Postmodern Medieval Pandemonium with AI & Nukes
We often seemed trapped in the past regardless of how far we peer into the future. It’s part of human nature. We trust in what we know. Or, rather, we believe in what we think we know. So future world wars may be more kinetic than World Wars 1 and 2 with missiles, rockets, cyberattacks, killer robots, swarms of AI drones, economic strangulation, space combat, EMPs, and total mobilization of the nation by the state. Then as the losing side, or rather those who fear to be losing, grow desperate, they resort to messy chemical and biological weapons. At some point they unleash nuclear and thermonuclear weapons. The other side does the same almost simultaneously. Humanity and most life in Earth ends in a scared fury of omnicidal madness.
A future world war may resemble the European Wars of Religion more than the Second World War. Nation-state regimes lose their power and status as stateless-nations, religious groups, and ethnic tribes reassert themselves. In addition, other non-state actors such as terrorist groups, transnational corporations, mercenary groups, criminal gangs and cartels, and private militias continue to assert themselves. The Westphalian System of governance breaks down as a neo-feudal, neo-medievalist world with current technology rises into primacy. Instead of world government, even a democratic world republic, we get a hodgepodge of overlapping, quarreling jurisdictions waving many flags. Continue reading