Cold Constructs Blog

If you’ve played an RTS, such as the Command & Conquer series, StarCraft, or WarCraft, you know what I’m already talking about. If you haven’t played those games or anything like them, do it. But what I’m going to talk about is how to streamline the chain of command by simplifying the way soldiers receive orders using existing (American) technology.

A soldier needs a HUD, a GPS unit, and a comm link - tools US soldiers already carry. The Commander needs a terminal that displays the position of his army using the GPS satellites. He can click on a certain point on the screen to ’select’ a soldier. He can then click wherever he wants that soldier to go. The soldier sees this on his HUD as a waypoint - his compass says go that way for X amount of distance to reach the waypoint. His computer does this by receiving the coordinates of the waypoint and store it on the soldier’s system. The computer then compares the two positions and calculates the distance and direction of the waypoint according to the soldier’s current position.

This can be done for anything with said required tools, such as vehicles, ships, and aircraft. The general can give orders in realtime to the people on the battlefield and receive instant feedback. If something goes wrong, he’ll know and be able to respond accordingly at that instant. Such flexibility will certainly give the point-and-click commander an unfair advantage over his enemy - exactly what one needs to win a war.

But there’s more. Mesh networking can allow soldiers to link up in realtime and share information, including what other soldiers are seeing. They will know where their allies are and identify the enemy’s position by having the system automatically piece together intel from other soldiers into a overall view of the battlefield. Bringing such a wealth of information to a commander will allow him to make better decisions and outwit the enemy.

With all the cameras in London, shouldn’t it, you know, not get bombed? Security cameras aren’t working because no one’s watching. They’re good to catch the criminals, sometimes, but the damage has been done. Instead, open up the camera networks to allow anyone in the world to see them. With so many streaming technologies available, there’s no technological hurdle here, just bureaucratic bullshit… as usual. They’re afraid of change, and that will be their downfall. With an open camera system, people will be given a new tool that makes life so much easier. Wondering if your favorite restaurant is busy now? Check the stream. Did your kid wander off? Check the area for him using cameras that are right around the corner.

With such a multi-funtional camera system (audio should be included as well), there will always be people watching. Not only that, but everyone will be able to keep an eye on the police and other public servants to make sure they’re doing their job right.

The possible benefits (and assured ones) are worth the cost of opening up our cities, and frankly, that isn’t a high cost - the cameras are already in place.

With the advent of instant global communications and incredibly powerful computational devices (ie not just PCs) people have been talking about a new era of greatness where peace and love and harmony will be born and… whatever. It’s about balance. Huge central criminal organizations did Bad Things, so other huge organizations got good at taking them out. Suddenly, those criminal organizations stopped acting as such and became decentralized - small, distributed, and flexible, allowing them to do more. Now the other huge organizations are freaking out and wondering how to counter such a force.

If you can’t beat them, join them. In this case, mimic their structure. Become more organic and systems-based - ditch the obsolete hierarchy model. Of course bureaucrats don’t want this to happen, because that would mean the system that gave them power will be destroyed. Too bad, bitches.

So here we are with all this new tech and capabilities. Things will be different, but as the old cliche goes, some things will never change. In this case, it’s that there will always be violence and crime no matter what we do. We’re evil by nature (it’s what got us this far), and we’re also very clever (another survival factor). We will always wage war and kill each other - no amount of technology will change that. However, some tech can curve this, but villains will adapt or even evolve to new strategies (and of course we should never underestimate the power of stupidity) that will bypass our prevention techniques. That’s life, kid, live with it.