TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01 - TRADOC - U.S. Army

TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01The program’s solution strategies include bioenergetics to deal with environmental extremes,injury biodynamics-focused behaviors and equipment to reduce risk of injury, neuropsychologyto address fatigue and psychiatric injuries, psychophysics to examine visual and auditoryperformance, and force health protection limits environmental health risks. 180 Also among theirconsiderations is the ability of the human mind and body to deal with the scope and complexityof technology. Currently, the S&T available limits human endeavor. In the future, the reversemay be the norm, in that, the ability of the human to accept and use leading edge technologiesbecomes limiting. The integration of S&T with the individual enhances that ability and pushesthe limits upward and outward. As the S&T trends take shape, the tools available to ARL,Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and other research and development entities willgreatly expand the potential solutions. By 2030, the ethical and moral questions of humanenhancement and behavior control may be more of a limitation on the process than the scientificand technological capabilities.The other aspect of integration of S&T into the human dimension concerns thosetechnologies that provide new or augment existing external capabilities. As is the case with theinternal enhancements discussed above, these advanced technology capabilities are in and ofthemselves neutral.Advanced computer technologies will provide significant assistance to future humandecisionmaking. These include providing improved training to the human decisionmakers,improved forms of communication and coordination, external memory or perceptual aids,enhanced access to relevant data and information, and active decision support systems where thecomputer is an active participant in the problem solving and decisionmaking process.While the speed and capacity of advanced computing decision support systems will increasegeometrically, a human interface will remain necessary. Complete automation is implausible as asolution when the underlying tasks and task environments are sufficiently complex (for example,total reliance on the programming to anticipate and deal adequately with all possible scenariosthrough their design). Furthermore, even for designs touted as completely automated, this israrely the case. People still interact with the software either to overcome or recover from itslimitations in unanticipated situations, or to perform maintenance and upgrades. Models ofhuman behavior and human knowledge embedded inside computer decision support systems willcontinue to provide valuable assistance to humans but still not be able to match the completenessand complexity of the human brain. 181Historically, many S&T advancements have proven ultimately to improve the humancondition. Chemical warfare in World War I led to the pest control agents and fertilizers thathelp grow crops to feed the world. The atom bomb of World War II engendered a whole array ofnuclear energy and nuclear medicine technologies. S&T trends derive from many sources inaddition to weapons programs. Interaction with the OE strongly influences how S&T interactswith the human dimension.Trends in the OE indicate a future with increasing competition for scarce resources, clashingideologies, and a growing disparity between the wealthy and the poor. Such an environment mayfoster a tendency to weaponize advanced technologies and default to the military application of176