Editor’s note: Anthony LoBaido has long-tracked the development of “super soldiers” – augmented humans featuring superhuman abilities. In this three-article series, he delves into their background, capabilities, the current research going on in China, how super soldiers might be used and countered, as well as desirable traits for super soldiers that might be found in top athletes and within the animal kingdom.
This series is an abbreviated version of a 16,000-word original white paper. Contact LoBaido to read the entire work: [email protected].
Read Part 1: “The unsettling future of enhanced warfare”
Read Part 2: “The ethics of high-tech physical augmentation”
In terms of the theoretical and practical creation of super soldiers, what are the transferable skills and natural traits found in the realm of athletics that might be considered desirable? What if the answers for a default approach free of high-tech physical augmentations, drugs / pharmacology and enhancements are already right before us – both in mankind and in nature via the animal kingdom?
Consider that Muhammad Ali is known as the greatest boxer ever. Yet he was also an excellent teacher, as his sparring partner, Larry Holmes, eventually defeated him and even landed Ali in the hospital.
The late Lyle Alzado is the only NFL player to have had a certain rule change made just for him – that you can’t attack an opposing player with your helmet – as he did to Chris Ward of the New York Jets. Alzado claimed no one on Earth could beat him up in a street fight. Was he wrong? Ali actually fought Alzado in a boxing match at Mile High Stadium in Denver. Watch it here.
Where did Lyle Alzado find his power? Steroids were a part of his strength. And sadly, this impacted his health. He made it to the NFL from tiny Yankton State. He would drink a glass of milk, eat a piece of chocolate cake and go to bed at 8 p.m. during training camp, according to Howie Long, his roommate and teammate. Watch it here in a great NFL documentary about the 1983 Super Bowl champs.
Scott Kazmir pitched four no-hitters in a row in high school. In the fifth game, he gave up a single with two outs in the seventh (last) inning. Then he pitched two more consecutive no-hitters. The New York Mets made him their first round draft choice. He had a good career. Yet he vanished from the Major Leagues – not once but twice. Kazmir returned out of nowhere to win 15 games in a single season and pitched in the All-Star Game. He performed this recovery without surgery or drugs. How? Watch Kazmir pitching here.
Ron Brown is one of our Arizona State alumni. He ran the 100 meters in the 1984 Olympics after suffering a knee injury a few days beforehand. He came in fourth, losing to Carl Lewis. Brown had beaten Lewis four times head-to-head. They won the gold medal in the 4 X 100 meter relay that same year. Lewis became the second U.S. track & field athlete to win four gold medals in the same Olympics, after Jesse Owens in 1936. (Michael Johnson, one of our Baylor alumni, also won four gold medals in a single Olympiad.)
Ron Brown did not mope or complain. He was drafted No. 44 overall in the second round of the NFL draft that year. He was a wide receiver and defensive back for the Los Angeles Rams. He was a part of the NFL Fastest Man competition vs. Darrel Green. He was voted to the NFL Pro Bowl in Honolulu, Hawaii, as a kick returner. How did he run so well in the Olympics while injured? Why didn’t he say anything about his injury – and allowed Carl Lewis to enjoy the limelight? The Men’s 100-meter dash is the premier event in the Summer Olympics. (As an aside, watch a Chinese robot break the 100-meter world record here.)
Carl Pavano was signed by the New York Yankees to become a top starting pitcher in their rotation. He was constantly injured, so much so that he was dubbed “American Idle,” perhaps the most ignominious nickname in the history of Major League Baseball. Yet he did return from his injuries to later pitch on opening day for the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. How did he make it back? (Carl Pavano was also severely injured, and could have died, when he later slipped on some ice. Read about it here.)
Curtis Pride was a talented African-American baseball player. He was also a deaf MLB player. Creators of super soldiers might wonder how Pride being deaf impacted his play on the field and his life off the field.
The late Fernando Valenzuela hailed from Agua Prieta, a tiny town in Mexico. As a left-handed pitcher, he would look up at the sky in the middle of his delivery, instead of at home plate. He struck out Reggie Jackson, Dave Winfield and George Brett (looking) in a row in an All-Star Game. He had a good fastball, a very good curveball and a terrific screwball. How was his control so excellent despite looking up at the sky while pitching? The Hollywood film “Bull Durham” claimed he was a Mayan Indian. Watch Valenzuela here.
Orlando Hernandez, “El Duque,” built a compass from a needle and a magnet in his kitchen. He sailed on a raft from Cuba toward the United States. Soon after, he made it to the New York Yankees to become an integral part of their championship dynasty. He didn’t speak English. He didn’t need scouting reports. Rather, he knew how to pitch hitters based on how they stood in the batter’s box and then took a swing.
