From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!psinntp!emu!rickk Wed Sep 23 16:54:19 EDT 1992
Article 6967 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: rickk@emu.com (Rick Kleffel)
Subject: Re: 21st Century Soldier
Message-ID: <BuoBwq.Cr5@emu.com>
Summary:  See Stanislaw Lem's "One Human Minute"
Sender: Rick Kleffel
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Organization: E-Mu Systems
References: <1992Sep13.064805.16276@oracle.us.oracle.com> <14SEP199213315181@dstl86.gsfc.nasa.gov> <1992Sep14.203012.7941@cas.org>
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1992 13:53:13 GMT
Lines: 28

While I haven't been following this thread very closely, I must admit that
I've finally given in to my inclination to pitch once again the ideas of
the good science fiction writer, Stanislaw Lem, since it hits so close to
home on this topic.  In his essay/meta-fictional story "Weapons Systems of
the 21st Century" (sounds rather germane to this discussion, does it not)
[this story is contained in the collection "One Human Minute"] Lem posits
that the soldier will no longer be a part of the battlefield of the 21st
century.  Instead he believes our trend towards increasingly complex weapons
and arrays will be replaced by smaller, self-assembling pieces he calls
"synsects".  The problems inherent in our current weapons design idealogy is
that increasingly complex systems become increasingly subject to problems, or as
he puts it (in one of my favorite all-time quotes) "In a system of a million
parts, if each part malfunctions only one time out of a million, a breakdown
ios certain."  Now, I know that the last time I posted this statistic, several
statisticians jumped down my throat with all sorts of abtruse objections, but
the concept in this analogy (and Lem is very good at analogies, IMHO) is 
quite clear.  

So you 21st century soldier men, forget all your armor, you'll be obsolete.  In
fact, your kids will probably be happily designing and programming self-
modifying and self assembling weather modification systems.  Why fight a war
when you can provoke a devastating natural catastrophe for which no one is to
blame, eh?


-- 

Rick Kleffel*System Administrator*E-Mu Systems, Scotts Valley, Ca*rickk@emu.com*


