BIOTECHNOLOGY AND POLITICS
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SUPER SOLDIERS
THE INEVITABLE BIO-TECH ARMS RACE OF THE NEAR FUTURE
EDITOR'S NOTE: We want to make it clear that we are not opposed to research in biotechnology. Nor do we we in any way endorse the creation of biotech super soldiers. We do not have specific opinions on the details of these subjects. The very important point of this article is to create a cold blooded analysis of what we see as inevitable. Technology has no morality. It never has. In we are to survive what is coming, fairy tale assumptions must be destroyed, and creative thinking must begin about the grim events that are up ahead. Life is a challenge. We can survive if we face reality.
The human biotechnology revolution is here today. It is no longer theory, and the pace of science is certain to create the power to manipulate the human genetic code to create "designer people". This will have direct military implications. What army would not want people who don't get sick from most diseases or who had far greater brain power?
In the west leaders tell us that they would never go so far as to change the structure of human life because of their concern for "human rights". We do not believe them. We believe that change is coming no matter what happens, which is why we wrote this article.
Since September 11, 2001 the western democracies have made it very clear that they are quite willing to betray almost every principle of "human rights" that they claim to believe in. Under George Bush the American government openly endorsed the use of torture to gain its security goals. Not even Stalin or Hitler went to so far as to publicly endorse a horror that had been banned in the west as a result of the so-called "Enlightenment" of western democratic values. Obama was supposed to be different. In a way he was. He carried the legal revolution towards totalitarianism far beyond Bush. He claimed the right to murder anybody anywhere on the planet. He claimed the right to imprison anybody in the US without trial if he considered them to be a "national security threat". The Snowden revelations have revealed that Obama has created something that truly puts George Orwell's 1984 to shame, a system to monitor every phone in America as well as all electronic communications. This makes Hitler and Stalin look like rank amateurs when it comes to the power of totalitarian control. (However, it would not be fair so suggest that we have totalitarianism in America today even though the trend is clearly in that direction.)
As the world situation goes downhill, there is every reason to believe that western leaders are certain to do what they have sworn not to do since the revelations about Hitler's plans to reengineer the human future via genetic breeding of a master race.
What will be different, as in the case of totalitarianism in today's west, is the scale of what is coming. People like Hitler and Himmler would have to be considered very small time operators compared to the genetic revolution in the human condition that biotechnology already has the power to introduce. Hitler and Himmler had no ability to manipulate the actual DNA code. Much to Himmler's frustration he had to look out hundreds of years to see the potential of his plans. Today, "designer babies" are a scientific reality as is the potential to clone people.
Why will all this happen? Very simple, the pursuit of power, an idea as old as history. If one nation is building super soldiers, will the others not copy this? Indeed, the grim nature of what's coming will drive all this forward.
In the future that is coming, there is going to be a ruthless sorting out of the "haves" and "have-nots." That's already going on right now in terms of non-human life, where a staggering half of the planet's wildlife has been exterminated since the 1970s. The wholesale destruction of nonhuman life is a breathtaking holocaust of truly horrendous dimensions. Scientists are calling today's era a sixth major mass extinction. Indeed we are living in the middle of the greatest wave of mass murder of other species of life since the Permian extinction 250 million years ago.
Now this has consequences for the human situation, because human beings depend upon other life forms to live. Environmental issues are going to start becoming matters of civil unrest and international war. Military analysis institutions, such as the American CIA, are already studying the prospect of wars over water. As the climate change gets worse, and as aquifers are pumped out, and ill-conceived dams continue to be built, this is going to become an increasingly volatile situation.
Even the most elemental analysis of the future watch data shows the probability - and today it's really the inevitability - of a very large death toll... in the billions. We're talking about death tolls similar to that of the 30 years war, or the Mongol invasion of China, or the Black Death (which was about 30 percent of the population or more).
The people who will die are not going to depart from this world voluntarily or peacefully. There will be a ruthless sorting out of who lives and who dies, much like the choice of who gets to board the lifeboat of a sinking ship when there isn't enough room for everybody.
Will this be done purely on the basis of money? That is doubtful. In the struggle for power, in the chaos that emerges, there will be a need for biological super soldiers. The manipulation of human genes will be necessary to create warriors who can survive in the harsh conditions to come, as well as in devising a way to gain victory in war and to enforce order amidst chaos.
