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Researcher Warns That Military Must Prepare For "Mutant" Future
Researcher Patrick Lin says that with the development of a wide range of technologies including: drugs, special nutrition, gene therapy and robotic implants, the military needs to plan for a future where soldiers have "mutant powers.” From the article: "If we don’t, we could find ourselves in big trouble down the road. Among the nightmare scenarios: Botched enhancements could harm the very soldiers they’re meant to help and spawn pricey lawsuits. Tweaked troopers could run afoul of international law, potentially sparking a diplomatic crisis every time the U.S. deploys troops overseas. And poorly planned enhancements could provoke disproportionate responses by America’s enemies, resulting in a potentially devastating arms race (PDF)."
Why is it we can't get mutants out of our own labs but our enemies are going to be able to do this just like that?
I want my mutants!
in USA, drugs ("speed" and similar) and nutrition (e.g. sexual desire suppressant in food) to alter behavior has been going on since Viet Nam war at least
"California Polytechnic State University,
San Luis Obispo
College of Liberal Arts
Philosophy Department
Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group"
http://ethics.calpoly.edu/Greenwall_report.pdf
If the possibility of becoming a mutant existed 20 years ago, I probably would have given a military career more thought.
Or a cyborg. Either way, yeah, I'm willing to bet a lot more of us would have considered it.
Not the Ninja Turtles!
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
This is why these things should be developed in secret at great expense to the taxpayers, by secret shadowy organizations, using only death row inmates will kill chips so they don't misbehave.
"Tweaked troopers could run afoul of international law..."
This happens fairly often already. Are they saying it would be much worse? Also, what is the scenario for having these mutants here in our own country?
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
Someone please tell me which corp is producing the Neuropozyne so I can invest while the shares are cheap.
Obligatory:
What could possibly go wrong?
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
No more big military budgets in the future, lol.
For a more in depth look into the imaginary future of mutant cyborg warfare might I suggest the Germline series by T. C. McCarthy.
once more into the breach
The government'd have enough SENSE to put in failsafes (as in cutoffs or remote deactivation etc./et al) to stop them from being used for "malicious purposes" (in other words, for action NOT sanctioned by them) I'd think.
* Their people are NOT completely stupid on that front... they've seen it before (albeit, with "rogue Marines" as an example).
I've heard tell from ex-Marines, that you have 2 kinds - the kind that "flies straight" (Ala Ed McMahon for example & just 'basic' family men) after serving, & you have the kind that becomes 'outlaws' typically... but, that's only hearsay, but it came from one of their own.
APK
P.S.=> As to the rest of it? IF that were going to happen, it would've by now, wouldn't you all agree??
... apk
All the above posts are horseshit.
Now, I'm going to evaluate why I still come to Slashdot.
This place used to be a great summary of IT security, DB, Code, and whatnot.
To quote Willow, "Bored now."
...note that in industrial civilization, riches accrue to those who best stimulate human ingenuity and productivity through peaceful trade and development, not to those who can enslave the most serfs, and that the entire basis of military arms races is basically a "caveman" mentality, obsolete since before WW1, really: https://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/09-6
The justification for arms races was, throughout the nuclear arms race, that we must beat the other team to the capability; except that *taking the lead* in that race is what guarantees the race to happen at all. None of the competitors in the nuclear arms race ever wanted to use one, or did; they understood that their use would make them a target, not a victor.
Bolstered by this realization, you could instead propose treaties, with open development of such technologies, and monitoring of capabilities with the spectre of a ruinously expensive and dangerous race beginning if security around secret weapons development *ever* slips.
Nah. Never happen. Too much money involved.
n/t
However, the leader of the mutants can control metal so we'll need to use plastic guns.
Can't wait for Mutants vs. Zombies!
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
Somehow, I doubt this is the problem.
War is not won by Rambos. Even special-ops types aren't built like Arnold. War is won by people who make the right decisions under pressure and have the skills and endurance to carry them out.
Too late. Soulless biological automatons have already overrun much of Europe.
~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
... that foreign countries should be prepared for the US Military to have a mutant future.
