Sci-fi writers offer ideas to fight terrorism

Mind-reading dogs? Martyr antibiotics?

Homeland Security asks for wild ideas from those who predicted GPS and the Internet.

WASHINGTON - Arlan Andrews was describing his vision of mind-reading helmets for bomb-sniffing dogs when three Department of Homeland Security officials approached, arms full of paperbacks and seeking autographs.

Andrews and five colleagues are part of SIGMA, a self-described "think tank of patriotic science fiction writers."

They rubbed elbows with Homeland Security officials, university researchers and the defense industry at the Homeland Security Science and Technology Stakeholders Conference this week.

Homeland Security officials hope the science fiction writers can provide outside-the-box inspiration that would give America an added edge in the defense against terrorism.

The writers' ideas thrown out in two days at the conference are implausible: material that becomes armor when struck by a bullet; an antibiotic that cures martyrdom; a satellite that beams solar energy to earth. But Jay Cohen, head of the Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, said the stuff of science fiction 20 years ago was the reality of today.

"I expect failure, but boy, when we get it right, we can change the world," Cohen said.

Andrews has written multiple books and worked for years in government science offices.

"If you don't read science fiction, you're not qualified to talk about the future," he said.

He founded SIGMA when he worked in the White House Science Office in the early 1990s and recruited science fiction writers with Ph.D.s or medical degrees. Without those qualifications, he said, the group wouldn't be able to pass the "laugh test."

But Chris Christopher, a sci-fi fan and communications officer with Homeland Security's Science and Technology division, wasn't laughing. He asked SIGMA to attend the conference, then offer ideas for a program called High Impact Technology Solutions - unusual research projects with a low probability of success but potentially a huge payoff.

The writers provided their consultation services for free, while the National Defense Industrial Association, a defense industry trade group that sponsored the conference, waived the $1,000 registration fee for the writers.

Greg Bear, another science fiction writer, has worked with the government on bio-terrorism initiatives. His latest book describes FBI efforts to control a plague targeted at ethnic groups - specifically Jews or Muslims.

"Getting into the mind of law enforcement is hard," he said. "But they told us, 'Don't censor yourself.'"
Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate has set aside $7 million - 1 percent of its budget - for these "high impact" projects.

"Congress asks me how can I afford to roll the dice with 1 percent of the taxpayers' money," Cohen said. "I say there are bad people in the caves of Tora Bora who are rolling the dice with 100 percent of their money."

That's where the science fiction writers come in.

A forthcoming book by Jerry Pournelle, one of the writers, describes a journey through hell replete with bat-winged demons who fear diving into boiling pools of pitch to retrieve errant souls. (It's too hot.)

As far out as his work may be, it was Pournelle who, in 1983, helped craft an early version of then-President Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" speech advocating a space-based missile defense system.

The ideas generated at the conference will be handled by the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency or HSARPA, a cousin to the Defense Department's DARPA.

Projects once deemed dubious at DARPA eventually led to the Global Positioning System as well as the first computer network, which brought about the Internet millions use today.

FUTURISTIC GADGETS AND CONCEPTS THAT BECAME REALITY

Chess-playing computer Foretold in 1910 - "Moxon's Master," by Ambrose Bierce

- Happened in 1957 - Alex Bernstein creates first chess program at MIT.

Vehicle fired into space from Florida Foretold in 1867 - "From the Earth to the Moon," by Jules Verne

- Happened in July 1950 - The Bumper 2 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral.

Weightlessness in space Foretold in "From the Earth to the Moon"

- Happened in 1961 - Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is the first person in space to experience weightlessness.

Mobile phone Foretold in 1966 - "Star Trek" crew members use a portable communicator.

- Happened in 1973 - Motorola executive Martin Cooper makes the first non-commercial cell phone call.

Robots Foretold in 1921 - Czech Karel Capek's play "R.U.R."

- Happened in 1961 - The first industrial robot, UNIMATE, is used on an assembly line at a General Motors plant.