The manipulation of the human genome is the next big technological wave of the future. China is already conducting research on this matter right now. It already has a major secret eugenics program. Others will likely follow. More information about what is to come follows:
AMERICAN LEADERS WILL GO FORWARD WITH CONTROVERSIAL GENETIC RESEARCH
AMIDST CLAIMS OF "NOT WANTING TO DO IT"
Western political leaders are going to do what they've sworn they would never do, they will eventually use biotechnology to change the human genetic code, and to manipulate the human genome for the production of super soldiers. In the near term this is going to be, shall we say, a messy process. They're going to produce an awful number of freaks, monsters and God knows what. So this isn't going to be pretty, like a good part of world history. But this will lead to a possible mass production of genetic super soldiers, and a kind of incarnation of Aldus Huxley's Brave New World, but on a much more ruthless and much more sophisticated scale. There will also be the cloning of people, perhaps, major figures in history.
Is there a "moral line" that Western leaders won't cross in terms of genetic experimentation on human beings? That's what they would like people to believe, that there are certain things that they would just "never do" because of some idea of human rights ideas.
Yet we are talking about the same American leaders who murdered 1 million people in Iraq. We're talking about "liberals" such as Madeleine Albright, who said that killing 500,000 Iraqi children in Iraq was "worth it." Look back at the history of America. Did they hesitate to use the atom bomb in World War II or chemical warfare in Vietnam? No. And they won't hesitate to jump into the new arena of biotechnology warfare either. What will happen instead is that a major disaster will be used as grounds for the development and deployment of biotechnological weapons. The people in charge will claim, "We don't want it, but we have to do it." And then we will see human beings developed into the weaponry of the future.
As noted, we've already seen America betray much of what it claims to believe in after 9/11. Political leaders have justified the use of torture, imprisonment without trial, the phone tapping of millions, and the power of the president to assassinate people around the globe in a drone war that knows no international limits or boundaries.
So the beginning of the biotechnological arms race will come a lot sooner to the West than many people believe. Think about it. What if you can produce a person that's two or three times smarter than the average person, or two to three times stronger? Do you think governments won't do it if it helps them gain power?
THE BIOTECH REVOLUTION IN TODAY'S CHINA
The development of super humans is no longer science fiction. It is a major industry in China. The full scope of China's eugenics plans are not public. China, after all, is a totalitarian state that killed ten of millions of its own people to remain in power.
China has one of the fastest growing biotechnology sectors in the world. The key national biotech body in the country is the China National Center for Biotechnology Development. Today in China, the field of biotechnology is a billion dollar industry.
China is also now home to the world's largest genetic research center - BGI Shenzhen. BGI-Shenzhen currently employs more than 4,000 researchers. It has far more "next-generation" DNA sequencers than anywhere else in the world, and is sequencing more than 50,000 genomes per year. In China, scientists are busy at work trying to figure out which genes control intelligence, and how parents can rig the genetic lottery.
At BGI Shenzhen, scientists have collected DNA samples from 2,000 of the world’s smartest people and are sequencing their entire genomes in an attempt to identify the alleles which determine human intelligence (an allele is a variant of a gene).
Yet such technology would not only be utilized to select genes oriented towards intelligence, it could also be mobilized to select other traits, like strength, speed, health, hair color, eye color and even impulse control. It is also said that it may be possible to isolate genetic factors of personality, such as how conservative, liberal, religious or non-religious a person may turn out.
THE CREATION OF SUPER SOLDIERS
GENETIC MANIPULATION AS A WEAPON OF WARFARE
So developments in genetic research will be especially valuable in the creation of super soldiers. If this technology is successful, the soldiers of tomorrow could be capable of super human feats. We're talking about mutant combatants with regenerating limbs, faster reaction times, improved unit cohesion, a lowered need for sleep, and resistance to chemical, nuclear and biological warfare.
Once again, such ideas sound like science fiction. Yet experiments done on mice have revealed how human muscle tissue can be genetically enhanced. Such an application in human beings would be a formidable weapon for any military.
Already the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, The Pentagon, have begun research into human transgenics. As of now, DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) has a functioning exoskeleton that enables soldiers to run faster and handle heavy weights (biotech articles).
Is China Using CRISPR to Create Super Soldiers? (Bio Space, 12-4-20)
Has China discovered a super-soldier formula through the capabilities of genetic engineering? The Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, states this is exactly what is happening. In an NBC report, he outlines his belief that China is the greatest threat to the U.S. in terms of military and economic power.
