This post originally appeared on my political blog at https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2021/10/naivete.html.
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I hear some activists make some extraordinarily naive statements at times.
One such, by someone whose worldview has been influenced by having been spent most of their life both "well off" and as an early adopter of technology, has made nonsensical statements along the lines of "I am surprised there are still piloted planes".
Piloted systems have weapons and speed capabilities that UAVs still don't, but, more importantly, if that person had done any checking, they would know how out of touch with military reality that statement is. They possibly thought they were advocating for the use of technology, but all they were doing was sounding foolish and lacking in credibility.
The other key aspect of thinking that the person concerned got wrong was to think economists and the military would put the same value on life as peace activists do.
They don't: they think differently - some economists and most military people do value human life, but they weigh that against other goals, which leads to a different end result of assessment than that followed by peace activists (such as myself).
It is VITAL to understand such matters, or otherwise you risk not being effective in what you seek to do.
The other key aspect of this is that, because of the difference in weapons capabilities and issues around ethics (which, again, many, if not most, military people are genuinely want to comply with), unpiloted and other autonomous/remotely operated systems are still more expensive than what we have now.
If anyone doubts that, consider that much of the Rwandan genocide was committed using machetes that cost around 20 cents ... (and could have EASILY been stopped by conventionally equipped military forces).
A major problem international weapons trade is still the trade in 'small arms" (rifles, pistols, etc), and those are still used to create a terrible amount of death and destruction.
An AK47 is cheaper than any remotely operated, less alone autonomous, killing system - and can be used without the supporting technological infrastructure that people such as the one I am considering take for granted.
That puts them basically somewhat out of touch with reality.
And if we are going to change the world, we have to understand what it is really like first.
