TECH TRENDS
Devol Nath
The defence industry, world over, is seeing massive developments. Even though much of the information we receive from such players are generally decades old, the innovations still amaze us. However, there are some reports which should be read with a pinch of salt. Take for instance the case of the Russian defence works.
According to an official Defence Ministry magazine, the Russians have come up with some kind of ‘Supersoldiers’, who are able to use “parapsychology” techniques to crash enemy computers! If that’s not enough, such soldiers can access the minds of foreign soldiers, and even read documents inside locked safes. They say they gained such abilities from telepathic dolphins they can now communicate with!
The report indeed sounds farfetched, but it does raise questions about the ambitions of Russia’s military. Done in total Russian kind of secrecy, none can be too sure though.
The report refers to certain “super power techniques”, such as ‘metacontact’ and ‘parapsychology’, which the Russians discovered by studying telepathic dolphins.
“With effort, you can, for example, shoot down computer programs, burn crystals in generators, eavesdrop on a conversation, or break television and radio programmes and communications,” the report added.
The soldiers are surely in need of some upgrades.
Meanwhile, the French military has started exploratory work on the development of bionic supersoldiers, which officials describe as a necessary part of keeping pace with the rest of the world. A French military ethics committee’s recent clearance, thus, balances the moral implications of augmenting and altering humanity with the desire to innovate and enhance the military’s capabilities. The French have joined the US, Russia, and China, which too are attempting to give their soldiers high-tech upgrades.
The French ethics committee concluded that developing supersoldiers inevitably introduces difficult philosophical and moral questions, but that France must keep pace because other countries are chasing the same tech. At the same time, the French government laid out some ground rules, like forbidding genetic or eugenic approaches. French Defence Minister Florence Parly was recently quoted as saying: “Not everyone shares our scruples and we must be prepared for whatever the future holds.”
However, apart from these ethical considerations, it seems that the concept of the supersoldier is fair game in France, may it be neural implants to enhance soldiers’ cognitive abilities or other kinds of tech that make them stronger.