Its not like the rest of the world considers their militaries so ridiculously important to invest in constant cutting edge future tech innovation all the time in all aspects of war. The US may do this, but the rest of the world will still be pretty happy with their 1990s tanks and 2000s satellite technology.
queue the slashdotter with one article pointing at one small research project in one country claiming 'not *necessarily*'.... in 3----2----1..... OH DAMN! Not absolutely 100% necessarily black and white! Holy crap! I was 0.000000001% wrong and you were 0.000000001% cool for pointing that out! (Sorry.. I'm preempting all this because I'm habituated to these 'not necessarily' slashtards).
could harm the very soldiers they’re meant to help and spawn pricey lawsuits
From who? We are not allowed to sue the government.
run afoul of international law
That really stopped us in Iraq, didn't it?
Looks like someones hurting for some ad revenue.
For those who profit, killing people is an easy, secret way to make money. For U.S. taxpayers, it's a way to slip into poverty.
Calling this "mutant powers" is trivializing this entire issue. It makes light of the fact that millions of people are using stimulants and nootropics that lie in a legal gray area pertaining to employment and schoolwork. Calling this "mutant powers" is the most inappropriate thing you could do.
Future combat zones will not have human troops. Compared with robotics, humans have a wide range of vulnerabilities. The major one being that humans cannot operate in an EM-warfare situation. The human brain is subject to RF interference and current technology is capable of access denial over wide areas.
Seriously we cant even get over the mental issues that soldiers face, and it's horribly underfunded to accommodate the vast number of people who "shrug it off" because there's already a strain on the system. This is probably a better thing to solve with technology than possibly pertinently destroying our own gene pool.
Good leaders run toward problems, bad leaders hide from them.
This is like worrying about property tax on the Moon.
Stupid Chinese. .sig does not apply in this case...
Should be building Axel Pressbutton clones that would build iPads 27 hours a day as long as you keep jazzing their pleasure center.
I'm pretty sure
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
"Tweaked troopers could run afoul of international law, potentially sparking a diplomatic crisis every time the U.S. deploys troops overseas."
Oh, he is joking, surely? Since when did the US give a toss about international law?
OK, you've had your little games, the USA was an intersting experiment, but it is now time to admit that it has been a failure.
We need to create mutant solders to protect us from the mutant solders who mutiny.
I think they coved this in a few syfy channel movies
I think more than two pairs of arms would be counter-productive. Besides, John Carter managed to defeat the Tharks with only two arms. What we need to do is offer student visas to Jupitereans, then draft them!
The X Files coved stuff like this
Unfortunately, what they've been reading is a little too much X-Men.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Bullshit galore for the average bullshit brain.
We should make a legislative framework that will outline the boundaries of such a program, sort of like the Geneva Conventions. Then countries like the US would never violate those rules.
Seriously. What's the point in even talking about it? the US is just going to do whatever it feels like.
the military has what amounts to big-ass guns and bombs of all types, sufficient to take down mutant meat marching. next problem, please...
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
It is soon the 1st January, not the 1st April. Except in comic book there is no such a thing as a mutant power. At all. Not even physically possible from the law of thermodynamic or newton's law.
What COULD happen is that somebody graft some biomechanic prothese giving an advantage like better muscle, drug implant or even eye sight enhanced and protected against flashbang, but that's nothing which could not be done by the "1st country" in term of military science. In fact I content a full mechanical device by the ease of removal replacement and mass fabrication make more sense. In fact I contend that it is probably the other country of the world which should worry about what the USA is brewing in their labs.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Haha, I've been preparing for a Zombie Apocolypse for years. /justified
last sentence should read "In fact I contend that it is probably the other country of the world which should worry about what the USA is brewing in their drone labs." IOW A military of drone controlled by a few hundred maybe a few thousand guy the other world away.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Khan!
So many jokes, so little time...
What do you mean they cut the power? How can they cut the power, man? They're animals!
Captain America made them look good.
I wouldn't.
I have been a captive in America my entire life. Everybody and everything uses customary units instead of metric.
