Zombie Pigs First, Hibernating Soldiers Next

ColdWetDog writes "Wired is running a story on DARPA's effort to stave off battlefield casualties by turning injured soldiers into zombies by injecting them with a cocktail of one chemical or another (details to be announced). From the article, 'Dr. Fossum predicts that each soldier will carry a syringe into combat zones or remote areas, and medic teams will be equipped with several. A single injection will minimize metabolic needs, de-animating injured troops by shutting down brain and heart function. Once treatment can be carried out, they'll be "re-animated" and — hopefully — as good as new.' If it doesn't pan out we can at least get zombie bacon and spam."

Comments

Don't do it

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't they watch movies? Haven't we learned anything?

Re:Don't do it

[Joce640k]

Yeah, movies is where the real science is at.

Re:Don't do it

[samsonian]

It isn't?? Man, I was hoping to pass the exam tomorrow by watching back to the future.

Re:Don't do it

[Anonymous Coward]

Jigga what?

Re:Don't do it

[Anonymous Coward]

What if it works, with 90% success rate?

Here lies the danger.

When they are doing it with real humans, and can revive 90% of the casualties, everyone would be rejoicing with echoes of "Hallelujah !!"

But what about the 10% failure?

What if, among the 10% failure there are those that are NOT dead, but unable to be revived?

Just buried them?

Re:Don't do it

[Anonymous Coward]

What if, for 20% of the 65% of the 90% you speak of it works, but we fail to "revive them", and for 110% of the 36.2% of the 10% instead we "impale them ass-first onto a pine tree".

And then, this tree is cut down by 2% of 63% of the pop'n of South Dakota and used as a Christmas Tree? WHAT THEN!?!?

OH GOD, WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE ASS-IMPALED ZOMBIES FALLING ON SOUTH DAKOTA'S NATIVITY SCENES?!?!?

Re:Don't do it

[larpon]

He just left4bacon

Re:Don't do it

[an unsound mind]

Go without reviving long enough and you'll be dead for good, even with this stuff.

And a single bullet in the right spot will convert "low metabolic function" into "fully dead", 100%, guaranteed.

Re:Don't do it

[Anonymous Coward]

I laughed quite nicely, but I'm not giving you any of my mod points, because karma only has an effect on users who don't hide their names.

Re:Don't do it

[Supurcell]

It will prepare me for yesterday's exam tomorrow. I'll let you know how it turns out last week.

Re:Don't do it

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't go, you already told me it turned out to be a waste of time.

Re:Don't do it

[Anonymous Coward]

The key is to not let them overheat. Keep them cool and ice them down every so often, or they will burn up.....oh....wait....

Re:Don't do it

[Anonymous Coward]

Meat popsicles. The crews responsible of transferring the inanimate troops will refer their cargo as "meat popsicles".

Re:Don't do it

[Kral_Blbec]

If they had to use the needle in the first place then they are in a situation where they are already going to die. Its not important how many die as a result of using it, its about how many survive thanks to it.

its like the stimpaks back in StarCraft. Sure you might die after using it, but if you do its not because you used it, its because you got shot. However if you do use it then your chance of surviving, even though you were shot, increase.

Re:Don't do it

[fractoid]

Jigga please!

Re:Don't do it

[Ihmhi]

Well, if I'm shot in the foot, I'm sure as hell not gonna take that injection.

If a bullet went through my lung and I know I'm well and truly fucked, I'll take the 10% death risk over the "let's see how long it takes medevac to get here" death risk.

Disclaimer: IANAS(oldier).

Re:Don't do it

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh nozzz COD world at war zombies will be teh reallzz

Re:Don't do it

[Hal_Porter]

What up jigga? ZOMBIES!

Re:Don't do it

[ElizabethGreene]

As a Cryonicist http://cryonics.org/, I support this research. It is nice to see money being spent on something that doesn't go boom.

Re:Don't do it

[Trukutu]

Universal Soldier???

Re:Don't do it

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny doesn't give karma.

Re:Don't do it

[Stryver]

What does it mean that we compare an advance in real life medical technology to an object in a video game, and it enhances our understanding of it.

Brain damage?

[thesandtiger]

One of the biggies in this war is Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) - surviving explosions, surviving shots to the helmet - I wonder if we'll be swapping out a lot of dead soldiers for ones suffering extreme brain injury.

A friend of mine just came back from Germany. He lost both of his legs and has TBI caused mood swings like you wouldn't believe, and pretty much looks like it will wreck his family. Staving off death is one thing (and good); making life after injury worth living is another.

Re:Brain damage?

[Reason58]

One of the biggies in this war is Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) - surviving explosions, surviving shots to the helmet - I wonder if we'll be swapping out a lot of dead soldiers for ones suffering extreme brain injury.

A friend of mine just came back from Germany. He lost both of his legs and has TBI caused mood swings like you wouldn't believe, and pretty much looks like it will wreck his family. Staving off death is one thing (and good); making life after injury worth living is another.

You are absolutely right. Many of the soldiers who take this shot will have suffered TBI and will require brains. Braaaaiiiiiins.

Re:Brain damage?

[tacarat]

Staving off death is one thing (and good); making life after injury worth living is another.

Worth repeating.

Re:Brain damage?

[TubeSteak]

One of the biggies in this war is Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) - surviving explosions, surviving shots to the helmet - I wonder if we'll be swapping out a lot of dead soldiers for ones suffering extreme brain injury.

Cooling the brain has been known for years to work miracles on minimizing head trauma and taming neurological conditions.
There's no reason for soldiers who've received head injuries to not wear a cooling helmet for a few days after the trauma.

Someone even took the idea and integrated chemical icepacks into motorcycle helmets so that the brain immediately starts getting cooled upon impact.

Re:Brain damage?

[skine]

Agreed.

The decrease in VA hospital funding is just disgraceful.

I may not agree with the war, but I will say that all persons subjected to the greatest physical and emotional harm in the service of the United States deserve the best available treatment at the expense of the federal government.

Re:Brain damage?

[icegreentea]

Well, its not as clear cut as that. Current research (a google search away!) tells us that while its probable that inducing hypothermia in the the brain reduces neurological damage, we currently get somewhat contradicting studies suggesting otherwise. In the best case, it may turn out that cooling the brain is an extremely delicate task that must be carefully controlled. Given the level of precision apparently needed, it seems unlikely that simply plopping on a cooled helmet is the best way to go about reducing brain trauma.

In any case, reducing circulation increases the chance of infection (important if there was actual head trauma in addition to brain trauma), and appears to raise the risk of blood clots and heart attacks.

Doesn't mean its useless though. Just that like so many other medical ideas, its complicated. And just cause some company makes a product based on it, doesn't mean it works just like they say it does.

Re:Brain damage?

[bill_mcgonigle]

Brains in soldiers... lol. Next you tell me about Fox News watchers who know propositional calculus. ^^

There are plenty of smart folks in the military - based on odds, there are probably folks in the Air Force with a better grasp of mathematics than yourself. What they lack is the ability to apply that knowledge to the concept that they're supporting destructive and unconstitutional imperial military adventures.

