technology: now with more oppression!

a couple of news items from the ol' intertubes have gotten me a little creeped out about the future of warfare technology.

first, slashdot reports on a program in the us air force dedicated to enable full access to "any and all operating systems, patch levels, applications and hardware." for those of you who don't speak geek, this means that the usaf wants the ability to hack and use any single computer in the world they have access to, from google's mainframe to the blackberry that that self-important douchebag in your office looks at every three seconds.

while this scares the hell out of me and i'm going to do everything i can do avoid a gubmint-made hack attack, they've got every right to begin to develop technologies to withstand cyberattack. cyberwars will be a pivotal part of 21st-century warfare, as our informational nerve center now has huge bearings on commerce, information distribution, and spontaneous grassroots organizations aka 'smart mobs'. the first major cybershots were fired last year, when russia allegedly began attacking estonia's internet infrastructure with ddos attacks (translation: overloaded their web pages with requests). the pentagon is even afraid that china is pushing to "achieve “electronic dominance” over each of its global rivals by 2050, particularly the US, Britain, Russia and South Korea," according to the times of london (disclaimer: the times is wholly owned by rupert murdoch's news corporation).

ok, so if everything is going to be cybernetic in 21st-century wars, what about the soldiers? yep, them too. the next generation of felon-cum-colonel could very well be equipped with "an 'exoskeleton' of aluminum and electronics that multiplies his strength and endurance as many as 20 times," says the associated press. however, it's allegedly being developed with civilian and non-violent purposes in mind as well.

i don't want to immediately scream 'orwell!' over the robot suits. we're probably not going to be constantly raided by thugs and hicks with gatling guns for arms. all i'm saying is that once this future shows up, the second amendment had better be updated to include the right to wear kickass robot suits.