More Shadows of the Future
Jun. 15th, 2005 06:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinGabwaaahahaa.
Brothers Grimm Trailer
Pay close attention because it's small and IT ONLY WORKS ONCE.
Now if only Terry Gilliam could get the backing to do Good Omens like he wants to...
8:34 pm
So I was reading Only You Can Save Mankind at dinner, and got to thinking.
Wars are becoming more and more of a virtual thing.* You've got your unmanned aircraft and your missiles that you can send out from a source 1,000 miles away and pilot from your computer in Missouri. There are robots, and sattelites, and everything you need to blow your enemy to smithereens without actually being there. So: Why blow anything actually up? If you're just throwing unmanned missiles at unmanned aircraft, why waste the billions of dollars building this stuff that will only become scrap metal in some forsaken desert somewhere when you could just get the heads of state and military commanders together in a big room – or better yet, a big compound so they don't have to look at each other – and let them duke it out on computers? Have a panel of 'referees,' as it were, watching the proceedings and making sure no one's hacking the programming** and once one virtual army has blown the other virtual army's homeland back to the stone age (provided they weren't there already) they call it quits and spoils are awarded as per the pre-war agreement, drawn up and signed in the presence of a duly constituted authority.
Unfortunately this only works for that old-fashioned sort of war where a whole bunch of troops line up and then run at each other with disembowelling on their minds. A war of territory or ideology. If one country is up to some heinous deeds – killing all the left-handed people or something – inviting the heads of state to a Warcraft III weekend retreat would only solve so much, even if they did allow the objecting nation to come in and rearrange things if they lost. Because there is always, always, always someone out there to spoil the game. Someone who'll throw a grenade in a truck or steal everyone's left shoe even though they aren't supposed to because everyone agreed to a set of rules beforehand. If my own elementary school experiences are anything to go by, there are enough of these people per capita to mess up the rest of history and not even realise they're doing it.
Humanity is stupid. Woe, woe, and despair ...
*At least among developed nations, who seem to be getting along rather well at the moment, so this whole train of thought could be moot.
**Though that would probably be as fair as any other wartime shenanigans
Brothers Grimm Trailer
Pay close attention because it's small and IT ONLY WORKS ONCE.
Now if only Terry Gilliam could get the backing to do Good Omens like he wants to...
8:34 pm
So I was reading Only You Can Save Mankind at dinner, and got to thinking.
Wars are becoming more and more of a virtual thing.* You've got your unmanned aircraft and your missiles that you can send out from a source 1,000 miles away and pilot from your computer in Missouri. There are robots, and sattelites, and everything you need to blow your enemy to smithereens without actually being there. So: Why blow anything actually up? If you're just throwing unmanned missiles at unmanned aircraft, why waste the billions of dollars building this stuff that will only become scrap metal in some forsaken desert somewhere when you could just get the heads of state and military commanders together in a big room – or better yet, a big compound so they don't have to look at each other – and let them duke it out on computers? Have a panel of 'referees,' as it were, watching the proceedings and making sure no one's hacking the programming** and once one virtual army has blown the other virtual army's homeland back to the stone age (provided they weren't there already) they call it quits and spoils are awarded as per the pre-war agreement, drawn up and signed in the presence of a duly constituted authority.
Unfortunately this only works for that old-fashioned sort of war where a whole bunch of troops line up and then run at each other with disembowelling on their minds. A war of territory or ideology. If one country is up to some heinous deeds – killing all the left-handed people or something – inviting the heads of state to a Warcraft III weekend retreat would only solve so much, even if they did allow the objecting nation to come in and rearrange things if they lost. Because there is always, always, always someone out there to spoil the game. Someone who'll throw a grenade in a truck or steal everyone's left shoe even though they aren't supposed to because everyone agreed to a set of rules beforehand. If my own elementary school experiences are anything to go by, there are enough of these people per capita to mess up the rest of history and not even realise they're doing it.
Humanity is stupid. Woe, woe, and despair ...
*At least among developed nations, who seem to be getting along rather well at the moment, so this whole train of thought could be moot.
**Though that would probably be as fair as any other wartime shenanigans
You were not the first
Date: 2005-06-19 07:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-19 09:39 pm (UTC)