THE TRANSHUMANIST SCRAPBOOK: THE TRANSHUMANIST PENTAGRAM… ...
A few days ago I blogged about a new breakthrough in cryogenic freezing techniques, and, if you're a regular reader here, I've also blogged about stories over the years about the Pentagon and DARPA(that would be the Diabolically Apocalytic Research Projects Agency, which again, we thank Mr. J.B. for decoding the meaning of the agency for us) wanting to "transhumanize" the US military with robots, cyborg technologies such as computer-brain impants, exoskeletons, and even studying dolphins so that they could apply their sleeping techniques to humans, allowing the creation of an effectively "sleepless soldier". Well, now, good news ladies and gentlemen of the military, now they are offering to freeze your sperm and eggs, according to this story from RT, shared by Mr. C.G.:
Cryo incentive: Pentagon offers to freeze troops’ sperm and eggs
Now, for the moment of course this is an offer to soldiers, and of course, it's all being cloaking in language to make it seem that the government is looking out for you:
The US military is developing a pilot program that would allow its members to put off parenthood by freezing their sperm or eggs. The Pentagon hopes the odd form of family insurance will help attract – and keep – more soldiers, both male and female.Troops may be more willing to put themselves in harm’s way if there is a “backup” for their ability to father or bear children in case of a catastrophic injury – such as those inflicted by mines and improvised explosives on hundreds of US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan – the generals appear to believe.
“We can help our men and women preserve their ability to start a family, even if they suffer certain combat injuries,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said last week, announcing the plan alongside the military’s other new family-friendly policies. “That’s why we will cover the cost of freezing sperm or eggs through a pilot program for active-duty service members.”
Now, color me intensely skeptical if you wish, but I cannot help but think that there's another agenda here, and looking out for people in the military isn't it. What such a program will require, perforce, is the creation of huge storage facilities, and additionally, yet another government DNA database.
And color me intensely skeptical again, but in a run-amok government that wants to screen people for depression before they are allowed to own a gun, that wants to monitor whether or not one uses gender neutral pronouns or not, and which thinks magic bullets exist that ... well, you know that story, I don't see that there's anything preventing it from using this vast DNA stockpile to experiment on the development of powerful genetic weapons. Gee, it's the Pentagram afterall, and that's what they do.
And let's go a step further: this would be a wonderful way to covertly modify all that sperm and egg-bank, and introduce modifications into the population that they want to see. And there, it's pretty much up to your imagination to see all the things that could be done.
See you on the flip side...
(My thanks to Mr. C.G. for pointing out this story)
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Nathan my reply is under moderation,
aka anti-empire.
I’d like to go to the higher-octane end of the speculation about the government’s true agenda. With access to mucho sperm and eggs, it is possible to conduct long-term breeding programs. Not with the rapidity of genetic modification, but much more likely to produce viable embryos. (Split the embryonic cells after a division or two, if you need more ‘twins’.)
Robert Heinlein had a long-term ‘breeding’ program via Lazarus Long. Larry Niven had a long-term ‘breeding’ program via the Puppeteers. E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith had a long-term ‘breeding’ program via the Arisians. Probably more…
Each of these programs bred for ‘traits’ that were not just faster reaction time, strength, or such. The Arisians bred for psychic traits and access to higher realms (where their enemy was). The Puppeteers bred a human strain for Luck. They didn’t know what it was, but they made sure lucky individuals ‘got together’. (Also good in battle!) Lazarus Long’s group bred for longevity. Wouldn’t you want a sergeant with a hundred years of battle experience leading your patrol?
DARPA may not just be doing mundane things with their new ‘bonanza’…
This E.E Doc Smith sounds interesting
Guyrr, I was just itching to use this version of parallel in the right context.
Happy to see you appreciated that line.
Guyrr
Somehow that reply button parallelized up on me.
[check below, about 7 down/11 across]
I am afraid this brings darker thoughts to my mind such as The Twilight Zone’s Episode No. 89: ‘To Serve Man’.
I do admit that this “humanitarian” plan would be a brilliant way to create a separate herd of ‘cattle’ upon which to experiment and otherwise ‘consume’.
Pellevoisin
That was my favorite episode.
The Mighty Casey Twilight Zone episode
symbolizes the antonym of DARPA’s objectives.
When I was in the Navy in the mid-80’s I was shown a report from an electronic warfare specialist that discussed the Soviet’s use of steroids to create “super” soldiers. Remembering the 12 vaccines of unspecified biological / chemical agents I was injected with at the beginning of boot camps as well as having read the history of MK-Ultra and the numerous bio-terror labs that the USSA currently runs, I have no doubt that the “high-octane” speculations above are just the tip of the iceberg.
Oh yes, this is perfectly above board. Nothing to worry about, Big Government has your best interests at heart, as always.
Brave New Soldier, it is your patriotic duty to give the Pentagram your sperm/eggs so that they may pass them on to DARPA, who will use them to breed an army of transhumanist super-soldier-cyborgs — like supposedly was being being done under Dulce AZ by the greys in those fabled vats revealed in comic-book disinfo from another age that, looking back, seems so innocent today.
Sorry! NM, not AZ.
