If you are currently an IT professional or a member of any other hierarchical organization such as a corporation, governmental agency, charitable or religious organization, or even a friendly social club of like-minded people, then you are quite familiar with the logical absurdities that can arise in all such hierarchies of human DNA survival machines as I outlined in Hierarchiology and the Phenomenon of Self-Organizing Organizational Collapse. In Why is Never Again Again?, I explained that all human DNA survival machines are somewhat eusocial in nature because we all live in similar oligarchical-hierarchical societies like the fully-eusocial ants and wasps do. Such oligarchical-hierarchical societies always have a Supreme Leader and a 1% class of oligarchs who run the society mainly for the benefit of themselves. However, throughout the very dismal history of human DNA survival machines, there have been a few rare occasions of oligarchical-hierarchical societies that have actually benefited large portions of the governed population thanks to the profound insights of the 17th-century Scientific Revolution and the 18th-century Enlightenment. The United States of America and the remaining western democracies of the world are prime examples. Nonetheless, we have all experienced times when the Supreme Leader of our oligarchical-hierarchical organization has obviously gone over the edge and made some obviously bad decisions that we are all afraid to acknowledge because of the Time Invariant Peter Principle that I introduced in Hierarchiology and the Phenomenon of Self-Organizing Organizational Collapse.
The Time Invariant Peter Principle: In a hierarchy, successful subordinates tell their superiors what their superiors want to hear, while unsuccessful subordinates try to tell their superiors what their superiors need to hear. Only successful subordinates are promoted within a hierarchy, and eventually, all levels of a hierarchy will tend to become solely occupied by successful subordinates who only tell their superiors what their superiors want to hear.
With the recent failed invasion of the Ukraine by Russia, the entire world already knows that Vladimir Putin has made a huge blunder. Even Vladimir Putin knows that he has made a huge blunder. Yet, the entire world must now suffer because of Vladimir Putin's obvious blunder. But why? The only reason why is due to the harmful effects of the Time Invariant Peter Principle in action. Any Russian human DNA survival machine who would dare to confront Vladimir Putin with the obvious truth of his blunder would be quickly dispatched in a manner that has befelled all of Vladimir Putin's rivals over the past 25 years. It seems that accidentally falling out of windows has become a major hazard in Vladimir Putin's Russia.
The Software of Vladimir Putin's Blunder
With the above in mind, I would now like to apply some softwarephysics to the problem. Why must the entire world suffer when one particular Supreme Leader goes off the edge? We have seen many times before when a single Supreme Leader has gone off the edge and led an entire people into the abyss when the likes of Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm, Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot, Vladimir Putin and many others go over the edge. Why should millions of people die just because a single Supreme Leader becomes unhinged? Could software be used to solve such a problem? With the recently failed invasion of the Ukraine by Russia, we now can all see that things have dramatically changed when it comes to fighting wars on the European continent due to the impact of software on tactical battlefield operations. This is yet another example of the dramatic impact of software as software is becoming the most recent wave of self-replicating information to come to predominance on our planet. How else could the once-all-powerful Russia be defeated by a relatively small and formerly overlooked nation like the Ukraine? I believe the answer is that the limited resources of the Ukraine forced the Ukraine to fight with small military units equipped with "smart" weapons stuffed with huge amounts of AI software to take down the goliath Russia. The Russian invasion failed because Russia tried to refight World War II in the Ukraine with a blitzkrieg of tanks and warships from the last century.
We have now seen that any weapons system that requires more from a human DNA survival machine than to simply aim at a target and push a single button in a "fire and forget it" manner is a truly "dumb" weapons system that is now totally obsolete. But fighting wars with truly "dumb" weapons and strategies is certainly not new. In The Great War That Will Not End, I explained that the technological advances of rapid rail transport of men and material to the battlefield via railroads combined with the ability of machine guns and advanced artillery to make major frontal assaults across open fields of battle a suicidal effort finally led to the trench warfare of World War I. World War I broke out in August of 1914 and the losses on all sides during the first few months of combat were huge because military planners had not realized that the technology of warfare had drastically changed. For example, the Wikipedia article below describes the losses during the first few months of the war on the western front in the Battle of the Frontiers before the generals discovered the benefits of trenches.
