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Rebecca Gaines (born March 30, 2000) is an American neuroscientist and engineer. She is known for her work on transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and was instrumental in the development of DARPA’s controversial Project NEAT before it was decommissioned in 2029. She then founded and helped run Advanced NeuroStimulation Applications (ANSA)  until she was arrested for research misconduct, illegal human experimentation, and first-degree murder in 2033.

In her early career, Gaines focused on using TMS to help patients with brain disorders. However, after her work on the Gaines-Boscovich density pattern, she was able to amplify the effects and functional distance of TMS. This development was the impetus behind Project NEAT, and led to her being brought on as a technical specialist. In the span of two years, she took over the project, becoming the youngest woman to lead an active DARPA project.

Following the leak of documents from NEAT, Gaines was tried by a military tribunal but found not guilty. After the project was decommissioned, she founded Advanced NeuroStimulation Applications(ANSA), and received over $1 billion in venture capital (VC) funding. Despite multiple controversies and public outcry, she stayed at the helm of ANSA until she was arrested in September 2033 following an FBI investigation that uncovered a series of covert TMS stimulators that were installed in cities across the United States.

Gaines is a popular figure among neuro-hackers and the rationalist community. She has gained notoriety for her frequent interviews and Twitch AMA’s, which she often conducts while high or drunk.

Empathy and Violent Crime Project
Gaines received her Bachelors’ Degree from the University of Illinois at the age of 20, in Philosophy and Neuroscience. After working at Medtronic in Minneapolis, Minnesota for two years, she pursued a PhD at the University of Minnesota. Her dissertation was titled “Using TMS to Develop Empathy in Individuals with Psychopathic Tendencies”. The experiment, which centered around repeatedly stimulating the Fusiform Face Area (FFA) to strengthen underdeveloped neural pathways, was successful enough that the US Department of Corrections incorporated similar methods and reduced violent crime recidivism by almost 60% before the US Supreme Court ruled the program illegal in 2023, claiming that it violated the Eighth Amendment.

Gaines, a strong advocate of biological criminal intervention, cited philosopher John Locke in an interview defending her research. “Restraint, as described by Locke, is a necessary power of the government,” she told NYT in 2022. “Also, it’s long been agreed upon that criminals forfeit some of their rights when they commit a crime, since it infringes on the rights of others. Why is the right to personhood still held sacred?”   After the program was ruled illegal, she defended the program by claiming that personal identity wasn’t being violated. She referenced Locke again, using his definition of personhood to say that since none of the elements (thinking, intelligence, reason, reflection, self-awareness, and temporal continuity) were being violated or infringed upon by stimulating the FFA, the treatment was morally permissible.

TMS Enhancement and Reddit Controversy
After finishing her dissertation, Gaines continued to work at the University of Minnesota as a postdoctoral fellow alongside Michael Boscovich. The duo primarily worked on the technical limitations of TMS. Prior to their work, TMS was a short-range therapeutic tool (3-6 inches) that was unable to influence brain regions selectively; rather, any brain region within the range of the electromagnet was effectively short-circuited. By studying the density and spectral analysis of individual brain regions, Boscovich and Gaines were able to determine the density pattern of the entire brain. They were then able to use a neural network to identify the correct frequency and amplitude that could then be used to affect any given region specifically. This development eliminated the requirement for local proximity to the intended target area, and reduced the chances of unintentional effects. This also allowed for much stronger magnets to be used, making the range much larger and allowing for treating large numbers of patients at once.

Multiple papers, including the prestigious Journal of NeuroEngineering And Rehabilitation, refused to publish this work out of fear of the ethical implications, especially due to the fact that TMS is not noticeable for subjects. Caleb Thompson, the then-editor-in-chief of JNEAR, penned an open letter condemning the research, comparing it to mind-control projects such as the CIA’s MK-ULTRA. Gaines then published their findings on Reddit on August 4 2025. The post was on the front page of the social media site for almost 48 hours before the site’s CEO removed the content and permanently banned Gaines from the platform, citing “incitement of criminal activity and violation of personal liberty”. The contents of the post were viewed over 60 million times and shared almost 4 million times before they were taken off the site. Gaines (using the username Prometheuou)  held a Twitch AMA the very next day and accused Reddit leadership of “furthering bio-supremacist principles” and “censoring the free expression of scientific advancement”. She was then banned midstream for attempting to disseminate her research through the platform.

Project NEAT Involvement
Project NEAT (Neurologically Enhanced Armed Team) was a classified DARPA project in which Gaines was a key member. She submitted grants for the project immediately following the Reddit controversy, and the project was approved by acting DARPA director Angela Gong in December 2025.

Project NEAT was an effort to use TMS to covertly reduce empathy and self-preservation in active-duty soldiers to reduce the likelihood of PTSD and improve combat efficiency. The project, inspired by research suggesting that higher levels of empathy correlated with less time spent in combat and with greater levels of PTSD, used prisoners and subjects of immigration detention centers as subjects and focused on inhibiting the function of the right Temporal-Parietal Junction (rTPJ). In March 2027, two hundred subjects from eight detention facilities were brought to Desert Rock, Utah and the preliminary research began in earnest. By September 2028, Gaines and researchers were able to sufficiently stimulate the rTPJ that affected subjects displayed no signs of shock following combat drills even when the drills resulted in fatalities, according to internal documents that were leaked.

The project was never deployed overseas, however, following the leak of classified documents from the project by an anonymous high-level staffer in November 2029. In the wake of the resulting public outcry, Gong resigned and Gaines, alongside others, were tried by a military tribunal. The twelve surviving subjects of the experiment testified that they were not informed as to the true purpose of the experiment or given an opportunity to opt out. However, the tribunal ruled that their testimony was inadmissible due to neurological damage sustained during the experiment, and Gaines was found not guilty, but was barred from using federal funds to conduct research again and the project itself was decommissioned.

Advanced NeuroStimulation Applications (ANSA)
Following the Project NEAT hearing, Gaines established Advanced NeuroStimulation Applications (ANSA) and immediately received close to $1 billion in VC funding. Not a single investor has publicly announced their involvement, as of May 2035. Gaines’ role within ANSA was not clear until the publication of her manifesto.

ANSA aimed to “use neurostimulation techniques to improve the human condition”, according to the company website. However, they didn’t release any products or sell any services, and the company filed for bankruptcy following Gaines’ arrest in 2033.

Manifesto and Arrest
Gaines retired from the public spotlight following death threats in the wake of the Project NEAT hearing. However, in her last interview, she claimed that she was “working on a manifesto” and “finally figured out how to make things better” before abruptly ending the interview.

Gaines was arrested in February 2033 following the discovery of a 25-foot inductive coil installed at the top of the Empire State Building in New York City. Immediately after Gaines’ arrest, her manifesto was published on her website.