View Full Version : Warrior Geeks: How 21st Century Technology is Changing the Way We Fight and Think
Warrior Geeks: How 21st Century Technology is Changing the Way We Fight and Think About War [Hardcover]
Christopher Coker (Author) (http://www.amazon.com/Warrior-Geeks-Century-Technology-Changing/dp/0199327890)
This is a book I'm looking at getting, mainly for the reason of how our society has gone so digital. The USA is the most "online" nation/country in the world; from our schooling, media, social, and even religion. The last ten years has shown, for anyone that has been apart of it, we are a military that fights War online. Just as video gamers do their "World of Warcraft" to pull from current titles, our Commanders and Leaders are the same way. Our drone pilots who kill from The States and Commanders watching from their JOCs. We have drones that can target on their own, robots that take the risk out of battle and make decisions, soldiers whose lives are watched through a digital world of Commanders that no longer live on the battlefield, but from the comfort of a HVAC complex. Heck we even have parents that go fetch their kids from school via a Bluetooth/WiFi checkout. Let's not talk about how many sites China has hacked.
Looking over this book it seems that Mr. Coker writes in great detail about it how technogly will continue to change warfare. As we are a nation that has an ever increasing our role as it come with science fiction and fiction, yet where is the line drawn at?
I was talking with my HH6 about how today's kids no longer will have the imagination that we grow up with. They all live off some kind of tablet, yet are online bubble. We don't have the mass amount of kids growning up wanting to be a scientist or even the President. Will the easy if technology kill the USA?
From reading reviews, it seems that Mr. Coker believes that the military will have robots that will be autonomous with the ability to interface with human soldiers. Movies coming to life? T-1000 model rolling off Cyberdyne assembly lines? With the new "Iron Man" suit in the works, so we will be having autonomous system that can self-repair, self-maintain, self-learn, and self-power? Will we replace the human on the battlefield, in turn removing the Humane factor of warfare? The human values, remorse, fear, courage, and emotions?
Will America have the knowledge homegrown to develop and produce; or will the dependencies of foreign knowledge to drive American ingenuity countiue? U.S. technological innovations and know-how are one of America's most important economic and security assets. These assets are the Intellectual Property ("IP") which with the way current education systems is going, who knows what are the next big thing will come. Meaning from the US or India or China? I say that America's IP creators are crucial to American success in today's global economy and National Security.
Just a soap box of thinking on the thrown.
Noslack71
12-17-2013, 01:09
We have been hemorrhaging intellectual property and proprietary data for 25 years.
I do not feel it is coincidental that our economy has been taking a hit for the last 20 years while US companies spend money on R&D, engineering etc. developing widget 1.0 next thing we see is the widget being sold at 10% of the price it costs to build it. There is no widget version 2.0 because there are no profits, no R&D, no new factories, jobs, etc. The thieves just steal the next widget and start the process again. The Chinese are at war with us, we, just refuse to believe it!
The Chinese are at war with us, we, just refuse to believe it!
You think... Because American are the drive through, here and now society.
SFOC0173
12-17-2013, 06:24
This is a book about China's master plan to destroy America. It was written by two Chinese Col’s and is a translation of Chinese documents. Is it valid?
http://www.amazon.com/Unrestricted-Warfare-Chinas-Destroy-America/dp/0971680728/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387282411&sr=8-1&keywords=unresticted+warfare
Noslack71
12-17-2013, 07:23
You think... Because American are the drive through, here and now society.
If only we had that much focus! :rolleyes:
If you want to understand Americans attention to Cyber security observe how we drive. Imagine those folks working a computer at your bank, government office etc. Hell we could have decent security (we don't) and it would be continuously negated by folks who simply cannot or will not pay attention and follow a few rules. Many simply do not know having never had any basic cyber training an d they work in positions that in aggregate are quite damaging.
Look at the damage done by single individuals intentionally and then multiply that tenfold by the unaware. Most organizations are unaware for months if then there has been a breech. Running down who is responsible can be a lifetime career for a person. The biggest security challenges always come from individuals. I suspect QP's have a greater appreciation than most because of working with so often and so closely with foreign troops.
There are two books one published by FMSO entitled " The Dragons Quantum Leap" and the other by NDU's Institute for National Strategic Studies " Chinese Views of Future Warfare" that are quite good. The first one is by the same Chinese officers as the one on Amazon. It's been around for awhile, not many cared enough to read it. I think both are free to AD. We were wasting our blood, treasure and time in the sandbox and the Chinese were locking down strategic assets worldwide. The Chinese basic view is that the West raped and pillaged China for 200 years and now its their turn at bat.
I am not a believer in coincidence, nor am I a member of the tin foil hat club. There are simply too many indicators along a relatively short timeline not to consider that perhaps a strategic plan is being executed.
