In all relevant senses of the word "change," the rise of the internet has changed the world.  The nature of the world, and the way we view and respond to it.  From the oldest stodgiest members of society to its youngest barely-mature-but-mature-enough-to-rap-on-a-keyboard constituents, the presence of vast amounts of information and data is an accepted part of the modern experience.  It's changed, quite literally, the face and nature of society.

Including warfare, and the way societies wage it.

One can immediately point out that there doesn't seem to be a vast difference now between what we did a number of years ago in terms of waging war.  We still have soldiers in the field.  We still have men with guns and men in planes with bombs.

To this, one also has to remember that the availability of mass communications is still a relatively young, having only come to mass usage by the public in MY lifetime (which says something, because admittedly I am pretty young).  Given the youth of the use of computer technology for a variety of different purposes, the prevalence of the technology in our daily lives truly is a phenomenal happening, and someday I can say with certainty historians will look back on this point in time and say "those were the days that everything we thought about the world shifted."

I predict that we are indeed witness the beginning of the way humans wage warfare, much the same way that the successful utilization of gunpowder revolutionized the art of killing in (relatively) ancient history.  I predict that any form of military operation will presuppose the existence of technology "scouts" and "soldiers" pushing on a cyber frontier, invading borders of owned components of cyberspace.  These cyber frontiers will be considered just as important as any countries physical borders, and perhaps even more so, as while a single intruder who proceeds a few miles past a border is not a cause for major, but a trained individual who can penetrate a cyber border is a potential storm of destruction and chaos.  An individual, with the right know how, motivation, and resources, can potentially destroy not only the capabilities for an otherwise well equipped military to react and respond to threats, but also attack a nation's economy, infrastructure, capability for mass telecommunications, disrupt trade routes, or any number of sinister and/or subtle plans of varying levels of maliciousness.

I predict that countries with any reliance on technology will begin the setting up of these cyber borders and frontiers, jealously guarded by each nation's security personnel.  The exact definition and what marks these boundaries will need to be established early on, and that will be the first sign of the major transition in warfare.  When borders are established, it firmly establishes the distinction that is necessary for wars to be fought: this is what I own, that is what you own.  If you touch what I own, it is an affront to me and my sense of autonomy.  Do not touch what is mine.

When cyberspace is divided up among countries with power and influence in that same space, cyberspace ceases to simply be an avenue of communication, a plain where ideas are shared, and people are free to roam and interact...

It becomes a battlefield, where each civilian potentially holds a key to something of value to someone somewhere.  Warfare will change.  Conflict will change.  Its soldiers will change as well.

What kind of soldiers will arise?  I have my theories...and I have a feeling that at some point in the future, I will be helping to build an army.  Problem is, I wonder if I ever did sign up for this kind of new war.

I was originally intending this weekend to attend the rally being staged in D.C. this weekend, hosted by Comedy Central personalities Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.



Unfortunately, I was unable to head down to D.C. due to a list of items I need to do here (graduate school isn't all fun and games).  So, instead, I am working out of one eye, and watching the live web stream of the rally out of my other.  Multi-tasking?  Like a boss.


That being said, the intention of the rally is, as you could infer from the titles (and taking into account the tongue-in-cheek character of Stephen Colbert), is to call us back to reason.  It seems we exist in tempestuous times with an ever more polarizing political climate.  Midterm elections are coming up, and for Democrats it appears as though the shift in power to their side may be rapidly coming to a close, if not now in the near future.


The many people who first helped place many Democratic leaders into power in the first place are disillusioned, the magic that permeated the 2008 campaign wearing off to reveal a pumpkin.


I hate to say I told you so, so I won't.  But for us who do prefer sanity, as the rally mentioned above hopes to bring back to the forefront, it was easy to predict this.  Let's start at the top: President Barack Obama.


Many of us who supported Mr. Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign made him to be some kind of god.  We portrayed him as Superman, one capable of things never before accomplished.  We thought him a legend before he had actually accomplished anything at the presidential level, and we annointed him based on potential rather than accomplishment.


It was, to me, insane.


I supported him, and I thought him the best candidate for the job.  But the people on his side were simply, for lack of a better word, insane.  I just wanted to take so many people by the lapels and shake them, and tell them "No!  He's only a man!"  Albeit a good one, and well qualified for the position of president.


Unfortunately, it's insanity that helped put him there, rather than real, honest assessment of who he is and what he can do.  Please, put away the capes people.  You elected a man, not a god.


In these times, we could all use a little bit more sanity, and that applies to all people in all parties.  For those people who still think Obama's a god (and I suspect there are fewer of you now than 2008): be reasonable!  For those who flip flop from one extreme to the other: be reasonable!


People aren't gods.  Neither are they demons.  I assure you, Obama can't save the world with his power.  At the same time, I assure you, John McCain would not have destroyed the world had he been elected.  George W. Bush was not the spawn of satan.  Dick Cheney is not an American mini-Hitler.  Rush Limbaugh in my opinion is still a douche, but he's entitled to his opinions.


Regardless, let's be reasonable for once.  And have reasonable expections as well.