I think it potentially more likely that future wars include remotely-controlled (and possibly semi-autonomous) terminator style robots, driven by soldiers for whom the interface looks very much like a current Battlefield video game. But you know, mutant superpowers would be cool too. I'm working on my first one now, but it's not going so well. It doesn't even feel a little hot in here, does it?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Don't forget this pinko pussy.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Unleash the giant tentacle monster!
I am John Hurt.
Great for invading, but modern war isn't really about invasion. You can't just carpet-bomb cities any more. There's a lot more peacekeeping and urban combat now. High-tech toys can be very useful in those situations, and are still in their infancy. We don't even have a bullet-proof vest that can be worn unobtrusively.
(1) someone has been watching too many episodes of Beauty and the Beast. Or, (2) there's some really screwy secret experimentation going on. But if (2), why would we even hear about possible protocols to contain? (You'd think they would be secret too.)
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
'Moist' from Dr. Horrible!
We are not responsible for other country's disproportionate responses to our defensive capabilities.
Offensive capabilities.. Other countries are not going to be offended by you defending yourself, they will be offended by you attacking others.
I, for one, welcome our new mutant overlords..
http://www.pdfernhout.net/recognizing-irony-is-a-key-to-transcending-militarism.html ... There is a fundamental mismatch between 21st century reality and 20th century security thinking. Those "security" agencies are using those tools of abundance, cooperation, and sharing mainly from a mindset of scarcity, competition, and secrecy. Given the power of 21st century technology as an amplifier (including as weapons of mass destruction), a scarcity-based approach to using such technology ultimately is just making us all insecure. Such powerful technologies of abundance, designed, organized, and used from a mindset of scarcity could well ironically doom us all whether through military robots, nukes, plagues, propaganda, or whatever else... Or alternatively, as Bucky Fuller and others have suggested, we could use such technologies to build a world that is abundant and secure for all. "
"Biological weapons like genetically-engineered plagues are ironic because they are about using advanced life-altering biotechnology to fight over which old-fashioned humans get to occupy the planet. Why not just use advanced biotech to let people pick their skin color, or to create living arkologies and agricultural abundance for everyone everywhere?
So, what we need is the right sort of mutants...
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Mr. President, we must not allow... a mutant soldier gap!
Orwell was an optimist.
So now they are blaming him.
Cool, now if there were a difference between offensive and defensive weapons, that would be great.
These days we have weapons that strike from dozens of kilometers away, and are effectively unstoppable once launched, meaning there's no real hope left for your fortifications (or citizens) if the enemy can get into your sky or can get within striking distance. This means you must attack any such weapons before they get into range or face becoming Sderot, except that the weapons will actually mostly work. Other than oceans and huge amounts of empty space where you can launch attacks on any enemy force attempting to get into range, there are no more fortifications.
The best defense is a good offense has lost it's meaning with modern weapons. It should be restated : there is no defense anymore.
Also: liability is not a problem for most non-western states. So there are several states that might develop this, and use it to attack.
Although I think the article's author is wrong. The future of America's army is simpler : the perfect defense against a modern military is craploads of marginally effective, cheap robots. Robots that can move in the direction of the enemy in spread out groups of tens of thousands, have 90% of them killed and 10% do what they were sent to do. The weakness of all of America's arms is that there is so few of them, smart bombs : a few thousand are available country-wide. If an aircraft carrier must defend itself, it can shoot a few thousand times before running out of ammo. A few hundreds if the robots are underwater (and robots don't breathe, right). Send 10000 robots against either one and the defense must fail. Same for an apache, which is an awesome weapon, true, but it can fire 5 times and after that it's limited to bullets only, which will run out after less than 50000 shots (and keep in mind that shooting an aircraft out of the sky with bullets hardly ever works and even if it does we're talking > 1000 bullets per target).
Smart weapons only work against advanced weapons, because when it comes to advanced weapons the enemy only has a few hundred up to a few thousand at best. So simply give them too many targets.
drink lots of water, eat enough creatine and take a B-complex for colour.
the dilution is determined by how clear it is (check), and by the level of creatine, so you _can_ beat it easily.
