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Incubator Q&A

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Comments on Is it possible to indoctrinate child soldiers to the point of being robotic in science fiction setting

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Is it possible to indoctrinate child soldiers to the point of being robotic in science fiction setting Question

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Backstory:

So I had an idea where there's this secret society type organization with a specialized super-powered group to deal with serious and major threats. After something of a civil war breaks out with the small group the organization decides to greenlight a secret project to breed soldiers meant for the sole purpose of fighting and killing the group should any liabilities come up. The children, who will be called "subjects" for the question, are raised from birth for fighting the various members of the group, being the offspring of either members or various people with traits and powers desirable for this task, having age acceleration to speed up the aging process to be at the prime age. The subjects have no sense of individuality or self, being completely robotic in nature, not understanding basic human concepts such as humor, figurative speaking, or even emotions.

Additional Details:

The subjects are breed to have traits and powers to fight designated members of the target group, with some even having addional augmentations such as cybernetics, while some have more beastial based traits and as such act a little more aggressive. The people in charge experimented with all sorts of methods to ensure absolute obedience, with some working less than others, until they found a way to make it so the soldiers are all absolutely obedient without question, even the more aggressive beastial subjects, through psychological programming and even setting it up so any form of insubordination was not tolerated and swiftly weeded out by fellow subjects such is done in the military, albeit done in a more harsh and inhumane manner.

I started to wonder, however, what methods could be used to psychologically condition them into obedience or if it's even possible to make them act with absolute obedience due to the human element involved, especially since I began to notice that even in my story the subjects do exhibit some level of human behavior such as varying levels of aggressive fighting styles as well single-minded determination towards whatever objectives they're given and tend to learn, adapt, and adjust and "relevant" information to each instantaneously through specialized brain implants designed to allow neuro-telecommunications among each other, which indicatessome level of social etiquette and communication between each other.

Question:

What would be the most effective way to indoctrinate child soldiers into absolute obedience or if it's even possible to make them absolutely obedient and non human in behavior without just making them into literal machines in a close to reality science fiction setting.

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2 comment threads

This is not a question I want to see on Worldbuilding Codidact (16 comments)
The obvious option would be brain implants controlling the emotions. (6 comments)
This is not a question I want to see on Worldbuilding Codidact
trichoplax‭ wrote about 2 months ago

If this question was on another Codidact community (other than Proposals) I would have flagged it. Here on Proposals, it's letting the community express their opinion on it through votes in order to refine the boundaries of the scope of the proposed Worldbuilding community, with the option of a Meta discussion.

I considered upvoting this question, since I like the premise, and the moral issues that it can tackle. On the other hand, I found the second long paragraph onwards to be somewhat too messy.

There isn't an inherent issue in discussing this topic; it's perfectly fine for building a story or world.

This is much like Star Wars 2: Attack of the Clones, and many other stories on the edge of ethics. They are quite common, but also important, for instance to convey a message to humanity. The strong story is the one in which the reader or viewer is immersed sufficiently that they believe what they see, is possible. If we cannot discuss cases like these, we effectively turn ourselves away from serious and important elements of culture and life.

Let's not make ourselves irrelevant to creating stories or fictional universes with moral complexities.

trichoplax‭ wrote about 2 months ago

Exactly where to draw the boundaries of what is acceptable on Worldbuilding Codidact can be discussed on Meta. If the community consensus turned out to be that there should be no boundaries, then I would hope that Codidact would decline to host such a community.

Melchizadek ‭ wrote about 2 months ago

Ok so even though the question itself isn't terrible per say, it's not only a mess but also isn't ok because it's more of a real world issue..so should I make changes to it or just delete altogether, honestly I was mostly just asking out of genuine nerdy curiosity, especially since I recently rewatched that batman beyond episode "last resort" and it sounded like the sleep deprivation would be a good method to indoctrinate these subjects but wanted to know what else can be done or if it is possibly possible to even completely squeeze out the humanity out of them, so either way I'm not too heart broken and will delete it if I have to

trichoplax‭ wrote about 2 months ago

So far I am the only one expressing an objection to the topic of the question. The other downvoters haven't clarified whether they object to the topic or the quality of writing or something else.

You have at least one person expressing an interest in the topic.

It is not up to me whether a question gets deleted, and I would have flagged it if I'd wanted a moderator to consider deleting it. At present I think it is more important to have a discussion (ideally on Proposals Meta) about where to draw the lines of what topics are welcome here.