Sort of like MSNBC viewers who haven't figured out that Keynesian economics is a giant Ponzi scheme meant to grant undue power to central banks, err, I mean governments.

And like any distribution, there are no doubt grunts who earn that name. Age also plays a large role.

Re:Brain damage?

[Sarten-X]

I agree in spirit, but I just have to point out:

Where did you think the federal government gets the money to pay for this?

My personal opinion is that we ought to stretch our military money a bit more... maybe one less new aircraft carrier, or a dozen fewer missiles... and use that money for better things. The federal government only has the money we (as taxpayers) give it, and it's very limited.

Re:Brain damage?

[Shark]

Better yet, not fighting useless wars and not maintaining a global empire of military bases. If you really want to help the soldiers, bring them home. They are not serving the United States, they are serving a very questionable agenda that goes against the best interest of the average US citizen.

Re:Brain damage?

[Grygus]

Blaming the soldiers for destructive and unconstitutional imperial military adventures is pretty misplaced. Quite a few people are in the military because they are poor and no other real reason, they didn't sign up specifically to be misused.

Re:Brain damage?

[TubeSteak]

In any case, reducing circulation increases the chance of infection (important if there was actual head trauma in addition to brain trauma), and appears to raise the risk of blood clots and heart attacks.

Since you haven't cited anything specific, all I can say is that my understanding (which may be wrong) is that those risks apply to full body hypothermia and not to localized cooling of the brain.

AFAIK, the best way to cool the head is with a circulating neck & head system + warming blankets to keep the body out of hypothermia, which minimizes the clotting and infection risk.

Re:Brain damage?

[icegreentea]

There's one review of 6 studies here. http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/204205255_1.html

If you look at the last page, you get this:

Implications for Practice Hypothermia shows promise as a treatment of traumatic brain injury. However, there are several important points to consider when contemplating its use. Hypothermia as a treatment of traumatic brain injury should be utilized in hospitals with specialized neuroscience units that have continuous resident coverage. In addition, nurses are at the front line of initiating the treatment and must be properly taught to care for these patients. There are many potential complications of hypothermia that nurses must be aware of and trained to aggressively treat. The nursing care involved in caring for a patient with a severe brain injury is complex, and it is crucial that they have the support and appropriate nursing ratios to care for these patients.

Granted, its from a nursing journal, so its going to promote the use of nurses. But it remains that just cooling people's brains nilly willy with ice packed helmets may not be the best idea.

Re:Brain damage?

[electrons_are_brave]

Ever since I studied neuropsychlogy and we had people with TBIs being brought in each week I have developed a similar viewpoint.

Medical technology gets to the point where it can save lives, but many of these lives end up not worth living.

Re:Brain damage?

[aukset]

In the field of EMS, we're (in NYS at least) by protocol asked to hyper-oxygenate patients with suspected brain injury in trauma patients that meet a certain set of criteria. The reason for this is to cause vasoconstriction within the brain, reducing blood flow due to vascular resistance and, in theory, slow internal bleeding. As far as I know, the literature on this is uncertain as to its efficacy, but the theory behind it is sound.

Brain tissue can survive for quite a while in a state of hypoxia, compared to other tissues. What is most dangerous in a hemorrhage in the brain is compression of the tissue, as well as direct exposure to blood, both of which can cause necrosis. In fact, when the brain "detects" an injury, its usual response is to increase blood pressure, which is going to accelerate any hemorrhage and make the problem worse. Decreasing heart rate and blood pressure would be an advantage until surgical services are available to drain the blood and close off the source of bleeding.

Re:Brain damage?

[Anonymous Coward]

Complicated? Complicated? I just finished playing a round of Left4Dead 2, and all you gotta do is stick the adrenalin shot in your leg and you're better than new! Got hurt? Pop a whole bottle of pain killers and it actually increases your aim and your running speed.

I mean, all they gotta do is play a few games to know how to work this stuff...

Re:Brain damage?

[Anonymous Coward]

I got a better idea: let's stop getting in to offensive wars and only engage in defensive actions. It would work wonders for our military mortality and brain damage rates.

Re:Brain damage?

[Genocaust]

Sadly there's no '-1 Tasteless'.

Re:Brain damage?

[XDirtypunkX]

Putting ideological misgivings about Keynesian economics and government control aside; it's nothing like a Ponzi scheme, just like all interest bearing loans that are invested wisely aren't Ponzi schemes.

In a properly designed fiscal stimulus, there is an aggregate return on the investment (value is created) in the form of increased aggregate demand (greater growth now) as well as long term infrastructure and R&D that will provide future growth and benefit (i.e tangibles that provide value over time). In a Ponzi scheme there can't be an aggregate return on investment, because there is nothing of value produced and the net amount of value is the same.

Re:Brain damage?

[Genda]

Waiting for it... waiting for it... Aaaaahhhhhhh, thank you, it just wouldn't have been a respectable zombie article without some bbrraaaaiinnnnzzzz.

Re:Brain damage?

[Anonymous Coward]

says the guy named genocaust...

Re:Brain damage?

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the biggies in this war is Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) - surviving explosions, surviving shots to the helmet - I wonder if we'll be swapping out a lot of dead soldiers for ones suffering extreme brain injury.

A friend of mine just came back from Germany. He lost both of his legs and has TBI caused mood swings like you wouldn't believe, and pretty much looks like it will wreck his family. Staving off death is one thing (and good); making life after injury worth living is another.

Life is always better than death.

Cpl. Joseph Iraq

Re:Brain damage?

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the biggies in this war is Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) - surviving explosions, surviving shots to the helmet - I wonder if we'll be swapping out a lot of dead soldiers for ones suffering extreme brain injury.

As long as those soldiers can still see Russia from their house and are willing to go rogue, I think 30% of America will still vote for them when they run for President.

Re:Brain damage?

[bill_mcgonigle]

It was actually the officers I had in mind, but there are plenty of poor people who chose not to enter the military, though likely not for reasons of maintaining a stable republic.

Re:Brain damage?

[bill_mcgonigle]

Every system of fiat currency ever tried has collapsed eventually due to the spending outstripping the real value by a substantial margin. The politicians promise forward benefits that can't be afforded. Tally sticks survived the longest, but even they got replaced by silver eventually.

Madoff let some of his 'investors' cash out too, so long as there were funds available, but we still consider it a Ponzi scheme.

Re:Brain damage?

[CAIMLAS]

Probably not. If someone has a traumatic brain injury, they're likely in no sort of condition to pull out a syringe and inject it into themselves.

Also, while I've no evidence to back it up, I -suspect- that TBI was pretty common in previous wars. The difference today is that the soldiers are surviving all the other things with higher numbers, resulting in the TBI being a significantly higher proportion. Whereas they would've probably died from the other wounds accompanying TBI in the past, today they survive (see: double amputation, shrapnel, etc.).

