French armed forces received approval from a military ethics committee to officially begin developing "augmented soldiers," according to CNN:
The report, released to the public on Tuesday, considers medical treatments, prosthetics and implants that improve "physical, cognitive, perceptive and psychological capacities," and could allow for location tracking or connectivity with weapons systems and other soldiers.
Other possible interventions considered by the armed forces ethics committee include medical treatments to prevent pain, stress and fatigue, and substances that would improve mental resilience if a soldier were taken prisoner.The committee said that France needs to maintain "operational superiority of its armed forces in a challenging strategic context" while respecting the rules governing the military, humanitarian law and the "fundamental values of our society."
As a result, it has forbidden any modification that would affect a soldier's ability to manage the use of force or affect their sense of "humanity."
You would think there would be some inherent contradiction between "managing use of force" and "basic sense of humanity" but I'm glad these French super-soldiers will at least still feel bad and suffer from PTSD like normal soldiers after slaughtering people with their robot arms.
Curiously, this news comes just days after US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal warning that China has already been messing around with cybernetic super-soldiers.
Surely the US will maintain the ethical high-ground and refuse to use the military to conduct inhumane biological experiments in order to assert their superiority! </sarcasm>
French army gets ethical go-ahead for bionic soldiers [Jack Guy / CNN]
Image via YouTube
