France joins China, Israel, Denmark and the US in Super Soldiers arms race

[Steve-o]

The French Military’s ethics committee has just approved research into the enhancement of soldiers. The committee released a report last week on December 8, stating that the Armed Forces of France may develop technological augmentations in order to preserve the French Military’s ‘operational superiority’ by improving the physical, cognitive, perceptive and psychological capacities of its soldiers.

The report goes on to say that the French Military is also allowed to develop “medical treatments to prevent pain, stress and fatigue, and substances that would improve mental resilience if a soldier were taken prisoner”, opening the door for the use of Performance Enhancement Drugs and nootropics by French soldiers.

Four days before the report had been made public, the French Minister of Defense Florence Parly had mentioned some of the committee’s conclusions in a televised broadcast. [You can watch Florence Parly’s full broadcast in the video below this article]

In the broadcast, Parly remarks that the ‘augmented soldier’ has been around for a long time – whether equipped with night vision goggles or exoskeleton body armor. What the military’s ethics committee is interested in, according to Parly, is the more sophisticated body-invasive augmentations that involve crossing the ‘body barrier’ so as to increase one’s physical, cognitive and psychological capabilities.

Defense Minister Parly indirectly referenced Elon Musk and Neuralink‘s brain implant as one of these body-invasive augmentations of interest, stating:

“In the civilian world, many are working at an American startup founded by a well-known entrepreneur, hoping to enhance cognitive capabilities through tiny electrodes implanted in the brain.”

According to Parly, although the French military’s ethics committee is interested in body-invasive augmentations and has allowed research into such tech, the French Military will always prefer wearabes over body-invasive tech.

Parly revealed some of the wearable tech augmentations that France has already developed, one being a wearable radar system that allows soldiers to detect any presence behind walls, and the other one being belts that soldiers can use to communicate remotely with each other in the dark or in noisy environments.

Parly however stated that the French Military has no interest whatsoever in genetically enhancing its soldiers and gene-editing is completely off limits. In conclusion, the French Military has developed battlefield wearables, will research implantables, bionic prosthetics and other body invasive augmentations, but forbids human gene-editing.

“We say yes to Iron Man’s armor and no to the augmentation and genetic mutation of Spider-Man!” says Florence Parly.

The French Defense Minister concluded by saying that the recommendations of the French Military’s ethics committee are not set in stone and will continually be reassessed according to future developments.

Such ‘future developments’ will depend on the evolution of technology and the norms of French society. Brigadier General Nicolas Le Pen of the French Army and a member of the ethics committee behind the Super Soldiers report, says that eventually, French society would determine the level of transhumanism that is acceptable for French soldiers.

France is the newest entrant in the race to turn its soldiers into cyborgs. The United States through DARPA has made public some of its cyborg and bionic projects; from synthetic telepathy to exoskeletons to bionic limbs. Israel and Denmark have also been conducting intense research into cybernetic enhancements, and both countries ran a collaborative program for years, seeking to augment their soldiers with AI-powered brain implants.

With France categorically opposed to genetic enhancements for its soldiers, the arms race for gene-edited Super Soldiers is for now a dog fight between the US and China – as both countries continue pouring money into their respective Genetic Enhancement programs. According to Eben Kirksey, anthropologist and author of The Mutant Project, the US has been quietly running a $100 million dollar program to bring genetic enhancements to the battlefield. This has however not stopped the US from hypocritically raising alarm about China’s Genetic Enhancement program.

The current US intelligence chief John Ratcliffe wrote in the Wall Street Journal two weeks ago that China is conducting tests on its soldiers so as to ‘biologically enhance’ them.

“US intelligence shows that China has even conducted human testing on members of the People’s Liberation Army in hope of developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities,” Ratcliffe wrote.

Ratcliffe went on Fox News a few days later and told Tucker Carlson that China is doing these enhancements through gene-editing, with the aim of making its soldiers stronger and more powerful.

[Captainlove]

This reminds me of one of my favourate games Return to castle wolfenstien. With Nazis Super soldat, and many weird experiments.