Ratcliffe’s concerns build on theories raised in 2019 about China’s capabilities with CRISPR, particularly after Chinese researcher He Jiankui used CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to alter the DNA of embryos for seven couples in 2018.
Check out the BioSpace article above to learn more.
China Is Creating a New Master Race (Gatestone Institute, 2-10-21)
"U.S. intelligence shows that China has conducted human testing on members of the People's Liberation Army in hope of developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities," wrote then Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, in a December 3 Wall Street Journal op-ed titled "China Is National Security Threat No. 1."
All these Chinese moves are meant to obtain "biological dominance." "There are," as Ratcliffe noted, "no ethical boundaries to Beijing's pursuit of power."
So what are other countries doing about their own super soldier programs? It is hard to tell because much of this information is classified. “Other countries are also interested in these areas but are not so open as the U.S. about what they are doing, so it is difficult to know exactly what is going on in many cases,” notes Rod Flower, a professor at the William Harvey Research Institute in the U.K. and the chair of the Royal Society’s biomods study.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS
Not only will there be experimentation on creating super humans, but there will also be a further development of ways to attack the human immune system and genome. The ability to alter genes can be both an asset and a threat. On the upside, genetic modification could establish peace by making populations live longer, need less food, and genuinely enhance the quality of life. Yet a researcher named Andrew Herr points out the downside. He states that breaking down genes is easier than fixing them.
His argument is the following:
"In one dire scenario, an army might attack its enemies by changing their physiology to make them dumber, slower and more afraid. In The Atlantic recently, two researchers even discussed the possibility of governments or terror groups genetically assassinating enemy leaders by tailoring cancers specifically to the target’s DNA. The authors pointed out that the U.S. State Department already surreptitiously collects DNA samples from foreign dignitaries (Wired)."
The nation with the ability to wield such technology will truly have a competitive edge on the world stage.
THINKING CREATIVELY ABOUT SUPER SOLDIERS IN THE VIOLENT WORLD TO COME
This is a matter that we need to think creatively about, because there's going to be very tough decisions made in the future about who lives and who dies. When the environmental underpinnings of the global house of cards collapse, there's going to be a lot more frank talk about who's going to be around and who isn't. For a good part of the people on this planet, the great high-tech world order, it's going to be like a video game screen flashing of a bright red "Game Over" for them. So they probably are not going to take that very kindly, and that's why there's going to be a lot of violence. And that will further fuel the whole need for the biological super soldiers to restore order.
Civilizations throughout history have always taken controversial measures to protect their own people and to improve their own stock by whatever means possible. Some civilizations were a bit more controversial than others (such as the Spartans for example), but this has been a norm of human history. That's not going to change now.
So it is important to study this matter further and to think about how it will be implemented in the violent world coming.
RELEVANT LINKS
CHINA'S GENETICS PROGRAM - OFFICIAL WEBSITES
Is China Using CRISPR to Create Super Soldiers? (Bio Space, 12-4-20)
Has China discovered a super-soldier formula through the capabilities of genetic
engineering?
The Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, states this is exactly
what is happening.
In an NBC
report, he outlines his belief.
Check out the BioSpace article above to learn more.
Beijing Genomics Institute - The World's Largest Genome sequencing center
China National Center for Biotechnology Development
Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Companies in China
REPORTS
Development of Biotechnology Industry and It’s Impacts in China (OECD)
KEY ARTICLES ON MODERN BIO-TECHNOLOGY
Gene Alternation
Gene-Doping and the Birth of the Super-Operator (Sofrep, 12-13-13)
Chinese project probes the genetics of genius (Nature, 5-14-13)
China Is Engineering Genius Babies (VICE, 3-15-13)
Super Soldiers
Superhumans - Genetically Modified Humans (Biotech Articles, 3-29-13)
The U.S. may lag behind Russia and China in Biomodification for Supersoldiers (Next Big Future, 3-6-13)
This Scientist Wants Tomorrow’s Troops to Be Mutant-Powered (Wired, 12-26-12)
The End of Aging
Scientists reverse ageing process in mice; early human trials showing 'promising results' (ABC, 4-11-14)
General
East Asia is More “Transhumanist” than the USA & Europe (Brighter Brains, 8-8-13)
AMERICAN TOTALITARIANISM