Comment by johnnyApplePRNG
6 hours ago
I am torn about drone tech now.
I used to be super stoked about it.
But watching drones kill civilians kind of ruined it. [0]
Then again ... they do put a dent in superpowers powers apparently so ... like I said ... I am torn.
Likewise. Even companies like Saildrone where ~100% of the marketing before 2025 was about mapping the oceans and autonomous storm monitoring with their bright orange craft are now releasing videos with missile launching pods attached to navy gray versions: https://www.saildrone.com/news/us-navy-rimpac-lockheed-marti...
Do you want superpowers to be able to wage wars, foreign or domestically, with hordes of non-human combatants that can't refuse orders or defect on moral grounds?
To be fair, a lot of it is moving to drones killing drones.
My prediction is that future wars will actually involve increasingly fewer humans and will be more about tech+manufacturing vs. tech+manufacturing. And of course insurgents + lowcost tech vs. increasingly nonlethal hightech.
This would allow wars to continue without as much of the growing political backlash.
The next iteration is the drones removing those pesky humans from the command chain too :/
You could say the same about smelting iron. Now we can wage war without tin.