I recall reading an article recently of someone in ORD (ordinance response and disposal, or something like that) - the guys who dress up in bear suits and go out to play with IEDs. The article was accompanied by a picture. He'd gotten blown up. His pants were singed and he had some shrapnel in his ass, but otherwise he was OK. Had that happened even 15 years ago he'd probably be dead.

Re:Brain damage?

[TubeSteak]

It takes some real intellectual dishonesty to mention anything from a study without talking about the conclusion.

Conclusion

From the research reviewed, a recommendation cannot be made for changing practice. However, it appears that hypothermia may have benefits for patients with severe traumatic brain injury, specifically those with a [Glasgow Coma Scale] of 5 to 8. It also appears that there is no benefit to hypothermia for those patients with low [intracranial expansion] From the research reviewed, it can be recommended that hypothermia be initiated as soon as possible after injury and that patients who are cooled for at least 48 hr tend to have better outcomes. If hypothermia is employed as a treatment option, careful attention to side effects is crucial for improved patient outcome. Time, temperature, and methodology are all variables that must be considered if hypothermia is employed for patients with traumatic brain injury.

Seeing as how I read the whole thing, the analysis can best be summarized as "It works, with caveats. The caveats are too big for us to make a definitive recommendation. More study required."

Re:Brain damage?

[alexo]

Given the level of precision apparently needed, it seems unlikely that simply plopping on a cooled helmet is the best way to go about reducing brain trauma.

Of course not!
You need coolant rods inserted directly into the brain.

Re:Brain damage?

[Hurricane78]

“-1, Troll”. But still true.

You can mod it all the way to repression. Won’t change a thing.

If you modded me down, it’s obvious, that YOU’re one of them, and of course can’t stand the truth being called out.

Go watch some Fox News, or sit on a sharp stone, or something, would ya? ^^

Re:Brain damage?

[Genocaust]

While I'm sorry you take offense to my slapping two words together for a screename, I have a distaste for jokes made about the (US) military as I do currently serve, and have lost friends in this war that I do not agree with.

Just asking for people to show a little respect for those that died for your freedom.

Oxidative damage.

[spineboy]

Most of these types of experiments have previously been in cryo-preservation - some scientist, in Boston I believe, has successfully frozen beagles, and brought them back to life.

Anyway, In trauma surgery, the "Golden Hour" refers to the window of time, where massively injured patients can be saved from horrible injuries. After that, too much damage occurs, and the chance is severely diminished.

So using H2S(hydrogen sulphide) should help stop oxidative reactions, extending the "Golden Hour", allowing the patient to be stabilized, and brought to a higher level of care, where they can be fixed up.

Small side effect - H2S is basically the stench in Marsh gas, so these soldiers are going to smell like stink ass zombies for a while I think.

Re:Oxidative damage.

[Wyatt Earp]

Their blood will stink like swamp gas for a while.

Re:Oxidative damage.

[w0mprat]

+1 informative: We'll be able to smell the zombie hordes coming. That's a useful observation, thank you. (I'm making a note for our organisations's zombie apocolypse business continuity plan)

Re:Oxidative damage.

[IdahoEv]

some scientist, in Boston I believe, has successfully frozen beagles, and brought them back to life.

[Citation needed]. Sorry, that's just too interesting a claim to go uncommented.

I believe that dogs have been cooled to near-freezing temperatures, cardiovascular function temporarily halted, and revived after a few hours. But their tissues remained unfrozen and their blood remained liquid the entire time.

Nobody, AFAIK, has successfully frozen and revived a mammal.

Re:Oxidative damage.

[physburn]

Extending the golden hour to ten seem pretty good for soldiers, but I wonder if this would help the cryo-preservation of corpses to be brought back to life later, like in woody aliens sleeper.

---

Cryonics Feed @ Feed Distiller

Re:Oxidative damage.

[Anonymous Coward]

I can see how this will end - they will use it to susspend great armies in hibernation waiting for the time when they are needed. But someething will go wrong and they will wake on their own, attack us and eat our brains! Oh the humanity!

Re:Oxidative damage.

[Khyber]

The Nazis did this back in WWII - they removed the blood from German shepherds, replaced with a saline solution, froze the dogs, then thawed, replaced blood, and revived them.

It became the basis for most cryogenics today.

As for the dog, it was 1987, between ACS and Trans Time - the beagle had a full body washout and cool-down. In the early 90s a similar experiment was done with a baboon - successfully. I think BioTime in Berkeley did that, my memory's fuzzy.

Re:Oxidative damage.

[sznupi]

I'm hoping for some time to see such things enter mainstream.

It's a horrible thing to think that I wouldn't stand a chance after many serious injuries not because of any fundamental limitations, but currently limited tech and procedures.

And it's only from my selfish point of view, I can't imagine what ambulance & ER medics are going through, seeing cases which are inescapably fatal now...but we're quite certain they don't have to be.

Re:Oxidative damage.

[Thing 1]

[...] some scientist, in Boston I believe, has successfully frozen beagles, and brought them back to life.

So I was going to reply with a joke, "The Jews have been doing that for years, sometimes with lox! ... oh you mean beagles."

Then I saw that another responder has already mentioned Nazis, and I feared the wrath of Godwin.

Then, I decided, I've never met the guy; might as well summon him.

Re:Oxidative damage.

[Anonymous Coward]

those poor shepherds... even through they are shepherds its no reason to call them dogs... ;)

Re:Oxidative damage.

[Anonymous Coward]

woody aliens sleeper

Is that some type of intergalactic porno?

Not to be confused

[Dyinobal]

Not to be confused with their re-animator project, which saw only mild success. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BnOUOkcr9c

Damage Mechanism

[Renraku]

One of the main mechanisms for brain damage after injury to the brain is due to the neurons releasing their packets of neurotransmitters upon their death. So you have a good neuron right next to a big blob of toxic neurotransmitters. Then that neuron dies, too. It's a chemical cascade of dying neurons. Slowing down metabolism slows down this damage, as oxidation plays a large part. Ever see those people that drown in icy water, only to be revived after hours without oxygen, somewhat intact? Same thing.

Re:Damage Mechanism

[Zerimar]

Ever see those people that drown in icy water, only to be revived after hours without oxygen, somewhat intact?

No sir, I have never watched a person drown in icy water and then revived hours later. Is this a common thing to see?

Re:Damage Mechanism

[OrigamiMarie]

I know a surgeon who lives in cold climates who says "You're not dead until you're warm and dead". Body processes really do slow down, including the destructive ones, when the body is cold. There have been enough instances of people waking up / being revived while they warm up after falling through ice that this saying exists in the medical community.

Re:Damage Mechanism

[georgewilliamherbert]

Exactly - hypothermia in under-ice immersions, and surgical hypothermia, are well studied now and effective.

You can't possibly do that on the battlefield... but, with these chemical equivalents, turning off the oxygen for the decay processes rather than the temperature needed for them to occur, it's a possibly field expedient method of achieving the same goals.