Noslack
If only we had that much focus! :rolleyes:
If you want to understand Americans attention to Cyber security observe how we drive. Imagine those folks working a computer at your bank, government office etc. Hell we could have decent security (we don't) and it would be continuously negated by folks who simply cannot or will not pay attention and follow a few rules. Many simply do not know having never had any basic cyber training an d they work in positions that in aggregate are quite damaging.
Look at the damage done by single individuals intentionally and then multiply that tenfold by the unaware. Most organizations are unaware for months if then there has been a breech. Running down who is responsible can be a lifetime career for a person. The biggest security challenges always come from individuals. I suspect QP's have a greater appreciation than most because of working with so often and so closely with foreign troops.
There are two books one published by FMSO entitled " The Dragons Quantum Leap" and the other by NDU's Institute for National Strategic Studies " Chinese Views of Future Warfare" that are quite good. The first one is by the same Chinese officers as the one on Amazon. It's been around for awhile, not many cared enough to read it. I think both are free to AD. We were wasting our blood, treasure and time in the sandbox and the Chinese were locking down strategic assets worldwide. The Chinese basic view is that the West raped and pillaged China for 200 years and now its their turn at bat.
I am not a believer in coincidence, nor am I a member of the tin foil hat club. There are simply too many indicators along a relatively short timeline not to consider that perhaps a strategic plan is being executed.
Noslack
I wasn't looking at getting on another technology thread. But yes we as a nation, the best and brightest in the world has us at the hands of so many. Yet as shown with the Government shutdown we were attached and mayor issues happen. Well it was reported how the FDA WAS hacked during the government shutdown, they weren't the only government organization with serious security issue. Seems that the Federal Election Committee back in October was hacked by Chinese hackers resulted in systems containing election funding data. You think China will use this information?
http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/17/5219536/recent-hacks-against-us-election-watchdog-seen-as-worst-in-history
Yes I'm one that believes that China is executing a strategic plan against us.
I look at how as a nation our children dependence on digital devices has increased so much. Kids owning a tablet is up 30% and reports put smartphone ownership into the 80%. I had an issue with my kids not running the streets, playing football or basketball or running in the woods. Most military people get their kids into sports, hunting, shooting or something. Yet with most American children we are not producing
Understanding the impact of digital devices in the lives of our kids in the growing years. As parents we adopt ways that maximize the positive effects of technology use for our children and assuaging the negatives. Yet with our world going so digital will America keep up. Looking at this book, I think just as today we have people coming into the military that can keep up with the digital devices we are working with now. Will our moral progress keep with the pace of our technological evolution?
If we have kids growing up with a bunch of tablets and smartphone. Teaching in our public schools will be driven to a digital base due to teachers pay in states has gone to a low. We will have people that can learn the digital warfare, yet will we have the people to teach the basic. Land Nav is now CPOF or FB2CP or whatever the next thing is. Looking at SF being teachers of the world, in 2035 when we have T-1000's will we still have people able to teach non-digital formats? Will we have to start teaching how to do that in the SFQC?
PokemonMaster
12-21-2013, 01:32
:First post since Introduction:
My question is. What are you afraid of? Everything from the lettuce you eat (harvested from a computer guided farm vehicle) to getting in contact with your Congressman is being done with technology. It's about efficiency and even convenience. I used to have a Japanese pen pal when I was a teen, now I skype with Japanese people. Boy do I miss waiting for letters(yeah right).
As for us not having any imagination. Poppycock. If anything we are more imaginative. The things we can do an android OS or any OS for that matter is very imaginative. Creating roms, custom Kernels, etc.
my only concern is anti-socialism in the real world getting worse. Even today people only seem to be able to interact over the internet (Facebook, text). but who knows what the future holds? Cars, Planes all feared at one point.
:First post since Introduction:
My question is. What are you afraid of? Everything from the lettuce you eat (harvested from a computer guided farm vehicle) to getting in contact with your Congressman is being done with technology. It's about efficiency and even convenience. I used to have a Japanese pen pal when I was a teen, now I skype with Japanese people. Boy do I miss waiting for letters(yeah right).
As for us not having any imagination. Poppycock. If anything we are more imaginative. The things we can do an android OS or any OS for that matter is very imaginative. Creating roms, custom Kernels, etc.
my only concern is anti-socialism in the real world getting worse. Even today people only seem to be able to interact over the internet (Facebook, text). but who knows what the future holds? Cars, Planes all feared at one point.
You'd have lasted maybe four hours during the Survival iteration when I went through the Q course.
I look at how as a nation our children dependence on digital devices has increased so much. Kids owning a tablet is up 30% and reports put smartphone ownership into the 80%. I had an issue with my kids not running the streets, playing football or basketball or running in the woods. Most military people get their kids into sports, hunting, shooting or something. Yet with most American children we are not producing
Understanding the impact of digital devices in the lives of our kids in the growing years. As parents we adopt ways that maximize the positive effects of technology use for our children and assuaging the negatives. Yet with our world going so digital will America keep up. Looking at this book, I think just as today we have people coming into the military that can keep up with the digital devices we are working with now. Will our moral progress keep with the pace of our technological evolution?
