It's great to see someone with a following tackle this as the idea of war as something that can have a biological purpose that has been obscured through nihilism and managerial process in the modern age. I find myself wondering if PTSD has something to do with the technology used in warfare since the industrial revolution. Of course war impacts a person's psyche regardless of age, but the way we fight it now seems to have an increasingly detrimental psychological effect on combatants. Not so much because of the brutality of modern warfare, but of the absence of the meaning and potentially cathartic effects of pre-cyberized warfare. The medium is the message, but I think it is also the war now.
I had been thinking about the impact of this on loyalty https://nobody69d.substack.com/p/psa-002 but "meaning deflation" is such a great term for it that I'm stealing it.
>" I find myself wondering if PTSD has something to do with the technology used in warfare since the industrial revolution."
I have a strong recommendation for you - "Tribe," by war correspondent Sebastian Jungen (he also did a JRE interview on the book). I think you're probably right.
One more note, you've written such a great article here, I think there will be tangible impacts on the battlefield itself from what you've described. As meaning is subsumed by data, intelligence estimates on adversaries will be understood differently as well. https://nobody69d.substack.com/p/psa-008?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
I'd like to say we are close enough to the ground floor to influence the next 10-20 years, but when I take a step back I wonder how bound to our marketplace runners we are. I think the real innovations are close, but yet to come.
It's great to see someone with a following tackle this as the idea of war as something that can have a biological purpose that has been obscured through nihilism and managerial process in the modern age. I find myself wondering if PTSD has something to do with the technology used in warfare since the industrial revolution. Of course war impacts a person's psyche regardless of age, but the way we fight it now seems to have an increasingly detrimental psychological effect on combatants. Not so much because of the brutality of modern warfare, but of the absence of the meaning and potentially cathartic effects of pre-cyberized warfare. The medium is the message, but I think it is also the war now.
I had been thinking about the impact of this on loyalty https://nobody69d.substack.com/p/psa-002 but "meaning deflation" is such a great term for it that I'm stealing it.
>" I find myself wondering if PTSD has something to do with the technology used in warfare since the industrial revolution."
I have a strong recommendation for you - "Tribe," by war correspondent Sebastian Jungen (he also did a JRE interview on the book). I think you're probably right.
I'll check it out!
One more note, you've written such a great article here, I think there will be tangible impacts on the battlefield itself from what you've described. As meaning is subsumed by data, intelligence estimates on adversaries will be understood differently as well. https://nobody69d.substack.com/p/psa-008?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
Yes, that's what Anduril is promising through the Lattice system and the like.
We are living in interesting times, to say the least.
I'd like to say we are close enough to the ground floor to influence the next 10-20 years, but when I take a step back I wonder how bound to our marketplace runners we are. I think the real innovations are close, but yet to come.
I’d say read history, but of course that’s behind the times.
Well put!
Disturbing. If I recall right, the galactic civilization of DUNE banned AI. Long, but related: https://open.substack.com/pub/pilgrimsinthemachine/p/from-blackboards-to-black-vestments