Cyborg Troops?

| November 29, 2019

Get Some!

Cyborg warriors?  This article forecasts this capability by 2050.  If it sounds impossible, think again.

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/11/27/cyborg-warriors-could-be-here-by-2050-dod-study-group-says/

From the article:

The team identified four capabilities as technically feasible by 2050:

– ocular enhancements to imaging, sight and situational awareness;

– restoration and programmed muscular control through an optogenetic bodysuit sensor web;

– auditory enhancement for communication and protection; and

– direct neural enhancement of the human brain for two-way data transfer.

The study group suggested that direct neural enhancements in particular could revolutionize combat. – article

Have they never heard of “keep it simple”?  And what happens when the battle is over and these “connections” have to be removed? Will these vets get stopped at airports by TSA tweeks because they’re wired for war? How much crap will the VA hand them over removing that electronic junk if they don’t want to keep it?

Instead of adding plug=ins to living humans, why not put effort into developing drones that are so intimidating, the bad guys will throw down their guns and run away? The Terminator and its subsequent models were sophisticated robots made to look semi-human, but underneath the fake skin, they were just machines, including those that could just ooze through barriers and mimic humans. “Direct neural enhancements” mean electronic implants that may or may not be removable. If the troop ends up KIA, does anyone besides me think his corpse won’t be dragged off the field by The Enemy for the Russians or Chinese to use?

I’m always in favor of advances in technology, but this smacks of too much dependence on it. If every bit of electronic junk – everything in the world – shut down for an extended period  and couldn’t be brought back online until a specific and undisclosed date, what would happen? And I mean everything, including phones of any kind, radio, TV, the net, the so-called ‘dark web’ – all of it, no exceptions.

So why not just build robots or battlebots or whatever, and leave the hoomans out of it.

Category: "Teh Stoopid", "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Disposable Warriors

21 Comments
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AW1Ed

Skynet grins.

Comm Center Rat

“My name is John Connor. All my life my mother told me the storm was coming – Judgment Day, the beginning of a war between man and machines.”

Anonymous

Can we stand it?

LC

Heh, I was just about to post this in the WOT. Makes the old NVG-capable contacts rumors seem utterly quaint.

I’m all for the use of some tech where needed, especially for specialized missions and intelligence collection, but it’s like any other tool – if you’re overly reliant on it, it’ll fuck you up the moment it stops working. Or in this case, gets hacked.

The Other Whitey

Yep. What happens when Ivan or some other bad guy with the capability to do so recognizes that an EMP can not only fuck up our high-tech stuff, but also physically cripple individual troops as well? Or let’s say they don’t want to light off a nuke (or they don’t have any to light off); maybe they just hit our forces with viruses and other malware. If this stuff is wireless, that means anyone within signal range can potentially mess with its code.

What happens when our infantry and vehicle crews are suddenly blind, deaf, and brain-damaged?

Anonymous

A lot of the basic cyborg hassle was discussed in Ghost in the Shell (and not the remake w/ Scarlett Johansson) strangely:

Sapper3307

My money and experience on the M2 tells me that troop cannot operate the charging handle.
(Darn biology)

SgtBob

I’ve seen men-type soldiers who had to use two hands. Not more than a couple or three, but still they weren’t strong enough.

5th/77th FA

We are Borg…Resistance is futile…you will be assimilated.

I gots a handle that troop can charge. Yeah I know, I’m a bad dog and I need to be punished; By her!

Skyjumper

Really Ex-PH2?…………. “Click Bait”??

Yeah, well it worked on this 71 year old grunt. (grin)

I especially like the work that has been done on exoskeletons.

Not only military applications, but also for those who are unable to walk because of leg/lower body injuries.

https://rewalk.com/robotic-exoskeletons-helping-paraplegics-walk-again/

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

If he’s not lost in space anymore, do a grease and oil change on Robby the Robot and make him the fire team leader. Danger danger danger, Wil Robinson you are in danger.

Slow Joe

Wow. The luddites are running wild today.

Technology is what it always has been and what it always will be. A double edged sword that can save you or kill you.

Advances in technology will be adopted in the battlefield because Natural Selection, the mechanism by which Technological Evolution occurs, dictates that whoever does not adopt innovation will be selected out and defeated.

If we don’t adopt a new technology, our enemies will, and they will have an advantage on us. On the Macro scale it is that simple.

David

Because new technology always wins, like the StG, the V1/V2 or the Me262.

Slow Joe

Weak analogy.
Hitler’s obsession with wunderweapons led to the misallocation of limited resources during wartime.

This is not at all our situation.
If anything, our military has been behind our strategic competitors, like with the Russian army using drones in mass offensively in Crimea, while we still use drones only for recon and HVT targetting.

Anonymous

True dat. Hitler could fuck up most anything.

David

I would say rather that limited resources constrained the obvious advantages of that now universally adopted tech. Please cite sources for saying converting to any of the items I cited constrained “normal” warfighting?
We’ll wait.

STSC(SW/SS)

Fuck It,
Just call in the United States Colonial Marines

Wireman611

What are you gonna do when the batteries run down and resupply is tomorrow?

Anonymous

On top of not being able to do work, e-mail or call anybody ’cause the Internet’s down or the batteries died, now we won’t be able to shit/pee, eat or scratch our ass without power.

Mason

Solar soldiers. It’s part of the Green New Deal.

Of course, the downside is you can’t fight at night or when it’s overcast, but some minor inconveniences are to be expected as we radically shift our economy to the state, where it rightfully belongs. I can’t wait for Bernie to fix everything. A guy who’s never had a real job is exactly who we need to sort out this mess.