Pentagon Scientists Discuss Cybernetic 'Super Soldiers' That Feel Nothing While Killing In Dystopian Presentation : technology

[–] pelya@lemmy.world 57 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Those abilities from the article are useless for a soldier.

You don't feel much stress shooting the enemy. You feel a lot of stress when the enemy shoots back, especially the artillery. So you get less stress when your artillery has more range, because you don't get shot at.

Using painkillers is just ignoring the problems with your health. If you want to stay in the army for more than a year, go to the doctor and get a proper treatment.

The food is not a problem, we got ten thousand variations of canned meat.

The most pressing problem for soldiers in the field is the lack of hygiene. If you can shower once per month without getting sick, you'll make a better soldier.

It'd also help if you're short and can carry heavy stuff.

So, I imagine actual super-soldiers to be muscly gypsy dwarves who eat a lot and complain when they get health issues.

Source: has been in the army.

[–] grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world 13 points 9 months ago

You just described all the men in my extended family that served in the Canadian military.

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 38 points 9 months ago (3 children)

This shit is a silly fantasy:

a slide behind her showed off a “soldier of the future” whose body is “flooded with pain-numbing stimulants” and has the “ability to regrow limbs & quickly heal wounds like a lizard.”

Next to this was a quote that referenced Robocop. “Enhanced soldiers would be reduced to bionic men, who run fast, do not need to sleep, eat and drink very little, and can fight all the time. A new species is born: Homo robocopus,”

The whole thing is full of pop culture references:

McKinely, the non-invasive brain stimulation expert, said that The Matrix was starting to become real. Think of the iconic scene where Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, is instantly uploaded with proficiency in kung fu.

It's like a bunch of teenagers writing a sci-fi fanfic. Too many movies and video games, not enough actual science and technology. They literally have a picture of Master Chief.

A good deal of the conversation revolved around the ethical and legal boundaries of creating super soldiers.

Because that's all you can talk about when none of this has any practical application.

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 15 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

This very much reeks of government kickbacks. They know what company they want to give the grant to and are preparing the call.

But having given quite a few presentations to the government: The pop culture references are what you want. You are talking to idiots, many of which were high school dropouts who realized they could get a commission after surviving a few years of enlistment, who are surrounded by yes-men who are required to polish the knob of their superiors because they all just love America so much.

It is very much a balancing act of technical and puff. You want to make sure that the people who make decisions NEVER feel confused. While having diagrams and supplementary information that answer the analysts' questions. Your goal is for the officer in charge to love you and want to take you out for drinks while making sure their analysts don't have any "gotchas" to raise when you leave the room.

Basically: imagine that you are giving a presentation to Michael Scott. And Jim and Dwight were bad conduct discharged years ago and everyone left will actively say he is a genius. You aren't leading with the data on long term usage of pain medication and stimulants.

[–] luthis@lemmy.nz 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Woah woah woah. Wait a second. Regrow limbs?? We can do that??

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Assuming you replied to the wrong post but:

There have been plenty of studies over the years of initial findings. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-limb-regeneration-ins/ is a recent one. And you can find plenty of others with a bit of a google.

Would I fund any company that claimed they could do it? Hell no. But this is very much the kind of topic where university research groups should be regularly getting grants to advance the state of science. And this is exactly the kind of topic where you can convert some of that massive military overspending into science and research.

[–] luthis@lemmy.nz 3 points 9 months ago

Assuming you replied to the wrong post but:

Goddammit you're right I did.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Can the federal government pay me to make up boyhood fantasies?

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 12 points 9 months ago

Apparently yes.

[–] gregorum@lemm.ee 6 points 9 months ago

Apparently, that is their primary function with regards to funding defense projects

[+] Colorcodedresistor@lemm.ee 21 points 9 months ago (3 children)

[deleted]

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 17 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Your problem is you're not thinking like a sociopath; devoid of all empathy, morals and ethics. Have you tried injecting capitalism directly into your brain stem?

[–] akwd169@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 months ago

I don't have enough capital for that

[–] FanciestPants@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Someday in Hollywood they'll have to make a new film genre for pre-apocalyse movies.

[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This presentation is nonsense but the automation of war is good news for those of us living in developed countries which can manufacture enormous amounts of autonomous weapons.

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 18 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Sounds entirely reasonable, and definitely has zero possibility of going horribly horribly wrong.

[–] cyd@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago

"At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus"

[–] Erasmus@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Someone has been reading too many Warhammer 40k novels.

[–] luthis@lemmy.nz 2 points 9 months ago

My life for the hoard!

[–] akwd169@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago

One can never read too many 40k novels, brother. For the emperor!

[–] flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz 6 points 9 months ago

Such a last-century worldview. Biological soldiers? That's just more meat to feed.

The future is in semi-autonomous, semi-intelligent "AI" driven drones which you can program with a vague general mission and they can improvise the rest.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

archive.today and all its aliases (including archive.md) actively sabotages DNS queries from many 3rd party DNS providers, so your link doesn't work reliably.