On Character: US Military Seeks Sixth Sense Training

US Military Seeks Sixth Sense Training

LiveScience.com

Ordinary soldiers have sometimes shown a battlefield sixth sense that has saved lives in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now the U.S. military wants to better understand that "spidey sense" and train troops to tap their inner superhero instincts.

The U.S. Office of Naval Research pointed to sixth sense research about how "humans can detect and act on unique patterns without consciously and intentionally analyzing them," according to a special notice posted on Feb. 29. It hopes to encourage such intuition in the brains of new soldiers, Marines and other troops with little or no battlefield experience.

Having intuition allows for split-second detection of patterns in the midst of uncertain scenarios — a possibly life-saving action in the face of an ambush or area rigged with roadside bombs.

But intuition stands apart from step-by-step, time-consuming analytical thinking because it happens both rapidly and subconsciously. A soldier may see, smell or hear something that gets subconsciously organized within hundreds of milliseconds to create the "feeling or impression of a solution" leading up to a sudden insight about the battlefield situation.

The U.S. military also pointed to studies suggesting a sixth sense can arise from "implicit learning" — absorbing information without being aware of the learning process — rather than building up expertise through years of practice. Ordinary examples of implicit learning include bike riding, learning new languages or developing intuition about how other people may act.

First, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) plans to measure the workings of both intuition and implicit learning. Next, it would create a working model of such thinking that could also reflect individual soldiers' differences, adapt to new situations, and account for the influence of battlefield stress or fatigue.

In the end, virtual battlefield simulations could help train soldiers' intuitions as well as collect information about their performance, ONR explained in its special notice. The U.S. military already uses game-like simulators to prepare soldiers for battlefield scenarios or even to help veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

This story was provided by InnovationNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow InnovationNewsDaily on Twitter @News_Innovation, or on Facebook.

On "Spartacus" and 1960s Epic Writing

Rewatched the film Spartacus last week and I discovered something that many still do, as if now were forty plus years ago. Individual characters should be just that--individual. They should sound differently, use words differently, use different words and rhythmic phrases, perhaps even be more silent than some, more talkative than others.

Spartacus himself was supposedly a long-term slave, and perhaps a soldier turned slave, either way he sounds like a character, like the Kurt Russell lead in "Soldier" who speaks less than 100 words within the entire movie, but says much with his eyes and actions.

Kirk Douglas' Spartacus talks to much and speaks too well; he speaks as if educated and always talking throughout his day.

His slave wife, Jean Simmons, is even more elegant and, again, as an uneducated slave she's too snotty in tone and too verbose, although she's clearly in place to make the lead appear more a man, while her status as an unpaid sex slave prostitute is always kept to the fore, even in the promotions.

Oddly, the one slave who should talk all the time because he is educated is Tony Curtis, who seems to be mostly present to further the subtext that Romans were bisexual.

But, then again, they skipped as neatly as you please the fact that Spartacus went from virgin to husband with child expected because even though these topics clearly must have been in the novel, the subject of sexuality of male on male, or a hero being a virgin shan't be dwelled upon.

Icky Romans are bisexual and we run from them, icky Roman women are over-sexual and get a good man killed, black men are only around to make white men look open-minded and heroically deep, cute male slaves are only around so every man can hit on him for sex until his "best friend" gets the privilege of piercing him through with a phallic sword.

It's an interesting movie, but don't learn how to write or act from it, but how not to. Performances that do maintain naturalism are Curtis and Peter Ustinov and even the cryptic John Gavin, the only American ever signed to play James Bond. [see IMDB for more on that]

"Continuous effort — not....

You're crafting a character and cleverness or strength seems boring.

Think of this, of "continuous effort," while writing for a character versus one of strength of clever intelligence; think Bruce Willis in the "Die Hard" films, not dumb, not weak, but his winning plus is always striving, against glass, bombs, and those believing and knowing and are more clever and more strong. But, who's the "Last Man Standing"?

This can also be "continuous compassion," because compassion and heart and caring are usually considered concerns for "pussies," well, pussy rules, ask your mother, she has one.

"Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence —
is the key to unlocking our potential."
— Winston Churchill: Was an author, soldier, and the U.K. prime minister

FROM NIGHTINGALE.COM