Abstract
Debate surrounding the use of human performance enhancement (HPE) is perhaps nowhere more fraught than in its use in the armed forces. In Transhumanizing War: Performance Enhancement and the Implications for Policy, Society, and the Soldier, an anthology edited by H. Christian Breede, Stéphanie A.H. Bélanger, and Stéfanie von Hlatky, readers are confronted with cutting-edge research on military HPE and several of the ethical challenges likely to confound private and public firms in the coming decades. This volume aims to bridge the gap between social scientific and applied scientific perspectives, reconnecting the scientific work of military research on HPE with the ethical quagmires of modifying the minds and bodies of military personnel. The anthology presents its readers with a thought-provoking hybrid of futures analysis and applied bioengineering—part imaginative exercise and part scientific review. Moreover, the volume leaves the reader with several troubling questions about the relationship between scientific advance and the future well-being of humanity.
This anthology examines how members of the scientific community aim to enhance the capability of national militaries. However, in doing so, it underscores the issue—for both military and society—of how the work of future soldiers ought to be conceptualized. Will future soldiers be engaging primarily in peacekeeping and disaster assistance or in expeditionary combat operations? Moreover, how does conceptualizing an operational environment of combat, rather than non-combat operations (such as an enhanced ability to respond to a natural or humanitarian disaster (11)) influence military investment in HPE advances? In other words, is the disproportionate emphasis placed on combat operations in HPE research preparing for the wars of tomorrow or creating them?
The first section describes current research on “soldier enhancement,” designed to optimize the efficacy of military personnel on the battlefield (9). To this end, Niall and Wiseman define the state of HPE in Canada, using bibliometric methods to trace five metagroups in the literature: ethics; computational/cognitive issues; physiological issues; human enhancement/augmentation; and automation/robotics. Their analysis reveals the wide range of areas in which scholars find the question of HPE, while revealing the intense transdisciplinarity of HPE research; it is little wonder, given Niall and Wiseman’s analysis, that the discussion around HPE has become as bifurcated as the editors lament in the introduction. In the third chapter, Annika Vergin introduces readers to HPE in the context of the German Armed Forces, reviewing a joint study from the Futures Analysis Branch of the Bundeswehr and Fraunhofer Institute for Technological Trend Analysis. Many HPE technologies, Vergin concludes, are not advanced enough for current use and, even then, are unlikely to require a paradigmatic shift in military planning and operations. Nevertheless, she warns that Western militaries must remain attuned to the unscrupulous use of these technologies by enemy forces. Like Niall and Wiseman, Vergin emphasizes the importance of enhancing the technological intelligence of researchers and decision-makers through open, informed discussion. Gérard de Boisboissel extends these perspectives to the French case through his research with the French Military Academy (Saint-Cyr). De Boisboissel presents opportunities for HPE to remedy the challenges faced by the modern infantry soldier, while demonstrating that enhancements intended to ease the burden of the individual soldier may become an affront to the collective sensibilities of the military and of society. The first section concludes with Farzana Nabi’s chapter on performance evaluation research conducted in her division at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Nabi provides the reader not only a rare glimpse of the work conducted at DARPA, but also a particularly comprehensive account of how the organization foresees the future operational environment of the armed forces.
Having introduced readers to the range of HPE research pursued by Canada and its allies, section two discusses specific technologies in greater detail. Bossi et al. examine how HPE can offset the physical burden carried by dismounted soldiers. The problem of soldiers overburdened by the weight of their weapons and supplies is not likely to be resolved through invasive technology or advanced exoskeleton systems. Instead, Bossi et al. recommend a holistic approach, emphasizing incremental advances in soldier fitness, knowledge, and technology. Exoskeleton technology is further explored by Karokolis et al., who problematize the notion that this technology is non-invasive; rather, it appears to have lasting effects on the physiology of the user. These findings suggest that robust testing is necessary for a comprehensive cost–benefit analysis. Next, Woodside-Duggins and Wakelam engage in the very practical question of how best to enhance soldiers’ ability to make “the best possible choice in a complex and chaotic environment”—something for which exoskeletons and orbital enhancements are no substitute (175). The authors advocate for an active learning approach to empower critical decision-making and better prepare the individual learner for the increasingly complex environments in which they operate. In the final chapter of this section, Bryant and Niall aim to enhance our understanding of advances in cognitive optimization, offering an intellectual framework for categorizing research ranging from nutritional supplements to more drastic pharmaceutical and neurotechnological options.
Following a comprehensive discussion of the scientific mechanisms that drive advances in HPE, section three offers two arguments premised on ethical challenges to investing in soldier enhancement. First, Farrelly explores the use of memory-altering drugs, refuting arguments that they are unnatural and therefore ought to be denied to soldiers. Farrelly offers a compelling argument for ensuring the full protection and rehabilitation of military personnel, while stressing the fundamentally unnatural nature of modern warfare and the relatively low-cost alternative of peace and diplomacy. The final substantive chapter by Mehlman provides a history of military bio-enhancement, highlighting that demands for artificially enhanced soldiers are not new. Arguing that civilian bioethics are ill-suited for the military sphere, Mehlman proposes amending the principles of just warfare to establish key ethical principles for pursuing HPE in the military.
In the vein of Farrelly’s contribution, future collaborations can and should continue to connect applied science and ethics—but not simply the individualist ethics of minimizing harm to research participants. Rather, researchers should engage with a more robust, systemic ethics that examines the military as a servant of the state and its peoples. What are the dangers inherent in sharpening the spear when we are still unsure of how it will be used? Furthermore, in what global systems of power are national militaries currently embedded? How does the relationship between capitalism and militarism drive future scientific development? This critique notwithstanding, this book will be valuable in reintroducing ethical dilemmas to the field of HPE. It should be read by a wide audience, partly because it is fascinating and partly because it serves as a prescient warning of the future weapons of modern warfare. It would be well placed as required reading in any graduate class on scientific ethics and philosophy, just as it would in courses in professional military education. Similarly, this book provides an excellent overview of present and historical HPE, and policy-makers in Canada and its allies should take the opportunity to receive a crash course on the studies underway in research organizations of NATO forces.