As a right-handed pitcher, El Duque could throw overhand, three-quarters and sidearm. He threw a fastball, curve, slider and change-up. That’s 12 pitches thrown from three different slots. He saved the New York Yankees dynasty in the 1998 playoffs against the Cleveland Indians. Where did he find his courage to sail to the United States on a raft? And how did he succeed without speaking English?
Doc Ellis pitched a no-hitter while high on LSD. Watch No-No right here. In this documentary, Ellis says it was easier to pitch on LSD to “help [him] deal with the fear of failure.”
Mike Scott was one of the worst pitchers in the Major Leagues. Then Roger Craig taught him the split-finger fastball, and overnight, Scott became one of the most dominant MLB pitchers in history.
Look at Jason Williams, “White Chocolate,” with his behind the back basketball elbow pass. Take a peek at Larry Allen bench pressing 700 pounds. Allen also starred in the NFL’s Strongest Man competition.
Marathon runners have metabolic efficiency, high lactic acid thresholds and low cardiac resting rates.
The attributes listed above are impressive to say the least: speed, strength, spatial awareness and the ability to succeed while either deaf or high on drugs. If the reader has ever played sports competitively, they are aware the ability to succeed while injured and in pain is remarkable.
The animal kingdom demonstrates dolphins are smart and seem to speak. Raccoons might be as smart as dolphins. Sea Otters use tools. Panthers can see at night. A snow leopard can fall 400 feet and survive. Migratory birds feature uni-hemispheric slow-wave sleep, allowing half of their brain to rest.
Deep diving mammals feature a spleen that contracts as it floods the body with oxygen under intense hydrostatic pressure. Ants can lift 50 times their body weight – due to its exoskeleton – and DARPA is working on this diligently. Cockroaches are often linked to radiation survival lore. These biological baselines are all worthy of study for super solders.
In “Rambo II,” John Rambo reenters Vietnam without his electronic devices due to a parachute mishap.
“The Objective” features elite U.S. Special Forces operating in Afghanistan who learn their high-tech gear doesn’t function at all – just as they face-off against a terrifying enemy of almost unimaginable power.
In case of an EMP, an archetype Carrington Event, or a series of black swans, U.S. SOF and super soldiers might find themselves forced back into the John Rambo-default mode. There will always be the need to maintain an absolute baseline of tactical competency. Human instincts, trust, making friends with the locals, decentralized command and personal initiative free of technology will always remain important.
Could the above traits somehow be put into a U.S. super soldier? The answer is probably not. There is no “god-like” gene able to provide isolated traits. There are polygenic traits, where hundreds of genes coordinate. Also vital are neuromuscular adaptation, in which cognitive rewiring goes on with intense physical training, along with kinesiology and biomechanics. Biotechnology and pharmacology cannot replicate these elite traits, but they could play a part in various attempts to emulate and reproduce them.
Ron Brown might rely on Type IIx fast-glycolytic muscle fibers. The tendons are stiff and allow for a very rapid transfer of force, carried out under specific neurological rates of firing. Fast-twitch muscle fibers include ACTN3 and ACE genes. What would be required are muscle power and the delivery of oxygen.
Scott Kazmir, who threw hard for someone his size, was losing velocity on his pitches. His biomechanics required he get back to his normal hip-shoulder separation in-line with the ground reaction force upon the foot strike of his landing (right) leg. His genetics were not altered and he did not need surgery. The synthesis genes, (COL 1A1 and COL 5A1) indicate tendon and ligament elasticity and resistance to tears.
Carl Pavano required Tommy John surgery. He hurt his back and ribs. There was his famous car wreck. Yet he was big and strong at 6-foot-5 and 265 pounds. He worked hard and recovered to find new success.
Curtis Pride featured sensory and perceptual compensation for being deaf. He lacked auditory cues like the crack of the bat. Recall how Reggie Jackson famously said, “Tom Seaver is so good blind people come to the park just to hear him pitch.” Curtis Pride’s visual cortex adapted to process the motion of the ball regarding the spatial vectors of the pitches he saw while at bat. His brain likely rewired its own neural pathways in an effort to compensate for other sensory deprivations.
Top athletes don’t possess lines of computer codes (genetic codes) that can be copied and pasted into super soldiers. Ron Brown had speed. Scott Kazmir had a strong kinetic chain. Carl Pavano’s body was resilient. Curtis Pride could boast of spatial visual processing. There are thousands of subtle genetic variations that trace across the human genome – and which interact with each other simultaneously.
