The Blank Day

Late last night, about ten minutes before the midnight hour and the change of day, I struggled over what to twitter before I was content to just let the day go blank, and I thought it might be better to do that more often, instead of cluttering an already heavily loaded blog with more throw-away writing, in the same vein that I no longer want to cut and paste so many articles - as if to make my blog more quality.

I have some regrets the morning after. I favor more the sculptor's model for writing, that is, you throw up a lot of stuff and work and re-shape it from there.

The better course may be to stop leaving the day blank until evening in the faith that I will whip something up, especially since my memory is not so keen that it keeps the little pregnant moments lived through earlier in the day. Looking inside yourself and facing the blank emptiness in the black of night with the day dying around you is not a comfortable place to be.

The Blank Day

Late last night, about ten minutes before the midnight hour and the change of day, I struggled over what to twitter before I was content to just let the day go blank, and I thought it might be better to do that more often, instead of cluttering an already heavily loaded blog with more throw-away writing, in the same vein that I no longer want to cut and paste so many articles - as if to make my blog more quality.

I have some regrets the morning after. I favor more the sculptor's model for writing, that is, you throw up a lot of stuff and work and re-shape it from there.

The better course may be to stop leaving the day blank until evening in the faith that I will whip something up, especially since my memory is not so keen that it keeps the little pregnant moments lived through earlier in the day. Looking inside yourself and facing the blank emptiness in the black of night with the day dying around you is not a comfortable place to be.

Wired for War

"Wired for War" is a new book by P. W. Singer about the new technology of warfare, such as Predator drones that are sort of like remote-controlled airplanes but not for kids. One interesting angle:

There are all sorts of ripple effects that we are just starting to be aware of, and again, these are already happening with the first generation of these systems, the Model T Fords compared to what is coming. For instance you have the rise of a new type of warrior, who I call “cubicle warriors” These are combatants who have the novel experience of juggling the psychological disconnect of being “at war” while still dealing with the pressures of still being “at home.” In the words of one Predator pilot, “You are going to war for 12 hours, shooting weapons at targets, directing kills on enemy combatants and then you get in the car, drive home and within 20 minutes you are sitting at the dinner table talking to your kids about their homework.”

This, of course, has taken the already preexisting tensions that soldiers in the field have towards those behind the lines and put them on steroids. It also has some worried that it might make the experience of war too distant, make us lose respect for the foe who share the bond of risk, and even make the contemplation of war crimes too easy. More than a century ago, General Robert E. Lee famously observed, “It is good that we find war so horrible, or else we would become fond of it.” He didn’t contemplate a time when war became a daily grind of commuting to work each morning in your Toyota Camry, shooting missiles at an enemy 7,500 miles away and then hoping you are going make it home in time for Friends. Being able to move more Americans out of harm’s way may effect our very decisions on when and where to use force. Many I met with worry that more robots will make us more cavalier, a return to the “cruise missile diplomacy” of the 1990s, but on a whole new level. “We’ll have more Kosovos and fewer Iraqs” is what one former Pentagon official predicted.

For those who are sensitive to the possibility of American bullying, Singer points out that this technology is also accessible to lesser powers, including terrorists: "A militant website already has offered as a prize the chance to remote detonate an IED in Iraq via your home computer, while one of our bomb-squad robots in Iraq was even captured and then turned back into a mobile IED. So we may also see new sparks of terrorism."

I don't know if this is progress in any morally compelling sense. Maybe it's just human nature all wired up.

Wired for War

"Wired for War" is a new book by P. W. Singer about the new technology of warfare, such as Predator drones that are sort of like remote-controlled airplanes but not for kids. One interesting angle:

There are all sorts of ripple effects that we are just starting to be aware of, and again, these are already happening with the first generation of these systems, the Model T Fords compared to what is coming. For instance you have the rise of a new type of warrior, who I call “cubicle warriors” These are combatants who have the novel experience of juggling the psychological disconnect of being “at war” while still dealing with the pressures of still being “at home.” In the words of one Predator pilot, “You are going to war for 12 hours, shooting weapons at targets, directing kills on enemy combatants and then you get in the car, drive home and within 20 minutes you are sitting at the dinner table talking to your kids about their homework.”

This, of course, has taken the already preexisting tensions that soldiers in the field have towards those behind the lines and put them on steroids. It also has some worried that it might make the experience of war too distant, make us lose respect for the foe who share the bond of risk, and even make the contemplation of war crimes too easy. More than a century ago, General Robert E. Lee famously observed, “It is good that we find war so horrible, or else we would become fond of it.” He didn’t contemplate a time when war became a daily grind of commuting to work each morning in your Toyota Camry, shooting missiles at an enemy 7,500 miles away and then hoping you are going make it home in time for Friends. Being able to move more Americans out of harm’s way may effect our very decisions on when and where to use force. Many I met with worry that more robots will make us more cavalier, a return to the “cruise missile diplomacy” of the 1990s, but on a whole new level. “We’ll have more Kosovos and fewer Iraqs” is what one former Pentagon official predicted.

For those who are sensitive to the possibility of American bullying, Singer points out that this technology is also accessible to lesser powers, including terrorists: "A militant website already has offered as a prize the chance to remote detonate an IED in Iraq via your home computer, while one of our bomb-squad robots in Iraq was even captured and then turned back into a mobile IED. So we may also see new sparks of terrorism."

I don't know if this is progress in any morally compelling sense. Maybe it's just human nature all wired up.