Evolution of Warfare

Deer hunters attach their licence to kill to the carcass with a tag that can be tightened, but not loosened or removed without breaking it. The evolution of warfare works in a similar way. Every step of evolution makes war cheaper, more lethal, more convenient, more terrifying, more brutal… However, it is only a matter of time until the everyone has the new technology. You can evolve further but never go back. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle. So war inexorably gets more efficient and terrible over time. All we can control is how quickly this happens. People imagine war research makes them safer, but, in actuality, it just brings closer the day when war is so efficient it drives the entire human species extinct. This eventually happens to every technological civilisation. Scientists say this is probably why we have had so much trouble finding any other intelligent life in the universe.

~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)