Pentagon to Achieve Totalitarian Capabilities via Technology

Now on the horizon are important technological achievements in robotics, nanotech, radiation, biotech, sensors, cloud robotics and embedded systems.

When the Pentagon’s managers and their forces secure weapons and systems based on these advances, they will be in a position to become far more totalitarian than today. They will be able to send robots into battle. They will gain the upper hand in controlling populations, be they foreign or American.

Will this happen? Yes, it will unless the war mentality is altered now. The Pentagon thinks only in terms of war against enemies and control of the domestic population. That and its ability to extract funds (resources) from taxpayers are two important factors trending in the totalitarian direction. Operating against that is only civilian control of the military.

But civilian control is an empty shell when the government is in bed with the military and when government is no longer responsive to the civilian. It is an empty shell when the government gets a high degree of civilian support for its militarism. That’s the case today.

To tame the advances on the horizon so that they are not turned in the totalitarian direction requires a big change in VISION. At present, the predominant vision is one of endless wars and battles. New enemies are manufactured regularly. New fears are constantly aroused. Government presents itself as the only viable protector.

The swords made possible by the technological advances that lie ahead need to be beaten into ploughshares. The vision has to be changed from war products to peaceful advances and uses.

The new technologies present extremely serious ethical challenges. Only in an environment of peace and good will can we hope to address these issues. If they are turned over to governments with war mentalities, there will be no peace dividends from these inventions. There will be only totalitarianism.

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11:55 am on November 27, 2014