 Originally Posted by stonedape
We don't need to control it's evolution. I'm suggesting we stop using this tactic. Rupert asserts that war constantly evolves and from this you conclude that war is a fact/can't be stopped. A bit of a jump, no?
You still have absolutely no evidence, no solid proof. Try to explain why this is a fact in a short concise manner; I'm interested as to why you see this as FACT.
By the way, if war constantly evolves, it will eventually stop itself. Eventually we will have strong enough weapons that either we will kill everything, or it will be pointless to fight because the technology will be so strong that whichever side is more advanced will automatically win. We are already very close to this point and will likely reach it within our lifetime. If they ever get nano-bots going the military will be obsolete. Think of a microscopic computer that can kill you without you ever seeing it. This is the kind of thing we will see if we continue to let war evolve.
Battle not with monsters lest ye become a monster ~ Nietzsche
You yourself would become a hostile force, would you kill yourself when you finished?
"We don't need to control it's evolution. I'm suggesting we stop using this tactic. Rupert asserts that war constantly evolves and from this you conclude that war is a fact/can't be stopped. A bit of a jump, no?"
Stop using what tactic? Tactics are always changing. You can't stop military evolution just as you can't stop human evolution. War is a natural manifestation of human psychology when placed in the context of a civilized world. Unless we physically evolve and develop new psychological traits, which is not likely, we will always have war. Don't you realize that for war to end, you need the cooperation of the entire human race? Even if you were able to acheive some miraculous measure of peace throughout the world, it would never last. The only way we may be able to end war between nations is to create one super nation, under one ruling government. That won't happen as long as different cultures exist because not all cultures agree on everything. Maybe in the year 3000 when we all evolve into one generic race we could form this unified earth, but there would probably still be infighting and civil wars, because divisions will still exist inside that super-nation. Humans, in their current physical form, need war. This isn't a conclusion that I myself have jumped to, it is common sense among historians.
"You still have absolutely no evidence, no solid proof. Try to explain why this is a fact in a short concise manner; I'm interested as to why you see this as FACT."
I won't be able to dig any one thing out of the ground and point to that object as unambiguous proof of this concept. How do you prove George Washington existed? There is a skeleton with his name labeled above it, but how can we really be sure that skeleton was the one that became the first president of the United States of America? Good knowledge of history and logical thinking will allow you to come to the conclusion that warfare, as ugly and destructive as it may be, is also naturally and perpetually a part of human society. The evidence is interwoven into 5,000 years of civilized history, and its roots can be traced back several million years. Warfare could be described as a negative side effect of large scale civilizations. Our violent tendencies served a specific purpose in the cave man days, they evolved for a reason. These psychological constructs won't suddenly devolve just because we became civilized. Primal instict paired with a group think mentality is the major force that drives countries into war. Nations will do what the natural human would do, they don't have a conscience. Nations have the drive to survive just as individuals do. This doesn't mean war is mindless. Good leaders know the futility of trying to end war, which is why they dedicate their time and energy to forming a strong military, and utilizing that military in the most effective and humane way possible. It is the only way to ensure the safety of their country. Your argument is that we should simply be able to overcome these insticts, but you aren't looking at the big picture. You are treating nations as if they were individuals with human emotions, and that is obviously not the case.
Take a land dispute for example. Two countries equally believe that they own a particular piece of land, neither one is willing to compromise. Country A invades the piece of land in question in an attempt to forcefully take what they believe to be theirs. It is not reasonable to expect country B to stand aside and allow this to happen, they also believe this land is rightfully theirs. How do you resolve this conflict? Remember each country believes the whole of this land is rightfully thiers. It is too easy to say they should split it in half when you aren't personally involved, we both know that is not a realistic outcome.
Conflicts like this are all too common, and they can be traced back to our primal instincts that evolved a million years ago. As I said earlier, military force is as much, if not more about national security than it is about a need to dominate the world.
So why don't you explain to me how you think we can end war. All you have said so far is that we should simply stop, just overcome our emotions, as if it were that easy. Maybe if you sit and really think about formulating a plan for world peace, you will begin to see my point.
"By the way, if war constantly evolves, it will eventually stop itself. Eventually we will have strong enough weapons that either we will kill everything, or it will be pointless to fight because the technology will be so strong that whichever side is more advanced will automatically win. We are already very close to this point and will likely reach it within our lifetime. If they ever get nano-bots going the military will be obsolete. Think of a microscopic computer that can kill you without you ever seeing it. This is the kind of thing we will see if we continue to let war evolve."
Military evolution has no endpoint, just as biological evolution has no endpoint. There is no destination at which evolution stops. It is a misconception to think we are on a road to self-destruction. Evolution simply means change, there is no specific direction. Meaning weapons won't just continue to get bigger and bigger. We invented nuclear weapons 70 years ago, since the end of the Cold War, weapon development has taken another turn. Now the emphasis is not on absolute destruction but rather precise, controlled destruction. Smart bombs can be dropped on a specific building, or a specific car, or even a specific person rather than carpet bombing a ten square mile area with the hope of destroying our target. During the war in Iraq, smart bombs with no explosive charge at all have been dropped. A large hunk of metal dropped from several thousand feet produces enough force to destroy the more fragile targets. The casuality rate from the Interstate Industrial War era was many times higher than the preceding two eras combined. To say we will eventually destroy ourselves with nuclear weapons or nanobots is to make a prediction that you are not at liberty to make. That is like saying humans will evolve larger calf muscles that allow us to jump 20 feet in the air. While this is technically possible, the odds of it happening are infinitesimally small. There are far too many variables to make such predictions.
"Battle not with monsters lest ye become a monster ~ Nietzsche
You yourself would become a hostile force, would you kill yourself when you finished? "
This is another instance of you failing to look at the big picture. I think you took Nietzches quote out of context. He is referring to conflict on an individual level. Obviously a monster like the Nazi Empire needs to be crushed.
And why would you kill yourself? You are not hostile to everyone, only your enemies.
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