Battle of the Frontiers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Frontiers
Here is a section from the article that speaks to the catastrophic losses suffered before both sides began to dig trenches to protect themselves from machine gun fire and artillery.
In The World Crisis, Winston Churchill used figures from French parliamentary records of 1920 to give French casualties from 5 August to 5 September 1914 of 329,000 killed, wounded and missing, German casualties from August to November of 677,440 men and British casualties in August and September of 29,598 men. By the end of August, the French Army had suffered 75,000 dead, of whom 27,000 were killed on 22 August. French casualties for the first month of the war were 260,000, of which 140,000 occurred during the last four days of the Battle of the Frontiers. In 2009, Herwig recorded that the casualties in the 6th Army in August were 34,598, with 11,476 men killed and 28,957 in September with 6,687 men killed. The 7th Army had 32,054 casualties in August, with 10,328 men killed and 31,887 casualties in September with 10,384 men killed. In the 1st Army in August there were 19,980 casualties including 2,863 men killed and in the 2nd Army 26,222 casualties. In the last ten days of August, the 1st Army had 9,644 casualties and the 2nd Army had losses of 15,693 men. Herwig wrote that the French army did not publish formal casualty lists but that the Official History Les armées françaises dans la grande guerre gave losses of 206,515 men for August and 213,445 for September. During the battle, French casualties were c.260,000 men, of whom c.75,000 men were killed.
Figure 1 – During the first few months of World War I, during the Battle of the Frontiers, all sides continued on with 19th-century frontal assaults in the face of machine gun fire and advanced artillery causing huge loses on all sides.
Figure 2 – The technological advances of rapid rail transport of men and material to the Front via railroads, combined with the ability of machine guns and advanced artillery to make frontal assaults obsolete led to the trench warfare of World War I.
Figure 3 – Trench warfare was a living hell because you could be blown apart at any time by an incoming shell.
Figure 4 – This was true for millions of men on both sides of a senseless conflict.
Figure 5 – Even the comforts of a well-engineered trench could not guarantee safety. This led to the psychological destruction of an entire generation.
Figure 6 – World War I caused the deaths of 20 million people because a few Supreme Leaders in Europe became unhinged. The only Supreme Leader to die was Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.
Figure 7 – To overcome the insanity of trench warfare, all sides in World War I developed tanks that were impervious to machine gun fire. Mobile tanks were also very difficult to hit with artillery firing "dumb" shells. But World War I tanks were very unreliable and hard to maintain on the battlefield, so they were not of much use in World War I. However, given 20 years of development, tanks allowed for World War II blitzkrieg-type assaults that made trench warfare obsolete.
Figure 8 – But anti-tank missiles like the Javelin stuffed with AI software have now made tanks obsolete. All you have to do is aim the Javelin at a moving tank and press a button. The AI software on the Javelin will do the rest and you can run away to safety.
Here is a YouTube video that describes how Javelins are used in the field:
The Insane Engineering of the Javelin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUdHzKRiBX8
Figure 9 – The Switchblade 600 is a loitering drone that is launched from a tube with collapsed wings. The Switchblade 600 can then fly for 45 minutes looking for tanks at a great distance. AI software is then used to lock on the target tank and destroy it.
Here is a YouTube video that describes how Switchblade 600 anti-tank missiles are used in the field:
Switchblade 600 For US Special Operations Command
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBES_J9N9k4
Figure 10 – Above we see what happens when "smart" anti-tank missiles loaded with AI software hit two invading tanks. Thanks to AI software, 20th-century blitzkrieg tank warfare has become obsolete.
Figure 11 – Similarly, anti-ship missiles stuffed with AI software have now made warships obsolete. Here we see the Russian cruiser Moskva sinking after being hit by two "smart" anti-ship missiles.
All of this got me to thinking about how we might be able to use software to make warfare totally obsolete. I then recalled that the 1951 movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still already proposed just such an Advanced AI software solution to end warfare. In that movie, an alien form of carbon-based Intelligence named Klaatu comes to the Earth with a very powerful Advanced AI robot named Gort to explain how the carbon-based life forms on his planet and an interplanetary organization of other carbon-based life forms in the Milky Way galaxy had discovered a way to overcome the billions of years of theft and murder that the Darwinian processes of inheritance, innovation and natural selection required to bring them forth as carbon-based forms of Intelligence.
