Hi all, I have had this idea for quite a while now, and am not sure if it would be any good in terms of originality or "feasibility". It will be stalled anyway, since I'm still in another WIP, but I've written a scene or two and quite like the concept of this. Also, I am no scientist, so I have no idea if this idea is feasible at all. It's still a bit small and underdeveloped as a premise for a story, but what do you think about this little synopsis? "In the first few years of the 22th century, scientists have developed an implant that can cleanse the human brain receptors, bloodstream and system of any traces of psychoactive drugs in an instant. While the CoreTech corporation publicly admits to their research and development as a means to treat Earth's rampant drug addiction and organized crime, the project is secretly funded and observed by the U.S military who want to deploy it on the field of battle, hoping to create a "super-soldier" that can boost his performance with substances such as cocaine and amphetamines at will, without any drawbacks."
I like the idea, in principle, but I'm also unsure what the drawbacks would be. I suppose the main drawback about using drugs to enhance performance is there will be a side effect, which in your story wouldn't be there. I'm not an expert but I think your idea would benefit from some "what if" scenarios to develop it and create something original (super soldiers and humans mark 2, 3, 4 etc have all been fine before - doesn't mean it couldn't be interesting though ) What if the use of drugs activated centres of the brain, enhancing certain emotions (empathy would be an interesting conflict in a soldier) or What if the process used to clean the drugs had a side effect. .. extra limbs growing, defects in the gene pool... how would the army / government respond, do they shut the process down? What happens if they shut it down and the soldiers subjected to it are addicted. What if addiction to drugs was eliminated. Do they become legal and accepted ? The drug manufacturers / suppliers are likely to seek alternative ways to make profit, what ? For me, what iff'ing produces a lot of interesting threads to develop, quite a lot of crap as well, but some interesting things to explore as well ☺
2¢ : Since this project threatens the drug cartels, perhaps the military are leveraging them for cheaper access to the drugs that they originally sold to addicts? That could set up a plot where the military start protecting their most valued suppliers and somebody tries to blow the whistle.
You might want to read this article: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/252783/isis-meth-heads-tweeking-name-islam-dawn-perlmutter
What types of soldiers would take advantage of this? Would they use existing drugs or hypothetical ones? The usefulness of this seems to be a bit limited for a modern army (as opposed to a group of guerrilla fighters like ISIS). Someone high on drugs probably can't shoot as straight, follow orders as well, or operate equipment as well as someone who is not, unless you introduce a fictional drug into the equation. Unless a lot changes over the years in your world, the US military probably wouldn't be so strained for personnel that they'd need the drug to push their existing soldiers beyond reasonable limits. It could make sense for Special Forces, although said special forces would still need to think clearly on most missions. I would think that having their wits about them would be more important than having superhuman physical endurance. Special Forces already have training that pushes their endurance beyond normal human limits.
I feel like this technology could be used in creating a cheap "cannon-fodder" army comprised of citizens of below-average intelligence. Drug them up and brainwash them into thinking they're action heros, and just drop a swarm of them onto the enemy homeland to cause chaos before the actual army attacks.
Seems less effective than dropping a bunch of cluster-bombs though, or arming local dissidents. In particular, the military of a first world country would need to be very desperate to use this tactic because of the moral backlash (especially since the OP mentioned the US military in the semi-near future specifically). This could be plausible in a few situations though. What comes to mind is if the country's main military has been destroyed, which leaves them with a bunch of untrained pseudo-soliders who can only really fight if you drug them up. It should also be noted that cannon fodder kind of defeats the purpose of the OP's idea of having a drug that eliminates the long-term consequences. If the person is probably going to die anyway, then you don't really need a drug to help keep them alive.
Addiction is not the only unwanted side effect of a "psychoactive drug". If you were setting your house on fire and then putting out the flames several times a day, your television is going to be less burnt. But it's still not going to turn on.
It's set in the future, though. There's probably going to be a massive surplus population for the military to turn into an insanely cheap army. They could be fighting for land if overpopulation is an issue. Explosives may render that land useless. As for the removal of long-term side effects, it could be used as an argument against the moral concerns involving drug soldiers.
Sounds interesting but it sounds more like a world building idea than a central plot point. At least to me.
I'd suggest researching into Angel Dust, that drug is CRAZY, and has some 'super-soldier' like symptoms. From memory, it was originally meant to be an anaesthetic, but the symptoms after using lead to stuff like, people getting shot and not reacting to it.
