December 29, 2007 (LPAC)--Have you ever found yourself asking, "Wouldn't soldiers make great Doberman Pinschers?" If you answered yes, you might be working with Felix Rohatyn and the Revolution in Military Affairs. The latest issue of Popular Science reports on a joint Hollywood and Defense Department "military-entertainment complex" programs at the University of Southern California's notorious Institute for Creative Technology (ICT). "The Smell of War" describes an ICT program to turn soldiers into trained animals. ICT's model is the acute sense of smell of a Doberman Pinscher. Popular Science writes, "ICT's program is to perfect the human sense of smell through immersion, virtual reality, and video games. Now dogs have a better sense of smell than humans, but not for long, if ICT is successful." The article does not reveal if potty-training these new dog-man-machine soldiers is in the Army's budget.

The Army's chief scientist at ICT is Roger Smith, who is in charge of procuring new simulation technology. "We started out thinking that the human was a visual animal only... The military is intrigued by the prospect of tapping the power of smell. Olfaction is the next step, Smith says."

Popular Science writes: "To understand why the military would experiment with smell-enhanced simulation, consider how war itself has changed. Traditional combat is akin to chess, with high-level commanders directing troops and equipment around the battlefield and individual soldiers typically functioning as order-following pawns."

One of ICT's founders, Jackie Moore, has developed a "Scent Collar," utilizing techniques from the 1962 "immersive" arcade video game "Sensorama." The "collar" uses hundreds of smell simulations to expose troops, for example, to the "noxious odors of melting plastics, rotting flesh" to prepare for the dangers they could face in Iraq.