From: Flak Magnet <flakmagnet@t...>
Date: 25 Jun 2002 12:53:52 -0400
Subject: Re: [OT]Infantry computer training - Rant the Seques into something on-topic.
> ----- Original Message ----- I'm a bit late in popping off about this, but I find the "desensitization" concept citing computer games as a tool for same to be ludicrous. I've pulled the trigger while deployed and I've played the games... there is no comparison, no way to relate the two. Anyone who thinks that video games contributed to Columbine or that it's going to make for good combat soldiers is foolish. It would be like claiming that playing Mario Bros. is going to make you a good plumber or that Playing Rainbow6 will make you a good candidate for Delta-Force. One possible use I can see is to use the graphics engines to "demonstrate" the techniques and/or to show the theory behind assault tactics and planning. I fail to see how it will help the individual troop decide to actually pull the trigger and put bullets into another human being. That's a stretch without a level of VR realism that current technology just can't approach today. I'll stop ranting now. Something I have considered for a Sci-Fi setting though, is completely immersive VR Basic Training. The soldiers are put into VR pods which are basically sensory deprivation tanks with life-support, monitoring and VR gear built into them. Recruits are sedated, hooked up, and when they come to, they go through training. Part of the training includes "graduation" and assignment to a "live" hotspot. To the 'cruits perception, they fight, lose virtual comrades and sustain injuries that are as real as they can be to their minds. The monitoring equipment checks brain-waves to guage the stress the troop is under and what kind of "crapstorms" his personality can weather. Partly to test the troops, to see how he can perform in "real" environments, but also to make sure that the system doesn't "break" a troop before they need him/her to do the job in the real world. In this way, troops that excel "under fire" can be funneled to SPECFOR or elite units during training. Physical conditioning can be done using isometric exercises combined with normal excercises after spending the time "in tank". Some real-world training would have to occur as well, because expecting a troop to march with uncalloused feet would turn his feet to hamburger, and some of the actions that the troop did "in tank" might not have developed the "body memory" that so many automatic reactions require to be performed while under stress... Opinions?