If we have kids growing up with a bunch of tablets and smartphone. Teaching in our public schools will be driven to a digital base due to teachers pay in states has gone to a low. We will have people that can learn the digital warfare, yet will we have the people to teach the basic. Land Nav is now CPOF or FB2CP or whatever the next thing is. Looking at SF being teachers of the world, in 2035 when we have T-1000's will we still have people able to teach non-digital formats? Will we have to start teaching how to do that in the SFQC?
We want to ensure our kids are capable of using technology, but not excessively reliant on it. So they get study time on both computer and tablet(some great learning tools available) and a bit a game time if they earn it.
Few things drive me crazier than seeing teachers who fail to genuinely leverage classroom technology, and rely on it as a crutch.
Earlier this year we had a light infantry close country exercise. I was running lead section over a hellish bit of dirt chocker full of steep terrain and extremely dense gorse(like briar patches).
It was a great opportunity for old school nav revision. I did have my 2IC using a GPS with overlayed topo map as backup.
We weren't perfect, but we did a pretty good job over a truly hellish bit of dirt and made our aggressive timings.
After the activity I got pulled up by chain of command for not using GPS the entire route. My response was that the GPS system could fail, GPS units can fail, batteries can fail. So it's critical for my scouts and I to be proficient in land nav.
It was the first time I've heard GPS is reliable enough for soldiers to really depend on. In my opinion, manual land navigation is a basic soldier skill and I will never budge from that position.
I'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.
Don't get me wrong....I love the potential technology offers and we want our kids(and my soldiers too) to love it as well.......but as a supplement to human creativity and innovation.
Introducing technology not only introduces potential capability, but also potential vulnerability.
We seem to focus more on the potential for capability while ignoring the equally real potential vulnerability.
Just as technology could not reliably and consistently penetrate triple canopy of the jungle, Google Street View and 1st world persistent surveillance cannot reliably and consistently penetrate the urban triple canopy of megaslums.
mark46th
12-21-2013, 15:15
If you give my 2 year old granddaughter an iPhone or an iPad, she will have open and doing something in about 10 seconds. It is frightening how fast the little ones pick this stuff up,
GratefulCitizen
12-21-2013, 15:31
If you give my 2 year old granddaughter an iPhone or an iPad, she will have open and doing something in about 10 seconds. It is frightening how fast the little ones pick this stuff up,
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506466/given-tablets-but-no-teachers-ethiopian-children-teach-themselves/
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506466/given-tablets-but-no-teachers-ethiopian-children-teach-themselves/
Interesting........
A few years back my wife and I purchased a bunch of the original OLPC laptops for developing world kids and picked up 2 for our own.
Neat little tools, that even though they are outdated, still quite useful.
The mesh network capability/functionality on it was a bit ahead of it's time.
Now they've partnered with the likes of WalMart to sell OLPC branded tablets that are even cheaper.
It certainly reinforces one of the 4 megatrends Kilcullen built his book "Out of the Mountains" around.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, I'm quite frustrated with a couple lazy teachers I've seen using technology as a crutch rather than a tool.
I'm strongly of the belief that my kids will be far better off with a mix of teacher led learning combined with self-led best practice learning apps and outdoor hands-on physical activity.
I can see big chunks of teaching slowly becoming quite disintermediated(fewer real teachers and more "learning facilitators"......if that's the case, then the potential for positive education reform as well as negative political/doctrinal/propaganda vulnerability could also increase.
If you give my 2 year old granddaughter an iPhone or an iPad, she will have open and doing something in about 10 seconds. It is frightening how fast the little ones pick this stuff up,
Here's an interesting one:
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-ipad-baby-seat-20131219,0,6662842.story#axzz2o63QTLp2
When our kids were babies and I was deployed we received "Baby Einstein" DVDs.
I think the company sold for about a billion based on a marketing gimmick......good on them!
In reality, for my wife trying to juggle everything in my absence it was a convenient 20-30 minutes to get things done and keep the boys mesmerized with colours, shapes, and sounds.
A higher tech version of wind up and elastic toys we had as children.
What does concern me is the potential risks posed to children(and adults too) using smart phones and tablets where the same subtle audio/visual/psychological techniques implemented with modern video gambling terminals to hook gamblers could become problematic.
Audio/visual technological addiction.
I was just reading something a few months back that was a bit startling where the article posited that teens were expanding technology spending at the expense of smoking/drinking/drugs.
IF true, I don't see public policy and parents across the spectrum suddenly doing a better job across the board.....it leads me to suspect it's simply one form of addiction being dominated by another
DevilSide
12-30-2013, 10:46
http://endthelie.com/2013/02/19/u-s-air-force-promotion-video-showcases-frightening-insect-sized-killer-drones/#axzz2oybz3VqX
That's a bit creepy ^
Makes me think we're advancing in ways to kill each other far too much. Almost seems like they want to put us out of a job.