On the Care and Feeding of Clone Corps

How to get clones to act expendable?

I just saw a program on the RFK assassination. It could have been all
bunk - TV being the source of much BS. But it focused on Sirhan Sirhan
and his mental state. They spoke with a number of psychiatrists,
psychologists, and experts in various kinds of conditioning. One of the
guys they talked to pointed out that Sirhan exhibited all of the signs
(the compulsion to do something, the rationalization to justify it, and
the loss of memory about it) of hypnotic conditioning. They did a
(possibly cooked) demonstration with a doorman from the building they
were in and made him do stuff - afterwards he couldn't recall doing it
until he saw it on the tape, and even then he had no "memory" of the
event.

The point I'm getting at seems to be that with various drugs and
hynpotic conditioning from birth, one could probably easily instill the
required behaviour in the clone forces such that when they went into
battle, they would channel their fear into some other response like
hostility or determination or whatever. Their minds would supply the
rationale to explain it (since obviously they wouldn't have done it if
there wasn't a good reason). And they'd probably forget ever doing it -
not that memory lapses or perceptual discontinuities aren't a part of
combat anyway due to stress.

I don't necessarily like the idea of a clone army, but don't sell short
the ability of a government with lots of money, lots of science and
technology, and a very minor dose of ethics to produce an army of very
dangerous semi-automata. Indoctrination might also well lead to martyr
like behaviours - it has in plenty of places where no drugs or hypno
conditioning is emplaced. None of these systems is foolproof, but all
can work fairly well I'd guess for some period of time. In the long run,
you may be digging yourself a rather nasty hole, but that's a tradition
of short-sighted government.

Now, I'd only ever use them as shock troops and as baddies for two
reasons: 1) I think in the long run they'd lose to troops with more
creativity, flexibility, and cunning and 2) you might well be opening
yourself up for a far worse situation when your tools "wake up". Also,
of course, it's probably cheaper to use a real robot to a "human
automata".

Tom B

BTW - Someone brought up the Russian Revolution. In general, there are
VERY few revolutions that happen without the participation of both the
intelligentsia and the populace. Without the intelligentsia, there tends
to be a lack of planning, a lack of direction, and often times a lack of
useful tactics (and sometimes a lack of incitement to revolution).
Without the people, the intelligentsia won't get far. And many times,
there are also outside influences supporting the revolutions. Not
always, just most times. Revolutions are much easier with money,
weapons, etc and with good, educated leaders and with legions of men and
women. With all of these, the task is viable. Miss any one, the task is
harder. Miss two, almost impossible to pull off.

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