by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
According to news reports which began airing nationally this morning (I heard it first on National Public Radio - NPR - a few hours ago) two private companies have been working covertly to gather funding for.a new project that is being designed to support the Pentagon, law enforcement agencies, and other first responders. That project has "just emerged from stealth," and it's one that Pentagon Pete is gonna love: genetically engineered dogs - "Warhounds!"
This new project centers on the creation and training of super dogs to assist the world's military and policing agencies in their never-ending war on humanity. Pentagon Pete is no doubt slobbering in his Cheerios this morning as he fantasizes about just how fit an ferocious these monster dogs are going to be. That pissy Pentagon press corps will rue the day they crossed sabers with him, you betcha they will!
About a year ago two young men met at a conference and began shooting the breeze about macho stuff, as guys sometimes do, and one of those men, a fellow named Palmer Luckey, a billionaire who founded a company called Anduril Industries (and whose sister is married to former congressman Matt Gaetz), made a random comment to his new friend, Ben Lamm, the co-founder and CEO of a company by the name of Colossal Biosciences, that the military should be doing more to support its working dogs. The two men kept in touch and soon began hatching a plan to make some serious cash off of the rapidly ballooning US military and policing budgets.
Ben Lamm's company, Colossal Bioscience, focuses on gene-editing and gene-splicing technologies, and it has been involved in efforts to bring back extinct species such as wooly mammoths and dodo birds. (Shades of Jurassic Park!). Lamm began to research how working dogs are bred and the specific genetic problems that are likely to develop in the current breeding process. He decided that the canine performance could be improved through gene-editing. Lamm focused on two top breeds - Belgian Malinois and German Shepherds - and began developing cell lines from those breeds which will be used in gene-editing to create the enhanced breed of dog. The company issued a press release stating that it will use its existing technology to engineer dogs with "characteristics suited to demanding missions." Warhounds!
Palmer Luckey's company, Anduril, will develop software, hardware, and protective gear that will help the new creatures in carrying out their tasks - doggy googles, vests, etc.
The project is initially being funded by a small group of venture capitalist investors, and the CIA and other intelligence agencies also reportedly have some of their taxpayer-funded budgets involved.
There is some irony in this rush to create savage canines. Several millennia ago (perhaps the better part of an aeon) when primitive humans and wolves were still chasing each other across the glaciers in their earliest battles for survival, the two unique species began to gradually tame each other, and modern dogs started developing from their wolf ancestors. Today all dog breeds are descendants of the earliest wolves - even my sweet little Rosie. Wolves and humans have both evolved into kinder, gentler creatures.
But mankind can never leave well enough alone, and now we are on the verge of pivoting back to the primeval. Be careful what you wish for fascists. You're probably just as tasty as the rest of us!
If AI doesn't get you, then the warhounds damned sure will!
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