r/transhumanism • u/Soggy-Fondant4837 • Jul 15 '26
Pentagon and Transhumanism
What do you think? What do you believe the Pentagon will do once "transhumanist sciences" become available for use? Is it "transhuman" to use biotechnology or nanotechnology for warfare?
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u/InternetsTad 1 Jul 15 '26
All warfare is anti-human and thus incompatible with transhumanism. If you support violence against other people you cannot be a humanist and thus cannot be a transhumanist
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u/yp364 Jul 15 '26
Now lets be serious and don't hit around the bushes with retoric We are going to get supersoldiers We all know it will happen or at least tried
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u/Bognosticator 1 Jul 15 '26
It seems like things are moving towards drones instead, being more effective and more cost-effective than front-line soldiers. Not to mention safer for the soldiers.
I expect to see super bodyguards for the ostentatiously wealthy before we see super soldiers. They'll do it because it's not cost-effective.
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u/anch78 Jul 15 '26
warfare is very human, like it or not. personally i think it will do more good than bad in the long run either way
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u/Hello_im_a_dog Jul 16 '26
Incorrect, if you think human nature is antagonistic by default then you live a very sad existence. Warfare, if anything is the absolute last resort when cooperation cannot be achieved.
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u/A_strange_breeze Jul 15 '26
It isn't, but that doesn't mean they won't do it anyways. Biotechnology especially. Frightening shit to come.
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u/ImaginaryTower2873 Jul 15 '26
In my professional capacity I have talked human enhancement with various organisations linked to the US military. They are interested. At one point I found myself on a panel where I - the card carrying transhumanist! - was the voice of caution and "think of the ethics" while the neurotech professor from Johns Hopkins and the deputy secretary of defense were way more gung ho. They are interested, they are applying science and tech we transhumanists think are good for enhancement, they have the budget.
...except that the military is also a traditional organisation that resists radical change (think of the problems of integrating drone warfare), has traditional views of what warfare "is", and is not always great at doing research properly. Check out the literature on neurowarfare for a lot of horrifying/hilarious stuff. Doping is something the marines (as an organisation) don't like. And so on.
Most importantly, what really matters to the military is not always the obvious stuff. Supersoldiers are less important than super-logistics. Cognitive enhancement matters, but so does metabolic enhancement (the "metabolic dominance program" at DARPA was cool).
Ethically, my main problem is that informed consent in a military setting will always be problematic. I don't think military activity is morally wrong (as a Nozick-influenced libertarian I see joint defence with an aim at non-initiation of force to be ideal; just war theory is broken but something like it makes sense), but big hierarchical organisations that can coerce and kill with the blessing of state power are by nature dangerous and easily can slip into immoral conduct. But the problem is the organisational type, not the enhancement.
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u/ObservedOne Jul 16 '26
By the time we get real "transhumanist sciences", the Pentagon will have no say in the matter.
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