Coffee vs. Electric Shock - WHAT?

When we heard that the Pentagon is literally trying to replace coffee with electric brain stimulation, our jaws literally dropped.

According to Slate.com, researchers are testing two non-invasive methods which pass small amounts of electrical currents into the brain in order for soldiers to stay away while watching drones. 

The Boston Globe even commented:

In one scenario, the test subjects — some who received caffeine, some brain stimulation, and the rest nothing — were kept awake for a full 30 hours to see who would measure best in wakefulness and vigor.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect,” said Staff Sergeant William Raybon, one of the participants. “When I was initially hooked up to the electrodes there was a small tingling sensation.

But he said that despite being so sleep-deprived, he felt “refreshed” after undergoing the treatment.

Subjects such as Raybon who received the brain stimulation “performed about twice as well as people who got nothing,” said [R. Andy McKinley, a biomedical engineer who oversees the research].

Apparently, electric shock simulation patients performed better on academic tests than those on caffeine, and the earlier did not suffer from side effects like jitters or post-caffineation crashes. 

The good news? The technology won't be available for civilian use for a very, very long time. The bad news? The fact that the Pentagon is considering electric shocks over caffeine. Like, at all.