Not magic - may not work if the blood's lost too fast or heart's not beating by the time you get to them - but CPR may be good enough circulation, and possibly IV bags with the chemical cocktail and saline solution would be enough to perfuse the patient even if most of the blood is gone (if you're putting them out, then no oxygen in the saline is not even vaguely a problem... it's actually helpful).

It may not end up working on human sized animals. That's what the trials are for. But if it does, it could save not just soldiers but many many many people who die in trauma or in surgical incidents.

Have to test in human sized animals, if that works then go for humans as with any other medical procedure. No way of knowing ahead of time. Scale effects may screw people sized patients. But we won't know until we try.

Re:Damage Mechanism

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, if you're an serial almost-murderer you can see several people doing this, as the parent suggested, in a series..

Re:Damage Mechanism

[DynaSoar]

One of the main mechanisms for brain damage after injury to the brain is due to the neurons releasing their packets of neurotransmitters upon their death. So you have a good neuron right next to a big blob of toxic neurotransmitters. Then that neuron dies, too. It's a chemical cascade of dying neurons. Slowing down metabolism slows down this damage, as oxidation plays a large part. Ever see those people that drown in icy water, only to be revived after hours without oxygen, somewhat intact? Same thing.

You're referring to apoptosis, "cellular suicide" caused by a signal from a nearby neuron dying. Parkinson's is one disorder that wouldn't occur except for this phenomenon.

But forced release of vesicles, toxic neurotransmitters and hypothermic preservation (or lack of, or lack of equivalent)? I can tell you remember learning about it, and probably know what you mean, but you've got some details bent. The toxicities involved in apoptosis aren't metabolic processes, but they are slowed by cooling. Cooling can be done to reduce oxidative stress due to hyperoxia (too much oxygen) as well as ischemic insult from hypoxia (too little). We're just more aware of the latter due to the many reported cases of recovery from near drowning due to rapid cooling.

Re:Damage Mechanism

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is what I see happening:
instead of using that drug to hibernate the wounded, I bet it will be used to hibernate the enemies, take them as prisoners, etc ...

or used in terrorist attacks, kidnapping hundreds of people ...

Remember, any technology gets reused in many different ways, it's cheaper to recycle a technology than invent a totally new one.
look at gps in cars for example

Re:Damage Mechanism

[argStyopa]

In Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes and long bitter winters, yes. Although there's almost always a case of beer and snowmobile involved in the process.

Re:Damage Mechanism

[MattSausage]

Discover Magazine had an article about hypothermia treatment for various injuries, and cited a news story from Japan where a guy got lost in the mountains and fell and hit his head and was out, buried in the snow with head trauma for DAYS unconscious, until he was found. He was warmed up, treated, and released with no ill effects.

OMG

[thelonious]

They are going to end up with bacon that doesn't die! And that would be a sin against humanity!

Re:OMG

[illumastorm]

I, for one, welcome our delicious, self-propelling into mouths, bacon overlords.

Re:OMG

[Anonymous Coward]

It's OK if you wash it between sittings. I mean eatings.

Re:OMG

[azav]

Hear hear!

I disagree

[carp3_noct3m]

My buddies and I have always postured what we would do if and when a zombie apocalypse broke out. All being military or former military, with the ability to bear arms and the survival skills (not to mention the remote getaway) already at our disposal, we all voted the human race as generally despicable and that it was about time there was some event to clean the slate. It's time to kick zombie ass and chew bubblegum, and I'm all outa gum.

Re:I disagree

[maxume]

I really wish you had said "the ability to bare arms". It is far more hilarious.

Re:I disagree

[B1oodAnge1]

You fool!!! The last thing we need during the Zombie Apocalypse is armed bears!

Re:I disagree

[jameskojiro]

Ahhh, but Gum is the best weapon for killing zombie squirrels, double bubble looks like thinking meat and it builds up in their zombie tummies and blocks them up, squirrels and some other rodents can't throw up and so they will die a horrible zombie squirrel death.

Re:I disagree

[h4rr4r]

They can't poop either?

Cause otherwise they would just crap it out.

Re:I disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

Hairy gay zombies?

Re:I disagree

[Shadow Wrought]

Bummer the Zombiacolypse is slated to occur when you and your buddies are in Vegas for that bachelor party...

Re:I disagree

[AtomicOrange]

No, no, no. You misunderstand. Our founding fathers wished for us to have the arms of bears (bear-arms)!

Just ask your nearest neighborhood grizzly, I'm sure he'll be willing to lend you his.

Re:I disagree

[AuMatar]

A bunch of mindless drones desperate for a single body part and mindlessly chasing anything that has it?

Oh my god, the zombie apocalypse has already happened in Vegas!

Re:I disagree

[fractoid]

I'm a BEARLOCK now!

Re:I disagree

[osu-neko]

All being military or former military... we all voted the human race as generally despicable and that it was about time there was some event to clean the slate.

Does it disturb anyone to know that the people whose job is to protect us are of the opinion that we ought to be killed off? o.O Not saying they won't do their jobs, it's just... interesting.

Re:I disagree

[LuNa7ic]

If you haven't bothered to stockpile gum, you aren't ready for the apocalypse. Good luck as zombie-chew, suckers!

Re:I disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

Its like double the carnage!

Re:I disagree

[Bl4d3]

Yes and with armed bears and zombie pigs ManBearPig can't be far away.

Fear ManBearPig, this is cereal business!

Re:I disagree

[somersault]

Just because some of them sound like they're Nazis, doesn't mean that all of them are. Then again, maybe there's some part of military training that simply requires you to devalue any human life that isn't "on your side".

Re:I disagree

[easyTree]

DARPA's effort to stave off battlefield casualties...

I guess they rejected the 'avoid war' option :-(

Re:I disagree

[Hal_Porter]

[Points at fractoid]

FURRY!

Re:I disagree

[hesiod]

With guns.

Use it on the enemy

[Anonymous Coward]

Put it in some sort of new-millennium dart gun. Then you can safety advance on the enemy and humanely cut their throats while they sleep.

Re:Use it on the enemy

[lostmongoose]

Bravo, sir. Never has the 'Anonymous Coward' moniker been more deserved...

Re:Use it on the enemy

[mschuyler]

That is effectively what the Israleites did. Men of this village wanted to marry the Jewish women. The Jewish men, said OK, but to that you must be circumcised. The village men lined up and had it done, retired to their beds to sleep it off, and were killed by the Jewish men. I forget the name of the story, but it's in the Old Testament.

Re:Use it on the enemy

[Anonymous Coward]

It sounds like you are thinking of Genesis chap 34 - the event was in retribution for the violation of Diana, something that Jacob then made clear was pretty stupid of Simon and Levi to have done (see verse 30)

What's the relevance of that event to this thread????

Opposite of a Zombie

[Labcoat Samurai]

The terminology seems odd here. Isn't suspended animation pretty much the opposite of being a zombie? I mean zombies are the animated dead. Suspended animation makes you the unanimated living.

