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gwern comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 10 - Less Wrong
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Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your point, but they (at least the American one) do constantly abuse stimulants; the US military even has special exemptions to use otherwise illegal amphetamines, and it's no accident that a ton of the early modafinil research was done for, by, or was related to the military.
What do you mean by "constantly"? Do you have a reference quantifying use?
My understanding is that modern military use of amphetamines is pretty much the same today as was figured out independently by both sides in WWII. Amphetamines are not useful for most soldiers doing most activities. They are mainly useful for pilots, because flight is boring and solitary. They are useful for sleep deprivation, but for most activities it's better to schedule sleep. They are useful for bombing raids, where you know how many hours out and back the pilot has to fly, and then can rest afterwards. Similarly, they are probably useful for commando raids, which are a lot more popular now.
If all pilots are on amphetamines when they are in the air, you might say that the military constantly uses amphetamines, but the individual pilots are not constantly using them, which is probably Eugine's point, and relevant to drethelin's question.
Since modafinil interferes much less with sleep, using it constantly may be a good idea, but I don't think militaries do.
Amphetamines are also used in ground forces; special forces are widely rumored to use them on many missions (with, of course, no official statements like we have confirming air force use).
Out of interest, do American special forces units constantly (at least as per cycling guidelines) abuse AA-steroids? It seems like the sort of thing I'd want my special forces doing and I'm sure that the individual commandos in question use them but I'm curious as to whether it is officially sanctioned.
Steroid use does not make good soldiers. Soldier-fit is different than gym-fit in appearance and function. Bulk does not provide performance increases in soldier duties and does cost more calories to maintain. Testosterone-related behavior issues are inconvenient in a rigid hierarchy.
Judicious use of stimulants, on the other hand, makes very good soldiers and may be started and stopped almost at will. Dopamine-reuptake-inhibition-related and withdrawal-related behavior issues are almost identical to the stress-induced behavior issues already ubiquitous throughout all armed forces.
This is largely nonsense. AA-Steroids are not just toys that are used to make muscles pump up at look pretty. They are performance enhancers. There is a reason they are banned and heavily controlled for in all top level sports. They work. They allow athletes to be faster, stronger and train more heavily. The usefulness of these traits to soldiers is obvious. To the extent that elite soldiers wish to be fast, strong and heavily conditioned without just ending up overtrained, steroids will be useful.
Stimulants are great. But if you were really concerned about testosterone based aggression you probably shouldn't pump the meat heads full of amphetamines either.
The rumors say they use them on any long missions. Details? From rumors? Not really happening. I could probably dig up some more informative descriptions, but I don't care enough beyond the basic point 'they use them routinely on missions'.
Really? There is some benefit from that - enhanced recovery and reduced atrophy as the mission distracts them from their training protocol. But the greatest benefit from the steroids I would have expected to come during training. ie. They'd be able to do much more of it as well as come in with 15kg more thug.
The Danish army, which I'm currently a part of, do not condone steroids; they particularly campaign against them. Long term use isn't worth it compared to the investment they make in the soldiers. But it's probably fair to note that the Danish army and the American one aren't quite agreeing on a lot of issues regarding the health of their soldiers. Mental or otherwise.
Oh, sorry, I completely missed that you were asking about steroids, not amphetamines. I don't know anything specific about those. My best guess would be that they are used by various members but with no particular official sanction beyond a disinclination to pry ('whatever gets the job done and you meeting your physicals').