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>It is a commonplace that the history of civilisation is largely the history of weapons. In particular, the connection between the discovery of gunpowder and th
by Pinckney 9y ago
>It is a commonplace that the history of civilisation is largely the history of weapons. In particular, the connection between the discovery of gunpowder and the overthrow of feudalism by the bourgeoisie has been pointed out over and over again. And though I have no doubt exceptions can be brought forward, I think the following rule would be found generally true: that ages in which the dominant weapon is expensive or difficult to make will tend to be ages of despotism, whereas when the dominant weapon is cheap and simple, the common people have a chance. Thus, for example, tanks, battleships and bombing planes are inherently tyrannical weapons, while rifles, muskets, long-bows and hand-grenades are inherently democratic weapons. A complex weapon makes the strong stronger, while a simple weapon — so long as there is no answer to it — gives claws to the weak.
>The great age of democracy and of national self-determination was the age of the musket and the rifle. After the invention of the flintlock, and before the invention of the percussion cap, the musket was a fairly efficient weapon, and at the same time so simple that it could be produced almost anywhere. Its combination of qualities made possible the success of the American and French revolutions, and made a popular insurrection a more serious business than it could be in our own day. After the musket came the breech-loading rifle. This was a comparatively complex thing, but it could still be produced in scores of countries, and it was cheap, easily smuggled and economical of ammunition. Even the most backward nation could always get hold of rifles from one source or another, so that Boers, Bulgars, Abyssinians, Moroccans — even Tibetans — could put up a fight for their independence, sometimes with success. But thereafter every development in military technique has favoured the State as against the individual, and the industrialised country as against the backward one. There are fewer and fewer foci of power. Already, in 1939, there were only five states capable of waging war on the grand scale, and now there are only three — ultimately, perhaps, only two.
George Orwell, You and the Atomic Bomb.
http://orwell.ru/library/articles/ABomb/english/e_abomb http://orwell.ru/library/articles/ABomb/english/e_abomb
- visarga 9y agoI think it won't be long until we're going to have a self replicating factory - a self replicator, like a living thing, capable of making copies of itself and producing anything we need. Is that even possible? I believe so - a combination of robotic assembly and 3d printing, when coupled with extensive industrial design libraries would do the trick. We could "compile" any design into physical form, even a replica of the factory itself. When it exists, then we can produce for cost of materials and raw energy any amount of war robots. Even a single replicator can bootstrap an army. Then war becomes democratic again. /s What I want to say is that even the current advantage of the superpowers is temporary. Self replicating factories will make economy a thing of the past. We just need one of those in open source. Software itself is already a self replicating technology. Even hardware is becoming more and more accessible. Drones, Raspberry Pi's, sensors - they are converging towards cheap easy integration. That means the automation field is opening up, the entry barrier going down.
- lazyjones 9y ago> I think soon enough we're going to have a self replicating factory You can build that factory, but it can't produce without resources - and those are still gathered and transported in a very inefficient, low-tech way. It's an interesting problem to solve.
- AstralStorm 9y agoMoreover those resources that are cheap to access are already in hands of major players. You either get to find new ones or new places that haven't been accessed. (In space?)
- nyolfen 9y agohttps://archive.fo/s0SOd https://archive.fo/s0SOd DRONES HERALD THE END OF THE AGE OF THE GUN >The Age of the Gun is the age of People Power. The fact that guns don’t take that long to master means that most people can learn to be decent gunmen in their spare time. That’s probably why the gun is regarded as the ultimate guarantor of personal liberty in America—in the event that we need to overthrow a tyrannical government, we like to think that we can put down our laptops, pick up our guns, and become an invincible swarm. >Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way. People Power has often been used not for freedom, but to establish nightmarish tyrannies, in the Soviet Union, Mao’s China, and elsewhere. But Stalin, Mao, and their ilk still had to win hearts and minds to hold power; in the end, when people wised up, their nightmare regimes were reformed into something less horrible. >But another turning point in the history of humankind may be on the horizon. Continuing progress in automation, especially continued cost drops, may mean that someday soon, autonomous drone militaries become cheaper than infantry at any scale. [...] >The day that robot armies become more cost-effective than human infantry is the day when People Power becomes obsolete. With robot armies, the few will be able to do whatever they want to the many. And unlike the tyrannies of Stalin and Mao, robot-enforced tyranny will be robust to shifts in popular opinion. The rabble may think whatever they please, but the Robot Lords will have the guns. >Forever.