21 hours ago, Steve-o said:

The French Military’s ethics committee has just approved research into the enhancement of soldiers. The committee released a report last week on December 8, stating that the Armed Forces of France may develop technological augmentations in order to preserve the French Military’s ‘operational superiority’ by improving the physical, cognitive, perceptive and psychological capacities of its soldiers.

The report goes on to say that the French Military is also allowed to develop “medical treatments to prevent pain, stress and fatigue, and substances that would improve mental resilience if a soldier were taken prisoner”, opening the door for the use of Performance Enhancement Drugs and nootropics by French soldiers.

Four days before the report had been made public, the French Minister of Defense Florence Parly had mentioned some of the committee’s conclusions in a televised broadcast. [You can watch Florence Parly’s full broadcast in the video below this article]

In the broadcast, Parly remarks that the ‘augmented soldier’ has been around for a long time – whether equipped with night vision goggles or exoskeleton body armor. What the military’s ethics committee is interested in, according to Parly, is the more sophisticated body-invasive augmentations that involve crossing the ‘body barrier’ so as to increase one’s physical, cognitive and psychological capabilities.

Defense Minister Parly indirectly referenced Elon Musk and Neuralink‘s brain implant as one of these body-invasive augmentations of interest, stating:

“In the civilian world, many are working at an American startup founded by a well-known entrepreneur, hoping to enhance cognitive capabilities through tiny electrodes implanted in the brain.”

According to Parly, although the French military’s ethics committee is interested in body-invasive augmentations and has allowed research into such tech, the French Military will always prefer wearabes over body-invasive tech.

Parly revealed some of the wearable tech augmentations that France has already developed, one being a wearable radar system that allows soldiers to detect any presence behind walls, and the other one being belts that soldiers can use to communicate remotely with each other in the dark or in noisy environments.

Parly however stated that the French Military has no interest whatsoever in genetically enhancing its soldiers and gene-editing is completely off limits. In conclusion, the French Military has developed battlefield wearables, will research implantables, bionic prosthetics and other body invasive augmentations, but forbids human gene-editing.

“We say yes to Iron Man’s armor and no to the augmentation and genetic mutation of Spider-Man!” says Florence Parly.

The French Defense Minister concluded by saying that the recommendations of the French Military’s ethics committee are not set in stone and will continually be reassessed according to future developments.

Such ‘future developments’ will depend on the evolution of technology and the norms of French society. Brigadier General Nicolas Le Pen of the French Army and a member of the ethics committee behind the Super Soldiers report, says that eventually, French society would determine the level of transhumanism that is acceptable for French soldiers.

France is the newest entrant in the race to turn its soldiers into cyborgs. The United States through DARPA has made public some of its cyborg and bionic projects; from synthetic telepathy to exoskeletons to bionic limbs. Israel and Denmark have also been conducting intense research into cybernetic enhancements, and both countries ran a collaborative program for years, seeking to augment their soldiers with AI-powered brain implants.

With France categorically opposed to genetic enhancements for its soldiers, the arms race for gene-edited Super Soldiers is for now a dog fight between the US and China – as both countries continue pouring money into their respective Genetic Enhancement programs. According to Eben Kirksey, anthropologist and author of The Mutant Project, the US has been quietly running a $100 million dollar program to bring genetic enhancements to the battlefield. This has however not stopped the US from hypocritically raising alarm about China’s Genetic Enhancement program.

The current US intelligence chief John Ratcliffe wrote in the Wall Street Journal two weeks ago that China is conducting tests on its soldiers so as to ‘biologically enhance’ them.

“US intelligence shows that China has even conducted human testing on members of the People’s Liberation Army in hope of developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities,” Ratcliffe wrote.

Ratcliffe went on Fox News a few days later and told Tucker Carlson that China is doing these enhancements through gene-editing, with the aim of making its soldiers stronger and more powerful.

 

[Itsjaybigjay]

3 hours ago, Captainlove said:

This reminds me of one of my favourate games Return to castle wolfenstien. With Nazis Super soldat, and many weird experiments.

 

lets just hope they aren't trying to build a mecha-hilter that dude was a bastard to kill!!