The first mouse cyborg is American, and she can see in the dark. In 2019, a team from the University of Arizona announced that it injected nanoparticles into the eyes of several rodents that “convert” infrared (invisible) light into visible green light.
Attached to the photoreceptor cells of the eyes, these nanoparticles allowed the mice to see in the dark while maintaining their usual vision. Next step: the development of organic nanoparticles compatible with the physiology of the human eye.
This impressive innovation perfectly illustrates the type of research currently carried out by laboratories in the service of the armed forces. In recent decades, they have developed equipment that seems straight out of Hollywood blockbusters: vibrating belts to communicate silently, system of vision through walls, exoskeletons, trellises capable of treating injuries, etc. However, in the midst of this technological debauchery, a weak point remains: the human being, too fragile and too slow. The objective is therefore to stimulate the physical and cognitive faculties of the fighter.
There is nothing really new here. This quest began on a large scale at the start of the Second World War. Germany administered pervitine, or “Göring’s pill”, to its pilots and tankers. It boosted their vigilance and their resistance, and made them forget hunger and sleep. As for the Americans and the English, they distributed handfuls of small tablets of benzedrine, a homemade amphetamine. Today, for long missions in the field, American soldiers can still obtain stimulating “go-pills” with medical endorsement. If the French army claims for its part to give only caffeine pills to its pilots, it tested in 1991, on a thousand soldiers, modafinil, an anti-sleep psychostimulant devoid of the addictive risk of amphetamines.
But these drugs only temporarily mask the inherent weaknesses of human physiology. From now on, we want to teach the body to react differently. A medical research institute of the American army has invented an electric heating band to put on the forearm. The tests were conclusive: in a room cooled to 0°C, it gave people who wore it 50% more dexterity and 90% more strength in the fingers. This small technology warms the peripheral blood and inhibits the normal tendency of blood vessels in the hands to retract in low temperatures.
A “hack” that remains very far from what is already at work in some foreign armies, Russian or Chinese in particular, such as eye operations aimed at increasing visual acuity. In his speech on the theme “Ethics and augmented soldier of December 2020 during the Defense Innovation Digital Forum, the Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly was categorical: “The so-called invasive developments are not on the agenda of the French armies. But we have to be lucid… it’s a future we have to prepare for. The nanoparticles tested on mice would respect the ethical limit set by the Minister: the process is reversible since they are eliminated spontaneously after about ten weeks. This French position is however marginal on the world stage, and the Chinese and the Russians do not have these hesitations. According to American intelligence, they would develop gene therapies that would increase or inhibit the production of certain hormones in order to obtain more combative, stronger soldiers, resistant to cold, pain, stress and hunger. In October 2017 during a speech, President Vladimir Putin thus announced the arrival of a “genetically modified” soldier, who “will be able to fight without fear, without compassion, without regret, or pain”.
Six technologies in the boxes
brain chip
On August 28, 2020, Elon Musk, billionaire founder of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, presented a chip developed by its start-up Neuralink. Intended to be implanted in the brain, it must initially treat neurological diseases. But Elon Musk plans to use it to connect to a computer via bluetooth or to control machines. The chip could help develop direct brain-to-brain communication.
A screen in a contact lens
Californian start-up Mojo Vision has developed an augmented reality contact lens. Its 70,000-pixel mini-screen is translucent, so wearers can see various information displayed in their normal field of vision. The soldier could thus see his enemies appearing in a different color.
muscle implant
A network of chips implanted throughout the body could directly stimulate nerves via light pulses. The muscles would be automatically controlled by an artificial intelligence that would improve the performance of the soldiers and avoid dangers, for example enemy fire.
Monitor wristband
Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed an electronic skin designed to deform with the elasticity of the skin. This patch, made up of a thin layer of plastic a few microns thick, is soluble in water and is applied to the skin like a decal. Equipped with sensors, it monitors the physiological constants of the wearer; electrocardiogram, electroencephalogram, temperature, etc. that it transmits to the control center. This electronic skin will have antennas, even mini-solar cells, which can be included in the patch.
Nanorobots
There has been talk for a long time of nanorobots that could be introduced into the human body to heal it from the inside; they finally exist. Developed in 2020, they are about 40×50 microns, 5 microns thick (a hair is 75 microns in diameter) and are equipped with four legs and actuators. They can be controlled and used as micro-surgical instruments, to heal a wound for example.
DNA modification
Gene therapy would modify a soldier’s DNA to optimize his mind in combat. His brain could thus stimulate the production of endorphins, to reduce pain. A surplus of adrenaline would prepare the body for combat. Conversely, the brain could also decrease the production of oxytocin, the hormone of empathy, in order to increase its aggressiveness.
FOR FURTHER
Exposition
> At the frontiers of humanat the Musée de l’Homme, in Paris, until May 30, 2022. An evocation of the transformations that our body could experience.