Travelling without a Stomache
Can it be done?
They used to say that an army travells on its stomache, meaning that supplies and supply lines, especially food, determine how and why an army moves. But, what can you do about that? Well, according to this article on Wired News, DARPA is trying to make a soldier that doesn’t need to eat for five days. The project is called “Metabolic Dominance” and it’s an attempt to use biochemical “cocktails” of various kinds to overcome or get around the body’s need to ingest food for long periods of time. It’s a fairly radical step in both biochemistry and military science. Imagine what might have happened to Moscow if Napolean’s troops hadn’t needed as many supplies. Awsome. This technology, if they can perfect it, combined with the other things DARPA has in the works, really could change the face of war so radically that it may just become science-fiction. Joe Haledman may have been far more prophetic than he imagined with The Forever War, not to mention the classic Starship Troopers by Heinlein.
I honestly believe that this happens all the time. If you live long enough, you’ll see yesterday’s science-fiction become today’s reality.
