From: hal@finney.org
Date: Thu Jun 14 2001 - 11:05:58 MDT
Damien forwards:
> http://www.smh.com.au/news/0106/12/world/world2.html
>
> "It's remarkable that a stealth system that cost 60 billion pounds to
> develop is beaten by 100,000 pound mobile phone technology," Mr Lloyd said.
> "It's almost impossible to disable a mobile phone network without bombing
> an entire country, whereas radar installations are often knocked out of
> action with a single bomb or missile."
I can't evaluation the technical accuracy of this report, but it is
actually very much in keeping with Extropian philosophy. It reminds
me of the novel David's Sling, by Marc Stiegler (also author of the
archetypical nanotech short story, The Gentle Seduction).
This novel was about a new approach to warfare, one which relied on
information rather than brute force. It was part of the transformation
from an industrial economy to an information economy. There was sort
of a David and Goliath story (hence the title), the underfunded modern
guys using information technology against the big, old-fashioned army
using big guns and tanks.
Seems like this new development, using a web of inexpensive radio towers
to locate planes, is a perfect example of the kind of technological change
predicted by Stiegler's novel. Information, gathered from widespread
sensors and processed using increasingly inexpensive computers, is
exploited to neutralize some of the advantages of a powerful military foe.
Hal
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