Prepare for sci-fi grade stuff the ennemy may prepare? This remind me of The Men Who Stare at Goats.
We never asked for this.
Could artificial biological enhancement of soldiers lead to an arms race? Sure, but it'd be short lived.. I don't think any more than 4 would be useful.I
I can see the Irony you refer to and its a good point. But unfortunately the situation is not so simple because technology is frequently far easier to use for destruction then creation. Certain systems have fragilities which could be lethal under errors; For example, regardless of the intention of the implementation of biotechnology - Ecologies can exhibit unexpected response to randomness. Bringing fragility into the picture as some very Clever People have Noted would force us to review our risk management system completely.
Centralize technological decision making and each Human Error will be magnified (as with financial network that is centralized and is fragile to the collapse of one or two big institutions). Decentralize technological decision making and you have the danger of agents acting for their own benefit to burden society with the Risks of their enterprises (as with people administering antibiotics too quickly - something that statistically benefits them and endangers the population). If there was ever a time to start bringing the concepts of Antifragility and Subsidiarity Principle into socioeconomic, techno/scientific and political discourse.... its Now.
W'm Shakespeare : 'the play's the thing in which I'll catch the conscience of the king' [something like that]
a) Firefly / Serenity - (tried watching Dollhouse - could not);
b) Ghost in the Shell;
I am sure that there are more 'favorites' out there - however, ENGINEERING as a profession, as I understand it as a practitioner, has almost always initiated any technology of general public utility as a military munition or ammunition of one type or another.
Tom Leher - "once rockets go up, who cares where they come down, that's not my department say W. V-B."
From an Uncle who survived the "Battle of the Bulge" and returned to, among other things, design instrument and control systems for aircraft, 'I intend to provide the soldiers of this country the very best weapons which I can so that THEY do not have to go through what I did.' Right or wrong, there is something in the 'mercenary creed' which is not just distopian, but just plain scary if you actually KNOW from experience just what technolgies are 'out there' and not in public use, yet.
There might be some small attempts to do this, but it will be so vilified that no developed nation would be able to do it to any great degree. Automated free roving killing machines will be FAR easier in the near future and politically acceptable as well, as you are not dehumanizing/exploiting your own citizens to achieve your goals. Plus I don't care how outlandish your mutant enhancements are short of Wolverine regenerative powers, MACHINES, BULLETS and BOMBS will splatter you just like any other flesh based entity.
The future is automated or remote controlled killing machines -- bank on it.
Letter To Iran
Nobody's gonna touch the Resident Evil reference?
Organizations and societies have been trying to develop or select the "ideal" person for the last few millenia. See the various statues and bass reliefs for the evidence. Humans, however, are not uniform but vary in several characteristics. Lysenko and the Nazis are two recent examples of trying to develop or select the ideal person; both failed. The US military height-weight standards favor those with Cromagnon features (long limbs, short torso, slender) and actively discriminate against the rest. So, if the person is built along Neanderthal lines, don't count on a military career. It doesn't matter if he was the fellow who could haul that 1200 pair cable and not be bothered by the cold water he was wading through. One term and he's gone. Buying cloths off the rack? Forget about it!
What's needed is a lavishly funded program for giant Sentinel Robots.
These will help stop the mutants.
Didn't I hear something about "Gulf War Syndrome" recently, or wasn't it the families of ex-soldiers who died while sueing about being used as crash radiation dummies in atom-bomb tests?
"Check" on that one.
Haven't I been awake and aware since the late 1970s? Yes. so there's a "check" on that one too.
(But - doesn't the US decry "international law", except when it suits them (copyright, one direction of intellectual property law, etc)? So, which way do they want it?)
What were those foreign nuclear weapons deployed 20 miles east of the house I grew up in, as well as 30 miles SW? Oh yes - a thoroughly non-devastating (for Americans) arms race that was likely to turn me into radioactive powder.
"Check" on that one too.
Situation normal : all fucked up.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
to see the question wether or not the us army will be on a campaign somewhere is not even a question
gives the rest of us mutants a lot of hope for the future
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?