3 ms·
Technology is making war increasingly unfair. If you look in the past, a decent percentage of wars were won even one one side had massively less resources. Not
by Houshalter 12y ago
Technology is making war increasingly unfair. If you look in the past, a decent percentage of wars were won even one one side had massively less resources. Not the majority, but still like 30% IIRC.
With mass surveillance you can detect and stomp out rebellions long before they amount to anything. With automation you barely even need the support of your own troops. With modern technology you can keep most of the population fed and happy enough they aren't willing to risk fighting.
And so we could get stable authoritarian states like 1984.
But really you don't need all that to begin with. The vast majority of societies through history were pretty unequal. Even today much of the world has pretty high levels of inequality. Technology just prevents that from ever changing.
- bandrami 12y agoThat's why the world's greatest superpower in history had such an easy time successfully invading and occupying two of the poorest countries on Earth over the past decade and a half?
- Houshalter 12y agoBecause they weren't willing to use the amount of oppression and violence necessary to subject the population to their control. That's a good thing but it makes an occupation much more expensive. But imagine what would happen if they did any of the things I said like mass surveillance. The US is certainly moving in that direction, but imagine when there are microphones and cameras everywhere, always recording. With AI good enough to automatically figure out who you are and what you are doing. When every face and license plate is recognized, and drones above track where every single person and vehicle moves.