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[carp3_noct3m]

Stop bursting my bubble of zombie Apocalypse hope!

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[Anonymous Coward]

The terminology seems odd here. Isn't suspended animation pretty much the opposite of being a zombie? I mean zombies are the animated dead. Suspended animation makes you the unanimated living.

Well see soon but I say if they come out of it squealing for pig's brains they're zombies.

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[Red Flayer]

Well, it depends if it works as intended.

What if, upon revival, the survivors weren't "all there"? If the process works incompletely then we'd have the zombies we're looking for.

So the process is:

1. Put injured people in suspended animation
2. Extract soul (or whatever makes us non-zombies)
3. Reanimate the meatbags
4. ???
5. Profit!

Sorry to re-use an old meme, but it applies. Some ideas for step 4:

-Sell souls to Satan
-put meatbags to work in factories where manual dexterity is not needed
-use army of meatbags to take over small island resort nations
-use meatbags as shock troops
-train meatbags to vote for the political party of your choice (more effective than mass marketing campaigns)

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[PieSquared]

You've forgotten there are two parts to the process. The first part is the opposite of making zombies, yes. But the second part... reverses the first part. Therefore, zombies.

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[Labcoat Samurai]

Use body heat from meatbags as a power source in case we accidentally block out the sun with pollution?

Wait, no, that's stupid. My mistake

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[Anonymous Coward]

It's Hiberzine! (see: John Ringo)

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[samsonian]

Oh please! Tomayto....Tomaato.

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[Anonymous Coward]

Stop bursting my hope for a bubble apocalypse blown by zombies!

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[arb phd slp]

Use body heat from meatbags as a power source in case we accidentally block out the sun with pollution?

Wait, no, that's stupid. My mistake

Only Warner Bros executives would think that was a good idea. Networking their brains into a massively parallel processor, however...

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[FlyingBishop]

Actually, this is almost exactly like the original African myths. A witch-doctor supposedly could feed someone a potion to put them into a false death, they would be buried and then dug up later, a slave to the witch doctor. There's probably even a thread of truth to the tales.

The modern zombie is a more recent innovation, dating more or less to Dawn of the Dead. The real difference between this zombie and the mythic one is that here the human hopefully wakes up fully possessed of their senses.

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[azav]

Animated dead? You mean like Jesus?

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[JDeane]

I would like to see that as an experiment... a cluster of human minds.

Would the sum be greater then the parts? or would you create a bunch of veggies?

I mean would 5 people with an average IQ of 120 equal a singular intelligence of say 600?

If so then the possibilities are exciting...

What has this to do with zombies?

Well with an IQ of 600 I am sure almost everyone else would appear to be as stupid as a zombie.

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[DynaSoar]

The terminology seems odd here. Isn't suspended animation pretty much the opposite of being a zombie? I mean zombies are the animated dead. Suspended animation makes you the unanimated living.

Oh horrors! You mean the International Journal Of The Society Of Wiredness For Scientificular Correctiviscousity And Technillogical Perfectitooty got it less than absolutely right? I can't imagine their crack research team making that kind of mistake. Must be a typo.

DARPA is actually funding both paths of research. Rapid metabolic reduction is being looked at for blood loss, and a dissociative/hypnotic without loss of motor control is being considered for far forward troops that, having been injured, may have to walk out; this would keep them docile and less likely to damage themselves further by struggling, as well as reduce the effect of cognitive traumatic shock and its contribution to peripheral hypovolemic shock when the body attempts to preserve itself by keeping as much blood as possible in the core. The thinking here is that if Sgt Rock can be made too stupid to connect that bloody stump to his sudden inability to scratch his nose, but stable enough to be self-mobilizing, they may not have to send a chopper in harms way to extract this troop.

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[zefciu]

Agreed. I think "zombie" became too abused term today. Neither Jesus nor hibernating squirrell can qualify as "zombie".

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[vegiVamp]

Unanimated living ? Sounds like me in the morning.

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[julesh]

The terminology seems odd here. Isn't suspended animation pretty much the opposite of being a zombie? I mean zombies are the animated dead. Suspended animation makes you the unanimated living.

The origin of the zombie myth is (probably) a cocktail of drugs that a witch doctor would give to an enemy, which makes them appear to die (metabolic processes slow down to the point they're very hard to detect); then, after everyone thinks they're dead, the witch doctor revives them and claims that he now owns them as a slave.

The drugs in this case are probably derived from the same drugs that may originally have been used for making zombies, or are at least intended to have the same effects, although probably in a somewhat safer fashion.

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[fulldecent]

>> So the process is:
>>
>> 1. Put injured people in suspended animation
>> 2. Extract soul (or whatever makes us non-zombies)
>> 3. Reanimate the meatbags
>> 4. train meatbags to vote for the political party of your choice [and tithe]
>> 5. Profit!

They already do this -- it's called religion.

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[ElizabethGreene]

Sit through just _one_ corporate meeting and you will quickly realize that for a given cluster of human brains,

IQ = 2/(brains ^(blackberries+iphones+1)) * average IQ.

-ellie

(Yes I realize that the parentheses around the denominator are redundant. They are for clarity.)

Re:Opposite of a Zombie

[JDeane]

Hahahaha and so true!!! That made my morning :)

Thank you :)

New compound

[Conditioner]

Excellent, and we will call this new compound "The T-Virus"

End up with bacon that doesn't die!

[Anonymous Coward]

That sounds like heaven on earth if you ask me.

In fact, I think this could be the basis for a new religion with a communion that doesn't let you down in the flavor department.

Universal Soldier...

[Foobar of Borg]

I'm afraid they'll have to find a soldier who can kick unusually high before they can try this experiment. And, if they get out of line, the CO will have to explain to them "You are confused."

Jean-Claude van Damme: "I am confused."

Re:Universal Soldier...

[L4t3r4lu5]

You were right to use the actors' name and not that of the character.

If I recall correctly, this occured when JCVD was spotted trying to take a crap in a urinal. The director walked in and said "WTH man?! That's for peeing!" JCVD replied with "I am confused." and they airbrushed the rest of the set in around him to make it fit the movie.

Don't ask what they were doing filming people peeing, or how they were going to get it into the plot originally.

Vampires next?

[macraig]

What's the next advancement... do we find a battlefield-tested way to drain their blood and freeze-dry them for convenient transport? First zombies, and then vampires? I'm growing more garlic and saplings, just in case.

Re:Vampires next?

[L4t3r4lu5]

Some kind of compression algorithm, I think. As long as we know where all of the bits go when the guy is "unpacked" at the other end, there's no reason not to have him shipped in a box the same size as a couple of crates of beer!

I wouldn't like to be the guy who has to explain to the family that their husband / father's "archive was corrupted."

Re: meatbags in factories

[macraig]

-put meatbags to work in factories where manual dexterity is not needed

Didn't you ever play Alpha Centauri? They call those Genejack Factories.

