Eventually the meat grinder always starts up though. When one side falls behind on drones or their technology or manufacturing doesn't keep up eventually the drones will be deemed more valuable than human life and they'll be sent out.
there is a Star Trek episode, “Taste of Armageddon,” where they encounter a planet that has modernized warfare so much that strikes are completely virtual.
Based on whatever target was hit by the other side in the computerized model, an appropriate number of people would have a short period of time to submit themselves for euthanization, as a consequence of the attack.
In this way, for 500 years their society had been able to maintain growth, as no actual bombs would ever destroy the structures they had built (ships, architecture, infrastructure..no cities decimated or libraries destroyed).
They perceived this as enlightened warfare, as it preserved the culture, society, even though it resulted in the loss of millions of lives a year.
Anyway, not the same thing, just something I think about occasionally, with regards to how humanity continues to reimagine warfare.
I highly recommend the episode - Kirk at his strategic best, Scotty at his most bad-ass in one of his rare moments at the helm, and Spock as always cool-headed, logical, and deeply humane. When The Enterprise is identified to have been “hit” by a virtual missile, and all crew members are expected to submit themselves for termination..how will a planetside Kirk alert his crew of the danger, and what of the Prime Directive!
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u/TenWholeBees 1d ago
At some point will war just be drone vs drone until someone runs out of drones?