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How can muscle atrophy stemming from accelerated growth be avoided in super soldiers?

Erebus

Troubadour
How can muscle atrophy stemming from accelerated growth be avoided in super soldiers?

Lebensborn was a state-supported program in Nazi Germany with the stated goal of increasing the number of children who met the Nazi standards of "racially pure" and "healthy" Aryans, based on Nazi eugenics. Founded by Henrich Himler, the program encouraged anonymous births by unmarried women with established members of the SS. The children born of this union would not be raised by families, but directly by the state at specially established camps that were isolated from society. These children would be indoctrinated into Nazi ideology from a young age and made into the ideal perfect soldier that was loyal only The Further and the state. This elite army led Germany to many victories, ultimately defeating the Allies and their pathetic attempts to stow the tide of the great Aryan race. However, running a program was impractical and expensive, depending on the fickleness of human beings. The state needed to provide financial incentives to volunteers in order for them to do their duty. It also took many years to raise a child into a full adult soldier, and there were many washouts and failures along the way. Therefore, the program was discontinued sometime after the war.

In the 22nd century however, the Eternal Reich possesses the technology to allow Lebensborn to return its cost on capital at a much quicker rate, and has reinstated the program. Human beings can now be made in batches from artificial wombs, using the cells of random men and women. These machines would house the developing fetus, containing it into adulthood. Through this methods, thousands of individuals can be grown at the same time at special facilities created for this purpose. The process can now be accelerated to provide a fully grown adult in five years. These individuals will be raised in-vitro to better control indoctrination and given the training necessary to make them useful on the battlefield. When the adult is fully ready, they will be decanted from the machine womb and enter the real world.

One problem that has yet to be addressed is the atrophy that is likely to have developed as the soldier takes their first steps into reality. While they were able to perfectly function in carefully constructed simulations, they would never have used their limbs or muscles before in real life. This would leave them uncoordinated at best and paralyzed at worst, with perhaps a low chance of recovery. Breathing and other organ functions are likely to be a problem as well, and the person could very well die shortly after being decanted from the machine. This would make the process an expensive waste in time and money.

How can this problem be avoided to make these soldiers function like normal human beings?
 

Queshire

Auror
Man, the glimpses of your setting we've seen from these threads are... sure something.

Anyways, just don't have it be a problem. If you've got the tech to clone them and speed up their growth then you can say you've got the tech to avoid atrophy.

Otherwise, nanomachines, son. Nanomachines that stimulate the muscles and exercise them while the super soldiers are still in the vat.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
First: this is a problem of your own making. You could just not have it be a problem in your story.

Second: The effects of lack of muscle use could be temporary. An initial period of gaining ones legs and than fully functional over time.

Third: Even with loss, the cost benefit may still be there. A high R&D cost stretched over the length of the program eventually diminishes. If its cost me $100,000 to make one candidate this way, and 4 out of 5 of them wash out, but the remaining one contributes value beyond $500,000, it is still beneficial to undergo the cost of it. What is the value of one super-soldier? Would the US pay $1,000,000 to have one actual Capt. America? You bet they would ;)
 
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skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I agree. It's an invented problem, so just un-invent it. Unless the problem serves a story function, there's no purpose served.
 

Stepgingerly

Dreamer
Take inspiration from the wild? Newborn giraffes can stand up and run within an hour of being born. Why not your super soldiers?
 

Gurkhal

Auror
Or if its a problem, maybe you could work with it to make it a weakness of these Super Soldiers? Thus something your protagonists can use to defeat enemies that would, in a "fair" fight make minced meat of said protagonists.
 

BearBear

Archmage
At that level of technology it's certain that they've addressed this. Hormone treatment can accelerate or maintain muscle development either by supplements or under-skin automatic release.

There should be a period of acclimation where they'll basically have to learn to walk and get coordinated and if it took a year that wouldn't be unreasonable. Babies can run by the 12th month and their bodies are completely atrophied at birth to the point they can't roll over or lift their head, yet even a newborn can potentially grab and track their vision so if they had in utero training the post utero training could easily be accelerated especially with supplemental hormones, electric stimululation of muscles, and a training regiment.

If you expect them to jump out and grab a gun then that's probably unrealistic though with a neuro interface of some kind given in utero training, in utero exercise is possible too. Still there will be a period of acclimation.
 
during pregnancy (in human females) the hormone relaxin is released in order for the body to become more flexible to accommodate both the pregnancy and childbirth, and probably for other unknown evolutionary reasons, perhaps for hiding or being able to still be mobile during pregnancy. This is also helped by additional blood production up to around a 50% increase by the third trimester. I’m sure you could look at infants and how growth spurts work too.

In order for your soldiers to grow, a massive hormone surge could help this along.

But then again, we don’t question werewolves or any other creature that has capabilities of changing because it’s fantastical and unrealistic in real life terms, so why question it against real life problems?
 

BearBear

Archmage
But then again, we don’t question werewolves or any other creature that has capabilities of changing because it’s fantastical and unrealistic in real life terms, so why question it against real life problems?

Then again, I recall seeing shows, such as the fellowship of the ring with the uruk-hai, where they do just jump out and are handed a weapon and I didn't question it. I don't recall anything in the book or movie that indicated a period of acclimation.
 
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