Re:Brain damage...

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, that war over in Germany is still going on? I thought it was over like 50 years ago...

It says in the Article that Squirrels do this....

[jameskojiro]

I always knew squirrels were vicious little demons from hell.

Squirrely Wrath!

Squirrely Wrath!

Squirrely Wrath!

Re: meatbags in factories

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, and let the three-fingered warforged do all the concert piano playing!

Wonder if.....

[Stupid McStupidson]

The Larramans Organ and Sus-An Membrane are far behind.

The Future Of Medicine

[Citizen of Earth]

Really, this is how I see medicine in the future. If you suffer serious trauma, the paramedics will simply kill you at the scene and take your corpse to a hospital where the doctors will patch you up and resurrect you several hours later. If your hand gets mangled, they will simply hack it off, slather on some stem cells, and you'll over a few months, you'll just grow a new one.

Re:The Future Of Medicine

[ducomputergeek]

I'm waiting for full Cylon Resurrection. They kill you and you download into a new body....

Re:The Future Of Medicine

[destroyer661]

Could be handy if you were already dead on scene and they got there fast enough as well. Roll up a bus full of freezers to toss corpses in, then unload them at the hospital where they can be properly tended to without having to rush or worry about 4-5 patients crashing all at once in critical care.

Re:The Future Of Medicine

[Xest]

"Really, this is how I see medicine in the future."

Yes, unfortunately it's also what I see as the cause of the 22nd century's major problem just as ours is climate change. Their problem will be massive overpopulation, how do you deal with a population that doesn't die but keeps increasing when the resources of the planet they live on can't sustain their population even right now, let alone then?

The only options are to either let people die, stop new people being born, or move to other planets. I'm not convinced in a hundred years we'll have the technology to get to other inhabitable planets and, well, inhabit them. If this is indeed the case it'll be a decision between preventing new births or enforcing maximum life spans to achieve the former options.

The ability to keep people alive indefinitely and recover people from even the most horrific incidents may well be the next atomic bomb- a technology that we may find that we would often perhaps like to be able to undiscover.

Does anyone else have any ideas how we might go about solving the population problem should we obtain the ability to keep people alive much longer and fight back death? A solution that can realistically be achieved in at most, the next 91 years.

Re:The Future Of Medicine

[luzr]

Does anyone else have any ideas how we might go about solving the population problem should we obtain the ability to keep people alive much longer and fight back death? A solution that can realistically be achieved in at most, the next 91 years.

Interestingly, all you need to limit the immortal population is to allow a maximum of two children per parents (or maximum one child per person).

Not that big deal IMO. China was able to do even better :)

Of course, there would still be much more people. We will still need to move out to the space.

OTOH, in most advanced countries we have a population decline. Immortality is one way to deal with the problem :)

A solution that can realistically be achieved in at most, the next 91 years.

That is in fact quite a long time. 91 years ago was the time of first cars, planes and electronics...

Also, thinking about it.... Does not "hibernation" technology also give you means to deal with growing population? Would not be bad if you get bored to hibernate until more interesting times. Putting to the extreme, you can hibernate large fraction of population until you develop technology to colonize the space :)

Re:The Future Of Medicine

[Xest]

"Interestingly, all you need to limit the immortal population is to allow a maximum of two children per parents (or maximum one child per person)."

I agree it's a valid option certainly, but China has a different culture to us- here in the UK for example there would be uproar if you put a limit on child birth. What about accidental pregnancies beyond the limit- do you force an abortion because she already has 2 kids even if it's against the mother's will for example?

"That is in fact quite a long time. 91 years ago was the time of first cars, planes and electronics..."

It both is and isn't, you're right that we've done all that, but how much has the car changed? We're only just now slowly moving away from the combustion engine for example. Similarly we went to the moon 40 years ago, but we've really done very little by way of manned missions since.

You're right that a lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same also.

"Also, thinking about it.... Does not "hibernation" technology also give you means to deal with growing population? Would not be bad if you get bored to hibernate until more interesting times. Putting to the extreme, you can hibernate large fraction of population until you develop technology to colonize the space :)"

It's true but I would presume you still need to consume resources to achieve hibernation- bodies would have to be kept likely in temperature controlled environments and looked after such that even a body in hibernation is consuming at least some resources.

Re:The Future Of Medicine

[luzr]

Well, you wanted options, you were given some...

The most trivial solution to every problem is always death, of course.

Re:The Future Of Medicine

[MattSausage]

Well, you don't force an abortion, you simply force tubal ligation and vasectomies. Once a man has two children (with whomever) he has a vasectomy. Same for a woman. If marriages dissolve and people remarry, oh well, either they get a single child or none, depending on how many each partner had already. That way everyone is happy.

Re:The Future Of Medicine

[Xest]

Yeah I was thinking about that option but even that has complications, ignoring the rights aspect in that many would be up in arms at forced operations, what happens if one or both of their children die for example? They would be prevented from having any at that point.

I think this is why as the world's population grows these will actually become serious rather than merely speculative talking points.

Re:The Future Of Medicine

[BJ_Covert_Action]

Well, if it really does become a problem, perhaps we could develop the technology to upload the human consciousness into circuitry, making it so that each 'person' uses many fewer resources and exists in a virtual(ish) world. Not sure if that's the best solution, but I always figured that eventually we are going to find that these meatbags we occupy have a limited shelf life. Perhaps we can push that life up a little longer...115 years or 130 years rather than 100, but sooner or later the parts just wear out (like the engines of even the most reliable cars and motorcycles). Thus, to continue extending human life, the default answer seems to be to keep the mental abstraction known as identity (whatever the hell that is), digitize it, and download it into more reliable, easily recycled hardware (circuitry). Of course, it is debatable whether we will be able to inhabit other planets or inhabit our computers first, but its still another idea.

Re:The Future Of Medicine

[Anonymous Coward]

Their problem will be massive overpopulation..

What makes you think this is not our problem already ?

Re:The Future Of Medicine

[MattSausage]

As far as I've read, the world's population expansion will slow and eventually barely stay above replacement rates and fall below in most places as they become industrialized. There was a good TED talk about this very thing. Here it is

Re:The Future Of Medicine

[uninformedLuddite]

Does anyone else have any ideas how we might go about solving the population problem should we obtain the ability to keep people alive much longer and fight back death? A solution that can realistically be achieved in at most, the next 91 years.

Parent's choose to have kids. One child born means the father is then killed. Next child would be artificial insemination by saved semen from the father. Upon birth of second child mother is terminated. Stable population. In cases of triplets or greater then the one with the least weight is killed. Really very simple and humane.

"Field Ice Bath"

[jesusfr3Ak]

This seems like a really great idea to me - very similar to the procedure for open heart surgery, where patients are put into a bath of icewater to slow down their metabolism. I think this could save a lot of lives, and could be extended to other non-military applications, as TFA points out.

well i knew it....