Melchizadek ‭ wrote about 2 months ago

Hm ok fair enough. Honestly this why I like this site more than stack exchange because over there I would've had my question shut down almost right away but on this it's a lot more liberating and creatively open, in anycase I will look into it and then go from there, like I said I'm just a nerd who has a bit of curiosity so that's most of the reason why I'm on this site, as well getting some ideas for storytelling too.

trichoplax‭ wrote about 2 months ago

You've asked several very interesting questions, which I've been glad to see. I don't personally like this particular one, but I have no authority here.

Melchizadek ‭ wrote about 2 months ago

I probably should've asked already but what is it about the question that makes you feel it shouldn't be on here, not trying to be argumentive or defensive just genuinely curious

trichoplax‭ wrote about 2 months ago

There's been some conversation on Discord (if you don't already have access, you can use the "join us in chat" link in the right hand panel of a Codidact page, or at the bottom of the page on mobile).

Several people there see no problem with this question. My personal objection is to questions about torture and enslavement. It's important to be aware of how badly some humans have treated others in the past, and to be aware that this still happens today, so I probably wouldn't object to a question about what has happened or still happens. My problem is with questions that ask about how to do it or how to make it more effective.

I understand that this question is very far removed from reality, but answers would likely be very applicable to reality, and I wouldn't want that to be part of this community.

Oleg Valter‭ wrote about 2 months ago · edited about 2 months ago

Reiterating somewhat what I mentioned in chat and to help balance out the discussion - I would very much like if we abstained from policing topics just because someone finds them uncomfortable and find nothing even remotely objectionable about either the topic or content of the post.

That said, maybe it'd be less worrying for those that do take issue with it if the title was to be made more specific? For examlle, by adding a "in a futuristic setting" postfix (or something along those lines).

Melchizadek ‭ wrote about 2 months ago · edited about 2 months ago

Hm ok so basically it's just a touchy subject, ok fair enough, alright and yeah I'll take in the advice that about modifying the title like "in science fiction setting". I am aware that even slavery in most nations is illegal, it hasn't stopped people from continuing to do it and I understand that asking about methods how it's done and how it can be more effective can come off insensitive but I just like as much realism to my ideas as I can. That includes the human psyche and how it can be greatly from internal or external forces, for better or worse, and I feel it's good to talk about this sort of stuff since it does bring awareness to some of the evils in the world. I say but let's he honest this all for a dumb story that's made for personal entertainment because I'm a bit of nerdy dork. In anycase I'll look into the discord and keep that in mind in the future. In anycase I do appreciate you talking to me about it instead just flagging me on the spot thats really nice.

Lundin‭ wrote about 1 month ago · edited about 1 month ago

trichoplax‭ My $0.02 is that one likely use of a Worldbuilding site would be to act as a foundation for writing fiction. With no judgment of the quality of said fiction or personal preferences for what fiction should contain - we need not read or interact with posts that we don't like. The very purpose of such fiction could be to enlighten the reader of why whatever is going on with clones etc isn't humane or defining why it isn't ethical. A similar scenario is indeed present in the fictional universe of Star Wars, where the whole clone thing goes south when the control of the army eventually ends up in the hands of an evil dictator type. Dystopia societies in general is a common theme in science fiction, in everything from 1984 to Hunger Games where the work of fiction is intentionally written to be disturbing so that it knocks the reader out of their comfort zone.

Lundin‭ wrote about 1 month ago

That being said, there will eventually be a boundary for how dark themes most people can stomach. A site might have to draw the line somewhere. I think the CoC would be an indication of a red line that shouldn't be crossed even for the purpose of writing fiction.

Melchizadek ‭ wrote about 1 month ago

Lundin‭ you do have a point, yes sites like these should be free of judgement and sometimes a story having a darker grittier tone might be the purpose to not only hit readers down to their core and even expose them to certain subjects that probably should be discussed and if a question is uncomfortable than you can scroll past it. At the same time though yeah there should be lines drawn to make sure nobody's getting carried away going full blown "the boys", both show and comic version, and acknowledge that there's a time and place for everything. I honestly do hope that my questions don't cross too many lines since I'm aware that my story might get a little unhinged here and there but I do like to draw some kind of line. I truly appreciate the level of freedom of expression on this site so if my questions are problematic I'm happy to correct it.

Melchizadek ‭ wrote about 1 month ago

trichoplax‭ also I tried using the link to look at the discussion on discord had to make an account but for some reason I can't seem to get to the chat

trichoplax‭ wrote about 1 month ago

You'll need an invitation to get into the Discord chat. That's the link I mentioned in the right hand panel here on Codidact. For avoidance of doubt, it's https://discord.gg/bv2aaGa

Once you have clicked on that, and been taken to the Codidact Communities Discord server, my previous link should then work, and take you to the specific conversation I mentioned.