# DARPA N3 **Domain:** Neurotechnology / Brain-Machine Interfaces **Doc Type:** Research Program Node **Maturity:** Experimental Program **Primary Source:** [[articles/The Art is Long|The Art is Long: Vespucci of Immortality]] **Related:** [[wiki/Closed-Loop BCI|Closed-Loop BCI]], [[wiki/MOANA|MOANA]], [[wiki/DARPA SUBNETS|DARPA SUBNETS]], [[wiki/Neural Interface|Neural Interface]] --- ## Definition **N3**, or **Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology**, was a DARPA program pursuing high-performance bidirectional brain-machine interfaces for able-bodied users without conventional surgery. ## Architectural Significance The program treated both neural read and neural write as engineering requirements and explored multiple physical access channels. In the continuity corpus, N3 is evidence that bidirectional neural access became an explicit, funded systems objective. ## Boundary A research objective is not a demonstrated end-to-end capability. Individual performer results must be evaluated separately from the program specification. ## Sources / Provenance - [Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology](https://www.darpa.mil/research/programs/next-generation-nonsurgical-neurotechnology), DARPA.