It seems that Josef Stalin had the bright idea that it would be cool to have an army of Apemen so he ordered some poor bastard named Ivanov to make them. Ivanov worked on it for a while but failed so he went to jail.
If it worked the next step would have been to develop Siberian Bananas, a crushing blow to Imperialist interests in Central America.
Stalin Planned Army of Ape-Man Super-Warriors
Created: 20.12.2005 11:20 MSK
Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the creation of Planet of the Apes-style warriors by crossing humans with apes, according to recently uncovered secret documents, the Scotsman.com reports.
Moscow archives show that in the mid-1920s Russia’s top animal breeding scientist, Ilya Ivanov, was ordered to turn his skills from horse and animal work to the quest for a super-warrior.
Stalin reportedly told the scientist: “I want a new invincible human being, insensitive to pain, resistant and indifferent about the quality of food they eat.”
In 1926 the Politburo in Moscow passed the request to the Academy of Science with the order to build a “living war machine”. The order came at a time when the Soviet Union was embarked on a crusade to turn the world upside down, with social engineering seen as a partner to industrialization: new cities, architecture, and a new egalitarian society were being created.
The Soviet authorities were struggling to rebuild the Red Army after bruising wars.
And there was intense pressure to find a new labor force, particularly one that would not complain, with Russia about to embark on its first Five-Year Plan for fast-track industrialization.
Ivanov was highly regarded. He had established his reputation under the last Russian tsar Nicholas II when in 1901 he established the world’s first centre for the artificial insemination of racehorses.
Ivanov’s ideas were music to the ears of Soviet planners and in 1926 he was dispatched to West Africa with $200,000 to conduct his first experiment in impregnating chimpanzees.
Meanwhile, a centre for the experiments was set up in Georgia — Stalin’s birthplace — for the apes to be raised.
Of course Ivanov’s experiments were a total failure. He returned to the Soviet Union, only to see experiments in Georgia to use monkey sperm in human volunteers similarly fail.
A final attempt to persuade Cuba to lend some monkeys for further experiments reached American ears, with the New York Times reporting on the story, and Havana dropped the idea amid the uproar.
Ivanov was now in disgrace. His were not the only experiments going wrong: the plan to collectivize farms ended in the 1932 famine in which at least four million died.
For his expensive failure, he was sentenced to five years in jail, which was later commuted to five years’ exile in the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan in 1931. A year later he died, reportedly after falling sick while standing on a freezing railway platform.
******************** Of course Ivanov’s experiments were a total failure. He returned to the Soviet Union, only to see experiments in Georgia to use monkey sperm in human volunteers similarly fail. *******************
There were volunteers for this? ... "Hey lady, guess what you're going to volunteer for if you value your children's lives".
Army and M.I.T. Unveil Futuristic Soldier Center
By REUTERS
Filed at 5:39 p.m. ET
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. ( Reuters) - If you ask the U.S. Army's chief scientist what the future American soldier may look like, he points to the science fiction body armor depicted in the ``Predator'' movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Mock futuristic warriors took center stage on Thursday at the debut of The Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies. Last year, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology won a $50 million Army contract to form a center that develops combat gear using materials the size of atoms.
The idea is to develop high-tech gear that would allow soldiers to become partially invisible, leap over walls, and treat their own wounds on the battlefield.
We are all but ready to build robots to fight our wars but far from prepared to resolve the cadre of attendant ethical questions.
It's perfectly logical to put machines at risk before humans, clearing minefields and performing guard duty in hostile locales. But if war can be fought virtually without loss of human soldiers' lives, it could jumble the entire strategic and political calculus of war.
A big mechanical dog capable of carrying ammunition
Mobile Robots Take Baby Steps
Wired News, Jan. 07, 2004
The Army's Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) has awarded $2.25 million to two robotics firms to prototype a big mechanical dog capable of carrying ammunition, food and supplies into battle.
Depth perception is essential for recognizing obstacles and avoiding them, so NASA JPL developed a way for robots to see in three dimensions, using two separate cameras that take images of the same scene. JPL built a similar system for NASA's Spirit rover, now sending back spectacular images from Mars.
The contracts are part of a broader Pentagon look into robots that take their cues from animal-inspired devices.
We Are Becoming Cyborgs
by Ray Kurzweil
Published March 15, 2002
The union of human and machine is well on its way. Almost every part of the body can already be enhanced or replaced, even some of our brain functions. Subminiature drug delivery systems can now precisely target tumors or individual cells. Within two to three decades, our brains will have been "reverse-engineered": nanobots will give us full-immersion virtual reality and direct brain connection with the Internet. Soon after, we will vastly expand our intellect as we merge our biological brains with non-biological intelligence.
We are growing more intimate with our technology. Computers started out as large remote machines in air-conditioned rooms tended by white coated technicians. Subsequently they moved onto our desks, then under our arms, and now in our pockets. Soon, we'll routinely put them inside our bodies and brains. Ultimately we will become more nonbiological than biological.
We already have devices to replace our hips, knees, shoulders, elbows, wrists, jaws, teeth, skin, arteries, veins, heart valves, arms, legs, feet, fingers, and toes. Systems to replace more complex organs (e.g., our hearts) are starting to work.
To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears.
To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists that control the fool
To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen
To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies
To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.
---Al