Artificial Intelligence and gun powder

 At start of modern era, gun powder weapons were hard to handle so specialists had to be hired. So the mercenary armies replaced the levy.

In the search to make weapons more affordable, they were improved till they were easily used by anyone who can breathe.

Then they were mass produced and used by conscript armies with little training.

At the end of cold war, the weapons became smarter, but not really usable by any conscript. So contract soldiers were preferred. 

Next step will be to make these new weapons usable by any conscript, and they to do it is to use artificial intelligence.

This will democratize the violence.

Smaller actors will buy ready made solutions, armed their conscripts and attack big actors who use legacy system.

A drone with a smart algoieill trick air defenses, sneak into an airport and damage a plane.

This is seen in Ukraine war very often.

Capital,labour and resources

 The capital organises labour, labour transfers and transforms resources.

Suppose you have 1 million $, and you want to build a house.

The one million doesn't transforms overnight in a house.

You have to pay labourers who will dig the dirt. Fire bricks, and lay the bricks.

Labour better is organized the more efficient it is, and more expensive it is 

A construction company is more expensive than daily labourers but is more efficient.

About ideology and meaning

Religion,fascism and communism don't alleviate the human suffering, they give it a meaning.

Religion however encourage solidarity between people and material conditions improve with donations from rich to poor.

Totalitarian regime don't encourage solidarity because they want to divide and conquer.

The world wars are similar to group madness?

 Panic selling on financial market,food hoarding and witch hunting are some well known cases of group madness.

But the world wars are similar ?

After all first world war started with a small conflict between Austria and Serbia and ended with all Europe in flames.

All activities above have 2 things in common:

1. The actors don't comunicate

2. Their actions try to avoid a loss, and they try to pass that loss on other actors.

In sort it is a null sum game.

In case of shares, if 2 actors agree not to sell shares, the one who cheats will gain by selling at a better price.

Both they have interest to sell fast their shares.

In case of war, the one who cheats the armistice gains unless it can be punished.

In case of wars the actors try to finish fast their conflict. The intensity and scale of war affects security of other actors who decide to intervine now rather than later when they will be alone 

Germany in WW1 was a threat for security stability so British empire had to contain it. Also invasion of Belgium was a dumb thing done by Germans. British empire being obliged by the treaties to intervine..

Because of powerfully economical connections between US and British empire, the German adventure threatened US security, and it was dragged in war.

Now with so much interconnection, further and further countries will be dragged in this war. Not with troops , despite mercenaries been recruited from Latin America and Middle East,but economically.

Beyond good and evil

 I just read a biography of Richard Nixon by John A. Farrell, and it was interesting to see how and idealist and ambitious WW2 veteran become a jaded, scheming politician.

According to the author Nixon at the end of his career didn't had values of good and bad. He signed Enviroment Protection Act, OSHA for safety of workers, aided people in Peru but he bombed Cambodgia and Laos ignoring the collateral damage done to the civilians from these neutral countries.  

I am thinking maybe the opposite to good is not evil, but lack of bad and evil.

After all Stalin and Mao were pragmatist. Stalin wanted to accelerate industrialization and moved with force peasants from country side into the city.

Forgotten revolution

 Yesterday Italian prime minister Menținut, reminded italiana about the fight against communism and the support of the Ukraine.

She mentioned the self immolated chezckoslovakian martyr  Jan Palach, the efforts of Pope John Paul 2, the fall of Berlin wall but she forgot the Romanian revolution where 2000 young people died for freedom.

Poor sould forgetfulness is worse than death for a hero.

Epic life

Religion makes life epic, heroic, meaningful.

Marriage is union of masculine and feminine under the watch of God.

Birth is coming a new soul in this world, death is ascension to heavens 

Modern world has transformed epic struggle of the people to feed themselves, by hunting, sowing and harvesting, in a uneventful 9 to 5 job and a trip to supermarket.

Marriage is a social contract, birth a medical procedure, death a disease.

Everything is uneventful and predictable, that becomes boring

Compare the dullness of modern life with the passion of religious life. Man is an actor in the divine plan. Devil and God, fight for his soul. 

His actions have cosmic consequences, he and people could in hell or in heaven.

No wonder that people will return to religious life and reclaim their individual importance.