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CharlotteSkertenFirstEssay 7 - 01 Apr 2018 - Main.EbenMoglen
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| | | Many now believe that the next world war will take place exclusively over the internet. But the development of North Korea’s nuclear program, and the US response, highlight that weapons of mass destruction remain one of the most serious threats to human existence. Modern warfare may well involve cold war tools like nukes, with vastly increased risks because of the internet society in which we now exist, or novel tools such as killer robots that exercise artificial intelligence. The ability to control weapons of mass destruction no longer lies only in the hands of governments, but nuclear systems may now also be controlled, and killer robots created, by civilians. The impetus for the internet's development was the risk to civilization posed by weapons of mass destruction. Fifty years on, we must reconsider whether the internet has in fact decreased the risk to human life posed by these weapons, or has instead compounded and multiplied it. | |
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An effective revision, I think.
One facet of the matter, the democratization of technology, has
played a significant role in the strategists' vision of "asymmetric
warfare" since the late 20th century. Recent history has shown that
waging war through the net is inexpensive and effective, but not
that the primary mode in which it has those desirable properties is
through attacking other nations' weapons systems. Both non-military
infrastructure and social rather than physical destabilization and
destruction have proven to be more attractive objectives, for
several clear reasons you could analyze. Even if the ultimate
conclusion were still that the weapons systems are the primary
problem, or even the best illustration, it would still make sense, I
think, to consider the surrounding context.
I don't know if Isaac Asimov's First Law of Robotics can be stated
as a normative principle. It should have been, at least
according to me, but it seems evident that this is by no means the path
human society is following. Once again, non-military infrastructure
seems to me orders of magnitude more demonstrative of that
proposition, and more dangerous in the near term.
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