The Age Of Spiritual Machines - 1271 Words

In The Age of Spiritual Machines, Ray Kurzweil forecasts the future with advancements based on the accelerating increase in technology intelligence. Kurzweil makes a series of predictions starting at the year 2009 and going to 2099 with several main categories including warfare. In 2009 Kurzweil predicts that â€Å"humans are generally far removed from the scene of battle and that warfare is dominated by unmanned intelligent airborne devices† (Kurzweil 197). The use of technology has definitely increased in warfare and has saved tens of thousands of human lives. Kurzweil believes that the human element in fighting wars will become obsolete. Instead of humans fighting in the field, they will fight from behind screens controlling various†¦show more content†¦This is due to the fact that a war that consists entirely of machines would be impossible to fund, humans will always have the instinct to fight, and today we do not have the technology enabling machines to be abl e to make ethical decisions that humans can. The ability to fund a war consisting entirely of machines would be an impossible feat for the wealthiest nations, let alone one severely in debt like our own. The United States is currently experiencing a national debt of over $18.4 trillion which is continuing to rise at an unprecedented rate(usdebtclock.org). At a cost of approximately $40 million dollars the U.S. has developed the RQ-1 Predator drone (militaryfactory.com). Although it does play an important role in today s warfare, with the national debt continuing to rise there is no way the â€Å"United States [could continue being] the world s dominant military power† by producing an army of machines as Kurzweil foresees. Some might say that spending in the military has never stopped us before why should it now? If we increase our spending in the military by such a degree we will reach our debt ceiling just as we did in October of 2013 essentially causing a government shutdow n. This is why we continue to see the use of humans in war simply because humans are the most economical way to fight a war and to remain the world s dominant military power. We are all taught that fighting is bad and to stay away from any form of physical