May 7, 2002
Feel like upping the ante? ...
Rock, paper, scissors. Remember that game? We all played it as kids. As a way of settling disputes, it needs no referee - scissors cuts paper, paper covers rock, and rock breaks scissors.
Of course, depending on whom you play it with, it's not necessarily even. You can psych out your partner, or be psyched out yourself. Nevertheless, there's one thing that you can't really do, and that's up the ante. You don't get to say that your rock is so big the paper won't cover it, or your paper is made of space-age material that scissors can't cut, or that your scissors are made of kryptonite.
It's rock, paper and scissors, all equally in balance, a perfect loop. Eventually, you'll always get a resolution to the dilemma at hand.
--
Another way to come to the resolution of a dispute is called armed conflict. If it continues long enough, and sovereign nations are involved, it may actually get classified a "war," but the classification matters little. Whether it's Afghanistan today, or Desert Storm, Vietnam, Korea or World War II, at a basic level, it's all the same.
Armed conflict has always had a strong, integral relationship with technology. From the spear to the battering ram, from swords to torpedoes and Tomahawk missiles, technology has changed the weapons of war, continually upping the ante, and playing a major role in the outcome. In fact, the promise of a new technology has lured more than one aggressor into waging war in the first place.
Yet, while we all readily agree that no human is perfect, we blindly expect that both new and old technology is. The Golden Gate Bridge will let us drive to San Francisco, the airplane we're riding on will take us to London, and the Titanic won't sink.
But we all know better than that. Or do we?
--
Even technology that works eventually suffers obsolescence, and every technology has an unsuspected weak underbelly that is vulnerable to opportunity or chance.
For every new technology that enables a surprise, lightning strike, it is only a matter of time before a new one will be able to defend against it. For every apparently invincible technology, which may never be defeated in its time, we can confidently expect that future generations of technology will render it docile or ineffective. Witness the Great Wall of China.
The siren song of each successive wave of new technology is just that - a mesmerizing enticement which loosely veils the lurking danger beneath. Humans will be maimed or lose their lives. Families will be destroyed. The heartache of a lifetime is created in an instant, and hatred endures for generations.
--
There's really no payoff for this upping of the ante, knowing that the ante will simply be upped again. The technology will either be trumped, or at the worst possible moment betray you. But the lesson never seems learned.
I sometimes wonder if this is some essential failing of human nature. Since man builds technology, why can't we stop? Why can't we break the spell?
But even if we could play rock, paper, scissors instead, you know it wouldn't really work. You see, everyone would have to play by the rules. And history is consistent on this point. We don't.
I'm Moira Gunn. This is Five Minutes.
