I’m writing a series of lectures on ‘future war’, reflecting on DCDC’s stimulating work on the future character of conflict. The first slide is coming together nicely:
That’s my vision of future conflict – in a world free from grass stains. Hoffman, Smith and Krulak can keep their dystopias. But lest I be accused of intellectual shallowness, here’s what I have for slide two:
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GORDONS ALIVE!!!
(You’ve already been scooped: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/debut-teaser-ghost-recon/61743 ;) Apparently future war consists of bad editing and ninjas.)
Brilliant. When are you giving the lecture?
In a few weeks. One’s in Germany, actually, Thomas.
Ken, did you ever read the book Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan?
http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Carbon-Takeshi-Kovacs-Novels/dp/0345457684
It’s sci-fi. Kind of trashy and written in a style which very much suggests Morgan has high hopes of a film option. Actually, it would make a good film. But to get to the point the book is set 5 centuries from now in a future in which the main character is ‘an Envoy, a member of a military unit formed to cope with the challenge of interstellar warfare. Faster-than-light travel is only possible by transmitting a digitally stored consciousness across space into a new sleeve. Transmitting normal soldiers in this way would severely inhibit their effectiveness, since they would have to cope with a new body and an unknown environment while fighting. To combat this, Envoy training emphasises mental techniques necessary to survive in different bodies over physical strength, and the sleeve in which they are transmitted has special neuro-chemical sensors which amplify the power of the five senses, intuition and physical capabilities.’ (Just stole that bit from wikipedia to save time. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon )
What I find interesting is the novelistic device that requires you to think of the soldier and not his kit. I’m not suggesting that the character is some sort of template to follow. It’s all rather First Earth Battalion http://www.firstearthbattalion.org/ when you come to think of it. But I do wish that more often when we think about the future of war/future soldier that we start with the soldier, what he needs to know, skills to have before we start pondering the cool stuff he’ll need to carry around.
David, so you say – but like Dr Evil, I just want sharks with frikkin’ laser beams.
In truth, I’m starting with society, not with soldiers or weapons. Clausewitz, come on down…
Meanwhile, for those who didn’t pick up on the post title:
Personally I find Ghost in the Shell to be a rather nice predictor of the future. Of course we can’t predict what technologies will heavily alter society beforehand, but some things obviously will have an impact sooner or later.
On another note, no offense meant KP but in my opinion most sci-fi writers and costume designers have no sense of fashion whatsoever. Give me a couple of months and three people I knew from high school and college and I could get three outfits that people are far more likely to wear in the year 2100 then anything that they show on television.
FG – go for it! But seriously, are you suggesting they could top Wilma here? That would take some doing…