[jisou]

darpa is defiantly going to be the government organization to incite the zombie apocalypse. though i shouldn't say that to loud considering the made the internet.....

Doctorow

[kasper_souren]

Damn. I just finished rereading Doctorow's after the siege: http://www.infinitematrix.net/stories/shorts/after-the-siege.html "That much she knew and that much they all knew: without the zombies, the revolution would never have come. Zombiism and the need to cure it had outweighed every other priority. Three governments had promised that they'd negotiate better prices for zombiism drugs and three governments had failed, and in the end the Cabinet had been overrun by zombies who'd torn three MPs to bits and infected seven more, and the crowd had carried the PM out of her office and put her in a barrel and driven nails through it and rolled it down the river-bank into the river, something so horrible and delicious that Valentine often thought about it, like you poke a sore tooth with your tongue."

Re:Doctorow

[rantingkitten]

What godawful prose. This is a great example of why Doctorow should stop writing.

Long Duration Space Flight

[Usually Unlucky]

Couldn't this be tweaked and used as a method of hibernation to stave off boredom and conserve supplies for long duration space flight?

Re:Long Duration Space Flight

[AmishElvis]

smeg, yes it can!

Re:Long Duration Space Flight

[maugle]

I think they had that on the ship in 2001: A Space Odyssey. How'd that pan out?

Re:Long Duration Space Flight

[ignavus]

Couldn't this be tweaked and used as a method of hibernation to stave off boredom...

...at work?

Re:Long Duration Space Flight

[lul_wat]

It can't have ended badly or there wouldn't have been a sequal

Re:Long Duration Space Flight

[vaporland]

that will only work as long as the HAL 9000 doesn't get pissed off and unplug everyone...

Re:Long Duration Space Flight

[electrons_are_brave]

plane flight?

Re:Long Duration Space Flight

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure we'll see this technology reused.
For example in surgery, slowing metabolism would help in a few complex operations

Re:Long Duration Space Flight

[Anonymous Coward]

Forget space-flight, I'd be happy to use this to stave off the tedium of a trans-Atlantic flight. If they can freeze me at my house and stuff me in the taxi, then I wouldn't have to bother with the queues at check-in and security, either.

Re:Long Duration Space Flight

[mrsquid0]

I would like to see this technique tweaked and used as a method of hibernation to stave off boredome and conserve supplies when there is nothing good on tv.

Re:Long Duration Space Flight

[msheekhah]

this plus cryogenics could equal space flight to another planet for colonization. that would be cool. of course, we'd probably have to have terraforming or biodome type shit perfected first.

are we weakening ours ability to fight?

[Anonymous Coward]

at the risk of seeming cold and uncaring (well, ok, maybe i am), i wonder if we are weakening our ability to wage war by putting such an extreme emphasis on preventing loss of life. of course no one wants to die and we want to prevent unnecessary deaths, but in war people die. our efforts, to paraphrase patton, should be to make sure that as many as possible of the other guys die, and putting so much emphasis on saving all of our guys will impede that effort. also, as has been pointed out already, the quality of life of those saved is often so poor as to question whether they were really done any favors by saving them. there are worse things than death ....

Re:are we weakening ours ability to fight?

[Anonymous Coward]

of course no one wants to die

What war in the last 50 years has been worth dying in? In which conflict in the last 50 years has the existence of the US been utterly threatened?

should be to make sure that as many as possible of the other guys die, and putting so much emphasis on saving all of our guys will impede that effort

Fallacious reasoning. We can do both. Do we want to pay for both? I think we should, given that the shitty little conflicts we've been in are largely driven by politicians attempting to appear as though they're hardasses at the expense of the working class.

Re:are we weakening ours ability to fight?

[Anonymous Coward]

What's wrong with your shift key and caps lock key? It's fitting that the quality of the appearance of your post matches the quality of the content. Firstly,

No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.

- General George S Patton

Secondly, smart people aren't some kind of raw resource that can be deployed anywhere and set to work. In this case, the smart medical people have discovered a way to help keep soldiers alive. Those people can be taken off medical research and reassigned to engineering a super-duper-kill-everyone-bomb. Now, you could argue that it's a matter of moving funds - but this brings me to my third point. We have powerful-enough weapons to kill every living creature on this planet dozens of times over. Our weakness is not in our ability to kill, our weakness is in the ability to discriminately kill - so our R&D only has limited potential to help here (there are smart-bombs and aerial drones et al, but the main thing is intelligence). Fourthly, you're ignoring things like morale. Would you be so willing to sign up/fight/etc if your governments' policy was "fuck 'em, they're dead already"? Of course not, you're just some snotty, barely-literate punk. Finally,

the quality of life of those saved is often so poor as to question whether they were really done any favors by saving them. there are worse things than death ....

That's not your call, that's their call. This is only an argument for euthanasia (in cases where they're unable to kill themselves). I'm sure I'm not alone here on slashdot when I express the sentiment that the government has no right to decide the quality of an individual's life.

Re:are we weakening ours ability to fight?

[Grygus]

What war in the last 50 years has been worth dying in? In which conflict in the last 50 years has the existence of the US been utterly threatened?

What war has ever been, in and of itself, worth dying in? You're asking the wrong question. The question is whether there have been any causes worth dying for in the last 50 years, and that answer is always, always "yes" to someone. War is rarely fought for clearcut reasons such as survival. You haven't read your history very closely if you think relative security has a direct relation to peace.

Fallacious reasoning. We can do both. Do we want to pay for both? I think we should, given that the shitty little conflicts we've been in are largely driven by politicians attempting to appear as though they're hardasses at the expense of the working class.

That's only practical because we enjoy a significant technological edge over our enemies, mostly because we employ a far larger budget. I'm not sure it's safe to assume that will always be the case, though. The last part of your statement (about the politicians) is true, but that's always been the case. The vast majority of wars are not fought for objectively noble reasons; most of them are at some level affairs of vanity.

Re:are we weakening ours ability to fight?

[opposabledumbs]

In a low-tech, low-cost, grunts-with-guns battle, sure. All you want is for more of your guys to survive, and you've won. Soldiers in these armies are easily replaceable: give a gun to a civilian, drill them 'till they lose the use of independent thought, and you've replaced the dead soldier.

But modern armies are high tech, and that means that there is a lot of training invested in the men on the ground. Lose them, you lose all the training and experience that they had. So keeping them alive and possibly able to fight again is a big plus.

Re:are we weakening ours ability to fight?

[Runefox]

I realize this is a bit of a troll, but I'd like to point out that field hospitals, medics, and battlefield treatment have existed in some form or another at least as far back as the time of the Roman Empire over two millennia ago, and indeed the Romans in particular had extensive knowledge of herbs and medicine in general. I'm fairly sure that this isn't exactly a new concept, here, but if you'd rather people died on the field of honour rather than keeping casualties to a minimum where possible, then hey, you're welcome to go fight in Iraq or Afghanistan and deny receiving medical attention when an unseen IED or RPG ambush blows apart your convoy because "in war people die".

