George Bush told us that the "War on Terrorism" would be a "generational" war. It seems clear that means "war without end" which brings to mind George Orwell's 1984. (Of course, there are a lot of things about the Bush cabal does that makes Orwell's book look down right prophetic.) To fight the war without end would normally take a very large fighting force, but long before Rumsfeld's lean, mean, high tech vision, the Pentagon has been deeply involved in creating future "warfighters."
Remember the Kurt Russell movie Soldier? In "Soldier" Russell plays a genetically selected interplanetary soldier (war fighter) who get wiped out by a new generation genetically engineered model. Or maybe you remember Jean-Claude Van Damme in Universal Soldier. The theme here is that soldiers who have been killed are "reanimated" and "enhanced" to become a super fighting force. Well, for quite some time the Pentagon has been working on creating the future "warfighter."
A trip through the public portions of DARPA's (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), is enlightening. I know that every time I visit, I can't help but think "If this is what is public, then what are the classified programs?" DARPA has a wide ranging research program on "improving" soldiers. However, DARPA (and indeed DoD "vision" documents) rarely use the term "soldier." They prefer the term "warfighter." The goal of many of DARPA's programs regarding warfighters is to improve them through a variety of means:
Sharon Weinberger over at Wired wrote a fairly extensive article on a project that has gone out to bid colloquially referred to as "Luke's Binoculars" (though officially known as Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System (CT2WS)). This project involves merging a binocular function with extreme range and "threat detection" into the prefrontal lobe of warfighters' brains (see graphic from Wired).
The basic activity of this brain region is considered to be orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals.
The most typical neurologic term for functions carried out by the pre-frontal cortex area is Executive Function. Executive Function relates to abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, determine good and bad, better and best, same and different, future consequences of current activities, working toward a defined goal, prediction of outcomes, expectation based on actions, and social "control" (the ability to suppress urges that, if not suppressed, could lead to socially unacceptable outcomes).
Many authors have indicated an integral link between a person's personality and the functions of the prefrontal cortex. (Wikipedia)
"Luke's Binoculars" are not some long term, far future, research project. No, the bids have gone out with the goal of having them in use by Special Forces in three (3) years.
Now these projects - including the "binoculars" - seem fairly permanent to me. Once you have modified a warfighter, can they ever not be a warfighter? Do they then become a piece of military equipment? These projects certainly give the name "GI" (Government Issue) a whole new level of significance.
Are we really willing to commit people for life (not retirement) to be extended military equipment? Certainly the government seems willing to do so. Do we need permanent warfighters to fight a never ending war? Might such "enhanced" humans be useful in other areas besides war? Or might the technologies have uses beyond the military? I can think of a number of them actually. For example,workers that don't need to rest and can eat the recycling to keep going. Of course, much like the warfighter, the worker must become property as well - another resource of service until removed from service - sort of a high tech version of Jennifer Government by Max Barry.
The implications of the direction being forged are into a future that I, personally, find terrifying. I can't believe that we must be on this path. I must believe that we can, and will see the travesty we are becoming and turn aside.
I would find these topics hilarious if I did not know these people are serious. To attempt to alter the function of the human body without a basic understanding of all the integrated systems in the human body is just plane dumb and dangerous. Hell. if they could develop an MRE that did not make one think of garbage would be an improvement. We were given them after the hurricane and I opened a few to try them. Filling but not very good . You cannot alter the digestive system too much ,or you get what you are trying to eliminate. The trots. And would not external optical devices be more cost effective than implanted mechanisms? The researchers are just shinning the Pentagon on and they are too dumb to catch on. Look for the kickbacks in these programs.
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cluelessfl (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 184 comments)
on Thursday, June 7, 2007 at 11:54:06 AM
I don't mean to burst your bubble, but GI actually stands for General Issue, anything not weapons or other specialization related. Field gear such as your pack, bed roll, canteen and the like. Troops are not GI, but ever since an idiot reporter made the connection, the entire world has mistakenly called American troops by that name. Whenever anybody called my Dad GI, he would respond by telling them he was not general issue. If you think about it, calling someone GI is tantamount to calling them "ordinary stuff".
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Dave Kisor (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 128 comments)
on Friday, June 8, 2007 at 8:36:27 PM
I agree with the demeaning nature of "GI," however, that is exactly how those in the military are being viewed by the DoD when they plan to meld "warfighter" and machine, or genetically alter the troops so they don't have to sleep for extended period, or eat "cellulose" instead of food.
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Rowan Wolf (65 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 84 comments)
on Friday, June 8, 2007 at 9:21:28 PM
