21st Century Guerilla War

An unsettling post today by Jamais Cascio at WorldChanging...

...emerging forms of networked communication, information-dense environments, and bottom-up, emergent organization have transformed the world of warfare and conflict. It's painful to see the ways in which these forces -- which we tend to consider catalysts of positive change -- can be used instead in the cause of violence.

Pretty scary to learn how guerilla warfare is conducted with 21st century technology. And if you really want to stay up all night worrying, imagine today's chaotic and deadly violence amped up at least a hundred times by advanced nanotechnology.

But instead of just worrying, of course, the best thing we can do is learn and prepare.

Mike Treder

Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano technology weblog blog war on terror

Comments

[Bryce Zabel]

I got more thoughts per second on your site than 99% of others. Very thought provoking. Thanks.

[Jamais Cascio]

Mike, thanks for the link -- but it's worth noting that the power of the "global guerillas" arises as much from the adoption of twenty-first century organizational models as from any use of high technology.

Moreover, there are good reasons to believe that those same models can be used for our protection, too.

[Mike Treder, CRN]

Good point about organizational models, Jamais -- but it's worth noting that modern tech also makes those new models easier to facilitate.

By the way, you (and the rest of our readers) might want to check out "The Terrorism Beat" in the July 25 issue of the New Yorker to see how an ultra-modern police force tries to thwart "global guerillas". The article itself is not available online, but you can read an interview with the author here > http://www.newyorker.com/printables/online/050725on_onlineonly01