I see a few plot holes in this Assuming a continued progression of technology the need for actual people on the ground to fight will continue to drop. Military action today has far few numbers running in to an area with hand held weapons than in the past. The need for a "super soldier" just isn't there anymore, technology has turned the average soldier into a super soldier already. I could see it if you twisted it a bit. Instead of a chemical that flushes drugs just a drug that gives the soldiers some clear advantage. Working longer hours through cocaine is a pretty weak advantage, in fact any drug that alters a soldier's ability to focus on his own body and the job at hand is going to be a hindrance.
Actually, if were going to talk future realism, soldiers will be replaced by increasingly advanced drones. They're not only terrifyingly effective they're also not a waste of human lives. The American military, being frighteningly over-funded, is currently working on more robotic military models as we speak.
Machines can be hacked or interfered with by electronic warfare though. You can send an army of drones against an enemy, but with the right jammer, you wouldn't be able to communicate with your own drones, and they'd be effectively useless. Without AI advancing a great deal, machines can't make judgements effecting life or death on their own without causing severe danger of accidentally sparking an incident by killing the wrong people.
Tell that to the military scientists and commanders from multiple advanced nations advancing the idea of non-human military. And all the independent experts who think it's going to happen.
How do you respond to a jammer if you are using a drone? UASes are primarily used by the military for: Operations against enemies with a relatively low tech base (such as terror groups in the middle east) who do not have access to the technology to jam drone communications, or anti-air capabilities that would be likely to shoot the drone down. Tests. Drones are very, very useful for these, because if you need to evaluate the capability of a radar to track an object, it is far cheaper to deploy a UAS than to deploy a manned aircraft. Particularly hazardous tasks. This includes bomb disposal, and infiltrating buildings that have armed enemies in them. The military knows when to best use drones, and when not to. Effectively, a manned system and unmanned system are both "machines" that will follow orders when given and have a certain cost to use and maintain. Both have their advantages and disadvantages for various things. As it stands, drones just aren't that useful for most tasks when compared to having a human doing it. And as I said, AI isn't anywhere near the point where these machines can operate on their own. UASes are going to be more prevalent, I think, but incorporating them into a futuristic military is not necessary for that idea to be realistic. It's very difficult to properly foresee how militaries will develop in the future. That's one reason why people are so fascinated by military sci-fi and similar genres.
AI is not necessarily were they will go, a human operator literally on a laptop is what they use for drones, so AI issues might not be an obstacle at all. I agree though it might not replace humans entirely, we don't know how far we can go for sure until we go there. We can only make good guesses, or in my case, pick other people who know what they're talking about's guesses.
Your thesis though is that they will be used to replace soldiers in actual combat though, right? Right now, they are being used to replace soldiers in very special capacities (bomb disposal, system testing, surveillance, etc.) but these are in operations where, specifically, there is little threat of electronic warfare interference, and where the added endurance or disposability of a machine would be of benefit. In a combat situation, you can't rely on your remote operator being able to control their vehicle remotely due to the enemy's electronic warfare capability. Particularly in a world where drones would be prevalent on the battlefield.
I was listening to some podcast about the future of warfare and drones. The guy, who was an avid drone proponent I might add, said something I had never thought about before, which I will paraphrase. The problem is not drone technology, or even the Artificial Intelligence to control it. The problem is ENERGY. Ninety percent of the weight in your cell phone is a battery that can't even last a day if you are online. Even now, no matter how awesome a tank or airplane whatever is, the fuel requirements limit it to a crawl or ground it after a week, sometimes a day. Meanwhile, all a human needs is food and water, which we can sometimes just FIND in the field. Organic creatures are SO much more energy efficient than a machine over long periods of time, and most of the time we can fix ourselves with a little training, while a tank or plane requires hours of dedicated maintenance to stop from falling apart. And really, at the end of the day, as awesome as any drone tank of the future is, in six months I can can train an 18 year old to shoot a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FGM-148_Javelin from a bush at your billion dollar apple tank with the broken lenses.
So all the drones casualties in the Middle East are bomb disposal? Or System testing? Or surveillance? I think there are potential problems but there are clear indications those problems aren't that bad, and experts think it is going to happen, as I said. America at least can afford very effective drones that are too advanced for most other countries to easily hack or jam.