Pleiotropy means any one gene can impact multiple and even unrelated traits. MSTN is the myostatin inhibitor that helps to build muscle mass. Yet we want strong and flexible athletes who aren’t muscle-bound. Epigenetics decides if genes are expressed – meaning if they are turned on or off.
This could be based on your environment, (stress, stimuli) or nutrition, like if you live in a food desert. Many Americans have never eaten even a vegetable or one piece of fruit in their entire lives. Even with the “needed genes” inside the body, there is no guarantee these genes will express themselves. Besides, even if a super soldier were given Ron Brown’s genes to run fast, they’d need many hours of training to accomplish that.
DARPA cannot recreate Scott Kazmir‘s arm in a super soldier via DNA. Instead, DARPA will rely on neuro-stimulation, gene therapy that is temporary, synthesizing technology and biomechanical training.
CRISPR / Adeno-Associated Viruses can deliver gene-editing tools. The MSTN gene could be edited to increase skeletal muscle growth. Trying to raise the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor or “VEGF” to create a more dense capillary network increasing endurance is possible – as is altering the PPAR-delta to tweak muscle fiber types towards fatigue resistance.
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) and Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) could mimic what Curtis Pride did while at-bat. You could send very mild electrical currents through the motor and visual cortices, which will accelerate neuroplasticity. This could enable super soldiers to increase their ability to process visual cues and visual spatial movement.
DARPA‘s Smart Red Blood Cells or Smart-RBC helps soldiers to process lactic acid and function in environments with high altitude and low oxygen – like at the Saichen Glacier.
Should we be going down this road? In a creepy side note about a top athlete worthy of a Stephen King novel and film, Ted Williams’ head was cryogenically frozen. And the keepers of his head abused it when it became stuck to a can of tuna. Read about it here.
Final thoughts
Mankind is approaching an intersection between ancient theological frameworks, moral responsibility and classical moral philosophy on one hand, and a post-human ethos, postmodern biotechnology, neural integration and pharmacological augmentation on the other.
CRISPR gene editing is a biological divide. Biological stratification might result if only the super wealthy can afford this technology. (Is this the endgame?) Will there be universal access in the free market?
As noted, germ line editing can modify germ line cells, like the sperm, the egg or early embryo. This can alter the genetic lineage permanently. Altering the genome of a future generation means they won’t give consent. Is this then an act of coercion?
If most humans are eventually enhanced through biotechnology, what becomes of those who are not? Let us ask about personal identity, personhood and authenticity, when they are all somehow augmented by synthetic biology. Can such a person retain his or her human value given via God’s biology and Psalm 139? Instead of Flags of Our Fathers at the Battle of Iwo Jima, we could wind up with “Vials of Our Scientists.”
Classical psychological models of identity are tested by expanded perceptual capabilities and emotional states altered by biotechnology and pharmacology. Will super soldiers honor what it means to be fully human, to be finite, to experience pain, shame, remorse, grace, kindness, fatigue, fear and sacrifice for others? Are we sleepwalking into a future of transhumanism, in which the human body is no longer a sacred vessel but rather merely raw industrial material?
Most religions believe similarly about human struggle: Being mortal and vulnerable leads to empathy, refining one’s soul, and as a result, we grow morally. Is divine wisdom to be replaced by postmodern technological control?
High-risk innovations are a black hole in terms of medical ethics. If we eradicate these human frailties, what happens to that spiritual growth? Imago Dei means humans are valued through being made in the image of God – independent of utility, health, strength, being good-looking and intelligence.
Super soldiers might be valued primarily by their survivability, how high they function cognitively and how efficient they are. Yet what about their soul, mind, heart and spirit when compared against their biological performance? You can read several interesting bioethics treatises on this topic here and here.
The time has come for medical doctors, legal experts, researchers, scientists, military leaders, innovators and religious scholars to all engage in dialogue, while working together to address the issues cited above.
In a poignant Netflix version of antiquity, when the arrogant Roman military leader Glauber needs a demonstration of Spartacus’ newfound abilities honed by his elite training, he baits the owner of the gladiator school while saying, “You opened this door, lanista, and we shall pass through it.” Watch it here.
What is waiting on the other side of this unfathomable gateway, where biotechnology, pharmacology, transhumanism, Special Forces and super soldiers engage in a macabre dance with the unknown? In the film “The Objective,” a CIA liaison, “Benjamin Keynes,” (actor Jonas Ball) misleading the U.S. SOF into the sacred, forbidden mountains of Afghanistan, adroitly explains his haunting conundrum with words that resonate: “I’m willing to die for my country. But this … I don’t know if this is life or death. Maybe it’s something in between.”
Read Part 1: “The unsettling future of enhanced warfare”
Read Part 2: “The ethics of high-tech physical augmentation”
