Telepathy and National Security: The Secret Weapon of the Mind

Bioadvantage Series #1: Telepathy

I am a twin—some of you know that. The most common question us twins gets is, “Are you identical?” The second most common is, “Can you read each other's minds?” The answer is “No… except sometimes.”

Some of you also know that I have been exploring (and investing in) a domain of national security that does not have a name yet, so I am calling it bioadvantage.

Today is a short post, as I only want to introduce you to a theme you will hear more about in the coming months—a subdomain of bioadvantage: telepathy—and share some anecdotes as a twin.

Drum roll please 🥁,
Pete

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Project Star Gate: Mind Reading + National Security

Mind reading is not a new domain for national security—it is a forgotten one. U.S. intelligence agencies once explored psychic research under programs such as the 1970s’ Project Star Gate. The Stargate Project focused on remote viewing, the claimed ability to psychically "see" events or sites at a distance. Although the program was closed in 1995 due to inconsistent results, its records document decades of effort to evaluate mind-based methods.

The quest for mind-reading persisted. In 2009, DARPA revisited the idea with its Silent Talk project, which aimed to enable soldiers to communicate covertly by translating their neural signals into text or voice. This research into brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) aimed to reduce the need for traditional communication methods—and enemy interception.

So, it’s a domain that is highly relevant to three letter agencies and military applications. But is it hopeless science fiction? Or is there something there.

As a twin, I saw: there is something there. All this craze in AI (any my POV as a twin) helps make sense of this.

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AI and the Twin Analogy

Back to me as a twin. Consider this: Large language models (LLMs) are trained on extensive historical data, which shapes the patterns they learn and leads to similar outputs when given similar prompts. In parallel, twins have the exact same time-series in life (my twin and I have the same X axis of time).

In my case, as with many twins, we are exposed to nearly identical experiences from birth—for me, this was sharing the same childhood in Chicago, the same sports, the same K-12 school and also college (Dartmouth), and even similar early careers (touring with Filligar). If LLM outputs reflect the patterns of their shared training data, it seems natural that twins, with their shared "data," might occasionally experience synchronized thoughts.

Now this is of course not telepathy, but it does make “predictive power” seem more pragmatic than fantastical. Now, let’s go deeper— into telepathy: where we go beyond twins, and into mind-reading. Where strangers can tap into the minds of others and pick up what they are putting down.

Convergence: From Sci-Fi to Reality

I am not going to get into the science of telepathy— or the many testimonials of folks who can read minds. I am simply going to say that there is a whole heck of a lot of cultural attention on this topic (and culture I consider the protocol layer, or ground zero, of technology— since creative people who create technologies are often on the bleeding edge of culture, too— a beat ahead if you will).

Telepathy now sits at this sort of cultural awakening: there are the influencers and podcasters taking obsession with it concurrent with technologists who are trying to make it happen (e.g. with things like BCIs).

A wave of TikTok stars is already popularizing telepathy:
• Emily (@emonthebrain) focuses on neuroscience and telepathy science.
• Dustin Dean (@dustindeanmentalist) showcases mentalism and mind reading.
• Aaron Doughty (@aaron_doughty44) emphasizes spirituality and intuitive telepathy.

Adding fuel to the fire, The Telepathy Tapes podcast, launched in 2024, has sparked even more public fascination. Keep an eye on this podcast— and some of the content spin outs that happen from this (mark my words!).

Strategic Implications: Beyond Espionage

So back to National Security— which is my main curiosity, and investment focus. If telepathy is harnessed, it could redefine national security. Reading an adversary’s thoughts would impact so… many… things. Intelligence gathering, military operations, diplomatic negotiations— even a tiny edge here (not full prophecy) would be game changing. The use cases have been documented, sort of. Rand Corporation actually published on this as early as 2020:

Telepathy use cases have long been an obsession in culture. In fact, even Mark Twain fantasized about the applications. Expressing some frustration with the telephone, Twain seemed to dream of the day of telepathy:

“We should drop the slow and cumbersome telephone and say, 'Connect me with the brain of the chief of police at Peking.' We shouldn't need to know the man's language; we should communicate by thought only, and say in a couple of minutes what couldn't be inflated into words in an hour and a half. Telephones, telegraphs and words are too slow for this age; we must get something that is faster.”
— Truly yours, Mark Twain

Closer Than You Think: Knowing Your Enemy's Thoughts

Surprised by national security’s foray into mind reading? Imagine knowing an adversary’s thoughts—leaders like Putin or Kim. That would be the ultimate strategic advantage, so it’s no wonder the U.S. has invested in these capabilities.

I’m identifying a trend, not predicting an imminent breakthrough. We’re still far from practical telepathic communication, and much of the effort reflects intellectual curiosity rather than a lucrative investment opportunity.

One thing is clear: the power of telepathy has long been acknowledged in national security circles. Now, we’re witnessing a cultural awakening. In the coming months, you’ll hear more astonishing stories and whispers of stealth projects that tie telepathy directly to national security applications.

Alright, that’s it for now! Have a great week—and thanks for reading.

Pete

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