Figure 12 – In the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, Klaatu arrives in Washington D.C. in 1951 in a flying saucer with an Advanced AI robot named Gort to explain that the human DNA survival machines of the Earth must now submit themselves to policing by Advanced AI robots to overcome the billions of years of theft and murder that brought them about or else they would all be obliterated.
The movie ends with Klaatu telling an assembled meeting of scientists that an interplanetary organization has created a police force of invincible Advanced AI robots like Gort. "In matters of aggression, we have given them absolute power over us." Klaatu concludes, "Your choice is simple: join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer." Klaatu and Gort then depart in the flying saucer in which they came. For more about the movie see:
The Day the Earth Stood Still
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Earth_Stood_Still
Here is a short YouTube clip of Klaatu's departing words at the end of the movie:
Klaatu's Speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASsNtti1XZs
We Currently Have the Technology for AI Software to Eliminate Warfare
In Swarm Software and Killer Robots, I warned of the dangers that swarms of killer robots presented. But just as the discovery of fire by our species enabled us to perform tremendous acts of both good and evil, the development of killer robots equipped with huge amounts of Advanced AI software has both its upsides and downsides. So next I would like to point out that we currently have the AI software technology and hardware to eliminate all forms of warfare. The only limiting factor now is that we currently do not have the political maturity to do so. But let me now describe how it could be technically done with the technology that we currently have at hand. My proposal does use swarms of killer robots, but since I am sure that all the defense departments of the world are already currently building and testing killer robots, you should not be overly concerned about that.
To begin, please watch the Sci-Fi Short Film Slaughterbots presented by DUST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-2tpwW0kmU
Figure 13 – In the movie Slaughterbots, swarms of small killer robots equipped with 3-gram charges of shaped explosive use AI software to track down and destroy designated targets.
Figure 14 – The shaped charge of a Slaughterbot can pierce a skull like the shaped charge of an anti-tank missile pierces armor. The jet of piercing plasma then destroys the contents.
Figure 15 – Large numbers of Slaughterbots can be dropped from unmanned drones to form multiple swarms of Slaughterbots.
How it all Could Work
Like in the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, let's suppose that the United Nations comes together to create an AI-driven system to end all warfare on the planet. The United Nations then develops some AI software to monitor all of the current world leaders using advanced Machine Learning software with a heavy emphasis on Deep Learning capabilities. This monitoring software would monitor everything on the Internet in a Google-search manner to assign an Aggression Index to each world leader. The Aggression Index scores of world leaders would be assigned without their permission in a similar manner that credit scores are assigned to all by the Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, and Innovis credit bureaus. As with your credit score, certain actions can be taken to lower or raise the Aggression Index of any given world leader. The Aggression Index of all the current world leaders would then be stored on a blockchain for all to see in a secure manner that cannot be hacked. For more on blockchain technology see What's the Deal with Bitcoins and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)?. All of the world leaders would be able to instantly see their current Aggression Index and the Aggression Index of all the other world leaders, including their adversaries. Now if a very belligerent Supreme Leader should come to power, he might begin to notice that some of his aggressive actions have substantially raised his Aggression Index and that is a very bad thing. You see, if a world leader's Aggression Index rises to dangerous levels, he begins to receive warning text messages on his smartphone like we do when credit card companies detect possible fraudulent charges on our accounts. If such a belligerent world leader does not then cease his war-like activities, he might cross the threshold that inactivates his Aggression Index account. This would be far worse than having your credit card inactivated because several hundred drones would then be dispatched carrying perhaps a million Slaughterbots to inactivate the world leader. Yes, inactivating a world leader has always been seen as an immoral act for some reason. But why has it always been okay for a world leader to kill millions of people for no particular reason at all?
Of course, the above proposal is a total work of science fiction like the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. However, unlike the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, now it is more a work of political science fiction than true science fiction because today we actually have the technology to make it all work!
Comments are welcome at
scj333@sbcglobal.net
To see all posts on softwarephysics in reverse order go to:
https://softwarephysics.blogspot.com/
Regards,
Steve Johnston
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