Do you think we will be seeing or hearing about genetically modified elite soldiers in the next few decades? I heard they managed to make mice run for 3x as long and faster recently.
I think never. Genetic engineering on humans is still extremely controversial, and that's for things like curing genetic diseases. If someone suggested doing it to increase a persons fitness for the purpose of them joining the army, they'd be ostracised. The future in augmented ground troops lies in cocktails of performance enchancing drugs (pilots take amphetamines already) and new materials, like suits that exert a force, thus boosting the soldiers muscle strength, or moving his legs for him, so that he can run faster for longer.
We are unable to do the same thing with humans at the moment. What can be done on mice can not necessarily be done with any other mammals, let alone humans (which will have enormous ethical implications).
Why would they make super soldiers? The human element is what makes it all unpredictable. I think they will just keep making better weapons, better drones, better robots, etc.
Actually, you're probably right for the time being orleander, but eventually, we'll get to where modification of ourselves with genetics, cybernetics, or nano-tech is an obvious way to improve ourselves for various reasons, one of those reasons would likely be to make an individual enhanced for modern combat. This may not entail the usual thoughts of a supersoldier, with the goal to make complacent men super-strong and high-endurance people, but it may instead try to make a soldier a more intelligent and informed element on the battlefield, with neurological uplinks to a battlefield network for rapid communication and information relaying, and probably for communication to the unmanned systems we're putting into play today. A soldier might have a deja-vu-like feeling that "there are two guys on the other side of this wall positioned like so...", because the unmanned surveilance plane that flew by a few seconds ago just saw the guys through a window and relayed the information to all troops in the area. But, my guess is if soldiers were given strength or endurance conditioning, the emphasis would be to make the soldier more survivable rather than granting a soldier the non-essential ability to crush a man's skull with his bare hands or something dumb like that. This would mean improving the soldier's senses, endurance, and maybe physical strength in the way of tougher bone structure and blood-coagulants that stop bleeding faster. Maybe a quickened nervous system or something. Who knows. But really, adrenaline already handles alot of these problems. Soldiers have been known to not feel a bullet wound because the adrenaline inhibits their ability to feel the pain! It makes a person burn sugars faster, quickens the nervous system, speeds bloodflow and breathing, etc. In the end, the soldiers are people, remember that. Most probably would welcome some voluntary improvements, but would also smack us on the back of the head for even contemplating others. Ultimately, soldiers return to being your average joes, and whatever improvements they have had done need to be compatible with society when they come back. It's a tough situation that we're pretty much guranteed to face sometime in the next few decades, at least in my opinion. I dunno, anyone else better schooled on this to set me straight?
Scientists seek 'super-soldiers' formula January 6 2003 The Pentagon will consider using almost anything - from "go" pills to rayguns - to ensure that its frontline personnel can run and run. The Pentagon has launched a series of remarkable medical experiments to find a way to keep its soldiers and pilots awake and alert for up to five days at a time. The mission to create an "Extended Performance War Fighter", as the project is known, took on added urgency last week as the military use of amphetamine stimulants - "go pills" as they are called - was plunged into deep controversy. The defence lawyers for two American pilots who accidentally killed four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan last April said they would argue that the forcible use of the drug dexamphetamine was to blame. Majors Harry Schmidt and William Umbach are threatened with courts martial for dropping a laser-guided bomb on the Canadians near Kandahar as the pilots approached the end of a six-hour night patrol. More...
no offence but do you really believe that there is any amount of manipulation that could outdo a killer bot Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Still there might be some room for some borg soldiers.
Borg Soldiers are very slow but make up that slowness with numbers and adaptive forcefield. Their computer is very smart, smarter than Federation Computers so that they can adapt so fast! Like wise, terrorists are technologically inferior yet make up that shortfall in seer numbers that are willing to sacrifice their lives. Actually, "willing" is the wrong word, they do not have the self-will, it is controlled by their masters. In a way, they are borg like...
I dunno, I see lots of exposed hydraulics on that terminator, enough shooting at it's bound to bang up the rods or the cylninders enough to sieze stuff up. Hell, probably a couple buckets of fine-grain sand would mess that thing up a good bit! Now, if we're talking uber-futuristic, like a terminator, you could have a human with an active nanite network in the skin that could harden up and absorb the impact of a bullet, then repair the inevitable damage rapidly, that person's actually got a chance against a robot with hydraulics, even if he were fighting the thing naked! Give him a little body armor, a good gun, some kind of weapon that interferes with electronics, might have a chance. The human body's pretty sophisticated, and there's alot of room for improvement if you let the sci-fi run wild.
uber futuristic?? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! No offence but these things are becoming increasinly independant.
Genetic engineering: By 2036, soldiers are starting to be produced via genetic recombination and manipulation, for improved endurance, better hand-eye coordination, quicker responses, and improved technical training. This will be possible. Genes are beginning to be tied to characteristics, including behavioral characteristics, and the first draft of the human genome has already been sequenced. It will take decades to learn how to use this genetic information. But by 2036 it should be possible to modify the characteristics of human embryos. The breeding in Soldier would then be possible, and designers could engineer a more suitable soldier. Reflexes and reaction to stress might be improved, for instance. Some regimes might want to create soldiers with traits such as an inclination to unquestioned loyalty or reduced empathy for others. It seems unlikely any society will make that choice, however. More likely will be disease cures and simpler "improvements." A soldier with a ripped eye is described as "worthless." But biotechnology that can select people's genetic characteristics would be able to repair such damage, probably through growth of a new eye from the patient's own cells. http://www.futuristmovies.com/movies/soldier.html
Growing a new eye or a limb will not happen for a long time. But it is very possible. I was involved with a startup company many years ago that was doing research in this area using salmanders. The problem then and still is that we did not have the instrumentation to measure the cell to cell communication signals (they were in microamperes and we were picking up local radio transmission). We built a Faraday cage....still limited by instrument noise. May be someday....
Prosthetics will probably have something to do with it. They already have a lot of ways of visualising targets and so on. There's mind-control of weapons and instrumentation already. Exoskeletons aren't over the horizon, they're available now. The big one is co-ordination and control, and communications links all that together. Then there are new kinds of weapons.
That is a tough one. The GCSS-Air Force, Navy and Army is obsolete now. The new system would not be operational till 2012. The big contactors have a lot of people but short on technology. The silos do not talk to each other...
