Tomorrow's Conflicts: Faster, Safer, Casualty-Free

摘要

Imagine wars with relatively little death and destruction. Imagine soldiers equipped with technologies designed to minimize contact, or avoid it altogether. Imagine speedy communications that quicken the pace of military deployment and response before situations become critical. Imagine revolutionary materials that allow for perfect camouflage, or superhuman strength, or healing powers. In the next 10 years, these and other technological innovations will make military actions faster and safer, and with far less bloodshed and damage, resulting in greater personal, national, and international security. Thoughts about the future of war are strongly influenced by science-fiction images crafted by popular movies: walking robots toting machine guns, tanks that look like steel elephants, and hovering craft with the agility of hawks. In these future scenarios, war is as bloody as ever, but now it is automated, often making things worse rather than better for humanity. Such images sell tickets╚Dan indestructible cyborg wield- ing an endless supply of weaponry is sure to pack theaters―but they lack vision. Onscreen mayhem and destruction blind viewers to the realities of technology, limit intelligent conversation about the future of combat, and rein in the imagination. The mass-market view of uncontrolled and uncontrollable chaos is hardly inevitable.