From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Message Hash: 4cf65ddd5a3825611f87fce0cd8d93e665f6454bae920cc0d1a4ad56b994eeb0
Message ID: <199511230141.UAA02365@pipe4.nyc.pipeline.com>
Reply To: N/A
UTC Datetime: 1995-11-23 02:14:21 UTC
Raw Date: Thu, 23 Nov 1995 10:14:21 +0800
From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Nov 1995 10:14:21 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: The Mesh and the Net
Message-ID: <199511230141.UAA02365@pipe4.nyc.pipeline.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
SciAm's December article on future high-tech carnage cites:
"The Mesh and the Net: Speculations on Armed Conflict in a
Time of Free Silicon," by Martin C. Libicki, March, 1994.
(233kb)
Available on the Web at:
<http://www.ndu.edu/ndu/inss/macnair/mcnair28/m028cont.html>
NDU is the National Defense University, Libicki's teat.
He is quoted: "We're getting a lot of clever ideas about how
to fight a Gulf War more efficiently, but we rarely get
anything about how to fight a Vietnam more efficiently."
Here are excerpts from his preface:
Mesh -- the term applied to military applications --
points to the holes; as information technology places a
finer mesh
atop the battlefield, more objects are caught in it. Net --
the term
applied to civilian applications -- points to the substance
of the
system; the connectivity of people and their machines
suggests new
patterns of social relationships and new venues for
conflict. Silicon,
that which is to become free, stands for both semiconductor
chips (for
computation) and optical fibers (for communications).
Argument: The relationship of the once and future revolution
in
information technology to warfare is analyzed in several
steps:
* Chapter One outlines the basis for this revolution and
explains
why its most natural expression is the dispersion rather
than
accumulation of information power.
* Chapter Two examines its expression on the battlefield
in three
aspects: Pop-up warfare, the rise of the Mesh, and the
evolution
of Fire-ant warfare.
* Chapter Three examines whether the revolution on the
battlefield
translates into a commensurate revolution in military
organization.
* Chapter Four discusses implications for acquisition,
research and
development.
* Chapter Five extends the analysis to the case of
low-intensity
conflict.
* Chapter Six attempts a broader assessment of how
civilian
applications of information technology, the Net, may
affect
national security.
* Chapter Seven contrasts the Mesh, and the Net.
* The Epilogue considers certain reasons why information
technology
may not translate into the victory of the Small and the
Many over
the Few and the Large.
-----
<www.ndu.edu/ndu/inss> and links offer an ape-lab of global
insecurity ebolas.
Return to November 1995
Return to “Mats Bergstrom <asgaard@sos.sll.se>”