Crazy Thought of the Month: Digital Wars

Instead of whirrs of overhead jets and cranks of creaking tanks, think soft purrs of CPU fans and subtle clicks of keyboards. In place of grenades and AK-47s are 500-terabyte hard drives and wireless keyboards. That will be the new battleground in the year…2274 (I’m not really sure…).

Don’t worry; I’m not suggesting that future wars will be fought with WoW characters or Youtube hate comments.

Just hear me out for a second. I mean, if you think about it, in a couple centuries from now, people’s lives will mostly be digitalized into individual accounts. Facebook/Twitter will be a major corporation and holder to everything, from our medical records to the clothes we buy. Money will no longer consist of bills but are wired electronically through our profiles. In order to gain access to jobs, schools, or anything, we’ll depend on those red notification flags or event requests. In essence, our existence is chained to high-security internet websites.

This new wave of globalization (or digitalization…) is going to change warfare. What is gonna happen is that state armies will consist of hackers, not gun technicians or jet pilots. That way, when China declares war on the US over recalled toys, the opposing geeks (no offense…?) are going to be working furiously to change and destroy each other’s profile information. In the process, they might go after innocent civilians to bring down inferior economies. Suddenly, you can’t go to work at the factory because these hackers deleted all your information for it. They might even erase your financial records, and now, you can’t even buy a cup of coffee. Wouldn’t that just really ruin your day?

Worst of all, you might even lose your Top Friends!