It's true that people die in war, but that doesn't mean the number of people who do die can't be reduced. Should development of UAV's and bomb disposal robots be halted as a waste of money and instead use bomb squads and fighter/recon sorties because people are supposed to be dying?

In World War II, Japan learned a harsh lesson with regard to the preservation of the lives of its combatants. One major example, when the bulk of their carrier force was lost at Midway, so, too, was the bulk of their most experienced fighter pilots. That fact alone is likely to have cost them the war. Their disregard for pilot safety in aircraft design, in ship design (the carrier decks were thinly-armoured, the hangars were filled with explosives and fuel, and much of the people below deck at the time of their sinking were vaporized), and in philosophy, cost them the lives of their finest pilots and warriors. Would you ask of the people serving in the armed forces to place valour and honour before life like the Japanese did? To waste their training, their skill, their experience, for glory, in the name of "strengthening the ability to fight a war"?

Saving the lives of wounded soldiers is a must. It might be true that things like getting an arm or a leg blown off limits the quality of life you can expect after you recover, but it's also true that getting shot in the shoulder or the neck might not cause permanent damage, but might also cause heavy blood loss. Something like what's being talked about in the article would help save lives in these situations by reducing the soldier's heart rate and other vitals enough to prolong his or her ability to survive, particularly during an engagement where immediate medical attention might not be possible. So instead of having someone shot in the neck and bleeding out in a few minutes, you inject them with this and exponentially increase the window of opportunity to save their life. That's not being weak - That's being smart.

Besides, if war was only about killing as many of the enemy as possible, it'd come down to nuclear exchange as a first option. That sort of mindset is only applicable during a state of total war - When do you think was the last time that happened? And besides, even then, in order to kill more of the other guy, you need to make sure that less of your guys are killed, too.

Re:are we weakening ours ability to fight?

[19thNervousBreakdown]

our efforts, to paraphrase patton, should be to make sure that as many as possible of the other guys die, and putting so much emphasis on saving all of our guys will impede that effort.

No matter how much killing one soldier can do, two can do more.

Re:are we weakening ours ability to fight?

[tehcyder]

i wonder if we are weakening our ability to wage war by putting such an extreme emphasis on preventing loss of life.

On the contrary, I'm worried that this will just encourage a state of permanent war, with none of the current bad PR about our soldiers coming home in body bags...

Re:are we weakening ours ability to fight?

[ex_ottoyuhr]

It's true that war is not about preserving the lives of your own soldiers; there is a word for the context in which an army's first concern is preserving the lives of its own soldiers, and that word is "peacetime." In addition to this, though, the Pentagon needs to concentrate on sparing civilians; the US military has made no attempts to minimize "collateral damage" -- civilians killed in the process of fighting off attackers -- over the course of the Iraq War.

Of course, it would also help if they also ensured that the US doesn't begin future wars without plans to win them in the worst case -- as opposed to just hoping for the best.

Anonymous Coward

[Anonymous Coward]

so how exactly will they "reanimate" people?

Re:Brain damage...

[thesandtiger]

They have socialized medicine over there; the wait time is a bitch!

(For government health care, but I couldn't pass up the joke even so)

Not Zombies; River Tam

[Eli Gottlieb]

This sounds less like reanimated corpses craving brains and more like the drugs Simon gave to River so he could sneak her into the hospital on Ariel in Firefly.

Re:Not Zombies; River Tam

[Grygus]

Protip: If a soldier sits up and says, "my turn," GET OUT OF THE WAY.

Re:Not Zombies; River Tam

[SpaceCadets]

Or what about the drugs Mal's old war buddie took to do the organ smuggling, it's been a while, but that sounds about right. 3 Joss.

Re:Not Zombies; River Tam

[Eli Gottlieb]

Yeah, that too. I think they were the same drugs, actually.

Nice to see Firefly coming true, you know?

Re:Not Zombies; River Tam

[SpaceCadets]

/offtopic I'd rather see more than 12 episodes of Firefly. :P

.. if it doesn't pan out ..

[BradyB]

From the write up:

If it doesn't pan out we can at least get zombie bacon and spam

So where does the bacon and spam come from the Pigs or the Zombie soldiers? :-/

what could possibly go wrong?

[blackplatypus]

Wow, whats with the missing tag? if any story ever deserves the "what could possibly go wrong" tag...

What about the other alternative

[voss]

In the year 2010 , the military performed the last of their life support experiments on Captain William "Buck" Rogers.
In a freak mishap he was lost...only to be found 500 years later.

At this point, it begins to make more sense...

[Anonymous Coward]

to just stop making WAR!!!!!!

Oh great......

[scosco62]

There's really no down side to this..if we can't bring them back, then then they can work at McKinsey or Bain.....

Idiocracy?

[Anonymous Coward]

This sound more like the human hibernation project. Store your bests for when they are need the most.

How to be a Billionaire/Trillionaire

[Anonymous Coward]

Buy some bonds + blue chip stocks and sleep for the next 50 years and become a billionaire!!!!

and so it begins

[mongrol]

They'll only reanimate the parts that watch TV, rent movies (repeatedly in a variety of formats, buy mobile phones (repeatedly in a variety of formats) and leave of the rest of the dissident free thinking ganglion parts dormant.

Re:and so it begins

[Fantastic Lad]

They'll only reanimate the parts that watch TV, rent movies (repeatedly in a variety of formats, buy mobile phones (repeatedly in a variety of formats) and leave of the rest of the dissident free thinking ganglion parts dormant.

Begins? It's my understanding that they've been doing this for years. I think it started somewhere around the dawn of the industrial revolution and has been been experiencing a geometric growth curve in its rate of effectiveness ever since.

Heck, you pretty much have to be a zombie and/or slave just to enlist in the first place!

-FL

!Zombie

[njfuzzy]

A zombie is a dead thing that moves. This article describes a living thing that doesn't move. How far off can it get?

Re:!Zombie

[L4t3r4lu5]

We could try a car analogy...

Other Research on this

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm guessing this "cocktail of one chemical or another" has H2S in it - very interesting stuff.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4469793.stm

Re:Other Research on this

[treeves]

Interesting? Your guess stinks!

Why are all the experts on Slashdot?

[Anonymous Coward]

Brain trauma is mysteriously simplified when explained by "our I.T. guy".

Scrödingers cat?

[jurgemaister]

Am I the only one that get assosiations to a certain cat in a certain box, who's state is not alive nor dead? I say: Commence the cat testing!

Re:Brain damage...

[Anonymous Coward]

I live in England and we don't have "wait times" for health care. If we need to see a doctor, we call first thing in the morning and we are seen that day. not to worry, it's a common misconception.

MEDIC!

[DarthVain]

Great so it will just be like Enemy Territory then? Medics running around poking people with syringes... Word to the wise medics, if ET has taught me anything, it's shoot the Medics first, so don't be so proud of this technological terror you have created. I find you lack of faith disturbing.