The fine print[microscopic, to be sure] probably guarantees at least 50% to 90% of the soldier’s DNA will be his or hers. There might be a few augmented special add-ons – all the better to serve society, of course. There might even be a later cyborg adjustment or two. Of course, chips by the score. But keeping score need not be your concern, as cannon fodder.
The devil is in the fine print[microscopic changes running parallelized with your DNA].
I like the last line
A bit off topic but may address some issues Robert Barriklow and possibly others have noticed about disappearing posts.
I’ve noticed that posts with Dr. Farrell’s name in them and possibly posts with religious implications (not so sure about these) typically get you the “awaiting moderation” notation (understandable) and do not show up unless you’re logged in. My post above falls in this category.
If the posts do not show up even if you’re logged in, then it’s another issue entirely and would need to be addressed by the web guy.
Anyone else notice this?
My post below I should have said.
WalkingDead,
There is a bittersweet irony that in liberating computers and games from the Pentagon – deterritorializing from the realms of nuclear death, hackers inadvertently set the stage for their reterritorialization by capital in pure commercial form.
A cognizant/knowledge form of capital that is obsessed by intellectual property, so much so – that observe its tell-tale signs of collateral damage; ironically by not seeing our post[except by our own sign-in(sometimes)].
At least, this is an excellent cover for actual censorship of thoughts/ideas they don’t want shown. Or, to at least, disrupt the free-flow of information. Sometimes by days. A day late, and too many ideas in free-flow exchange, lost to timed interruptions.
With the high number of shills and trolls out there (a percentage of them paid, intelligence assets) I can understand why site owners would moderate posts with certain trigger words in them. So far, the good doctor has kept this kind of thing off his site or to a minimum, for the most part, and that is one of the reasons I prefer this site over others similar to it. There is a much higher quality to the commenters here than elsewhere.
Again, the incentives are financial; as in financialized sciences. Fashioned to benefit capital, not society as a whole. The internet is likewise commercialized; so the good doctor is pestered, not by the vampire squids themselves, but their paid blood-sucking minions – some of which are bots fighting other bots. Yet, this has become the culture in which we live; measured, subjected to and quartered – according to market designs/needs. Markets absolutely controlled, despite the propaganda of free markets and other paid for advertisements of neoliberal dogma.
Yes, WalkingDead, despite the parameters in which we find ourselves, this site is one of the best.
It’s all buisness folks , that’s why I don’t think we will ever see a nuclear war , like Zappa said its bad for buisness
Nathan,
Capital is like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, conjuring up forces it cannot fully control. The Peoples’ subjectivity is not only technically astute and culturally creative but also potentially subversive because its skills, aptitudes, and desires exceed the uses to which Empire tries to confine them.
The Empire’s subjects refuse to submit to its bottom/line logic. The People are the social force that is at once the motor and the antagonist, the engine and the enemy of Empire.
Nathan my reply to comment is under moderation, aka anti-empire.
It’d be interesting to see if there are epigenetic effects of combat on sperm or eggs, especially to see if they are non local and effect reproductive cells harvested pre combat. Granted I wouldn’t trust the pentagram with one of my prized baby makers. The doctor Walter Bishop experiment would be the creation of genetic voodoo dolls to control soldiers, they’re probably kicking that one around as well.
The Clone soldiers of the republic or Stormtroopers from Star Wars. Or the super soldiers of the Third Reich anyone nice cover our for oligarchs perfect protectors from their victims wrath.
Just my thought!
I do definitely agree, Clone Wars with chip implants..
Good point Unclejed. Sperm banks, generic seed banks, and one wonders if there might not be somewhere an animal bank of some kind covertly in place. If you wanted to jump start a colony somewhere in space, this would be one way of doing so. This same meme has appeared in science fiction novels and movies.
Dr. Farrell also makes a good point. I wouldn’t put anything past these people. Tinkering with the genetics of God’s creation has proven to be world ending in the past, if ancient texts are to be believed; whether its the “one true God” or the “gods” of antiquity, as neither one approved of the alteration of the “standard model”.
There has been evidence unearthed by both archeologists and regular people in the past, even up to the present date, of “giant” human remains, some with 6 digits on their hands and feet; with some having double rows of teeth in varying sizes up to 36′. Ancient texts speak of them up to 1500 ells tall, possibly the source of the Titan myths. Ancient oral traditions speak of them also; and none of them speak of them kindly.
Tampering with a code you do not fully understand will always lead to undesirable side effects (whether you are fallen Angels or offworld geneticists) and once released into the wild can never be brought under control. The genetic code of even the simplest organism is far more complicated than any computer code.
The sheer hubris of these “scientists” where this is concerned is beyond belief and no good can come from any of it. So far, their track record in these alterations has been an abysmal failure.
Giants before the deluge , the Western native Americans have a legend where they trapped a race of red haired giants that used to eat men in a cave , sealed them up and used smoke to kill them. Tell me who’s job is it to distinguish myth from history?
Or … maybe they’re building an ARK ???
Or a replicable “cloned” Army. Of course I am sure with the DNA sequencing available to them it will, shall we say, be of racially “pure” stock?