[concept] Human Augmentation

[rhoenix]

In terms of human enhancement, given what we know today, there are ways of improving the human frame in terms of super-soldier-ishness. There are also limits on certain things.

1. Reflexes: this is mostly limited by the speed at which information is passed along the nervous system. With training and proper muscle memory, one can practice to the point where a given action or set of actions become ingrained and instinctual, being able to be performed very quickly indeed (mainly because you're not deciding what to do at each point).

However, to make things any faster than that, one runs into the speed of the nervous system itself, which is a significantly larger hurdle. There are ways of manipulating the nervous system (conceptually) to make certain things easier or more smooth, but outright increasing speed is improbable without simply replacing the nervous system entirely with a cybernetic equivalent designed with speed in mind. Since this is a rather permanent solution, it likely wouldn't be something most soldiers would have.

1a. Polished Actions
However, one can conceivably give a soldier much steadier hands, even to the point where one could snipe reasonably well while on the move. This can offer a decisive advantage all by itself. This can be supplemented by adding various drugs or biofeedback techniques (or both) to help keep the soldier in a calm state under fire.

2. Muscle & Bone augmentation
Making muscles much stronger isn't actually that hard, given that we already can make stronger fibers than human muscle today. The problem will be with the skeletal frame handling the increased stress, which pretty much require that the bones be reinforced and more dense as well to handle the increased demands. The combination of both these things suggest that a soldier augmented in such a fashion would appear bulkier and more dense than someone who is not so augmented, and probably heavier as well. The weight of a given augmented soldier would only be heavier if the bone weaving is also made to help resist kinetic forces.

The upshot to both of these things though is that a soldier would likely able to carry a more impressive combat load (and deal with the augmenting type powered armor, mentioned in the previous thread) for a longer period of time.

Given this level of technology, it would likely be quite a bit cheaper and easier to simply make a drone soldier that's stronger and more enduring than an augmented human soldier. Therefore the rank and file infantry of such a military would likely be replaced by drones, leaving the more specialized soldiering to augmented humans, who would consequently receive much greater investments in terms of training and equipment.

3. Skin/Muscle/Bone Weaving
Besides simply being able to handle much greater demands on the skeletal frame from the increased musculature, helping the soldier resist injury to those now quite expensive muscles and bones is only practical. Layering of material within (or right below) the epidermis would be designed to help ablate incoming shots and impacts; not to stop them completely, but to at least help to do so far more than ordinary skin could.

Having the muscles able to resist violent impacts & traumas, and still remain relatively intact (or simply be self-healing, as would be likely) only makes sense at this point; either to reroute muscular power around an injury through computer-assisted means, or a means of quickly repairing the damage back to full functionality - or both.

4. Cybernetic enhancements
At this level of tech, cybernetics would be necessary to help coordinate most of the enhancements of musculature and nervous system response, but would usually be more subtle than a simple mechanical arm. Using cybernetics to help a nervous system reroute muscular demands on a skeletal frame when injured, or used to enhance muscle memory for certain actions to make them smoother or more quick is more likely, especially because with all these enhancements a soldier will likely also need better monitoring. After all, it pays to keep tabs on such an expensive investment.

5. Monitoring
This could be as subtle as implanted devices used to monitor the soldier's state of health remotely, or it could be as overt as eyes & ears that also wirelessly send all images & sounds perceived back to HQ. Given the potential of most of these enhancements, which direction a given military went is more dependent on its controlling government, rather than anything else.


In conclusion, with all of this money invested, it therefore makes human ground-pounders to all be officers and specialists at once, likely coordinating drone infantry and performing precision strikes. How far one goes with this idea is pretty much up to the person in charge - it could be something as charming as every soldier getting paired with it's wise-cracking robot trooper, or with mighty humans in powered armor directing massive armies of gleaming chrome troops into battle.