RF, optical, ultrasonic signals based remote control."

Thank god these guys are only interested in protecting the free world and democracy, I would be worried otherwise.

Related links
time.com
darpa.mil