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From this article over at DARPA we get some fantastic news:
New landmines will soon communicate via a radio network, and move from place to place in order to be most effective.” Termed the “self-healing minefield”, the individual mines are capable of detecting an enemy breach and then moving to seal the gap.

The patriotic, all-American types are going to be all over this. Minefields that can actually go on the offensive. “Landmines are awful, but letting genocidal dictators rule the world is worse“. You know what else sucks? False dichotomies. And yes, I also concede that tanks, machine guns, mandatory military service for all South Korean men, nuclear bombs, Delta Force, Chuck Norris, and the prayers of innocent children have helped to keep North Korea from invading South Korea. That’s the ‘dichotomy’ part of ‘false dichotomy’. You can actually have no mines as well as not be invaded.

A part of me wants to believe those kinds of arguments, but history has proven time and time again that new weaponry never reduces human misery. Look at, for example, non-lethal policing weapons. They haven’t replaced lethal force, they’ve just allowed the police to weaponize conflicts they previously wouldn’t have had weapons for. Now they can shoot first against a civilian demonstration if they aren’t using bullets. I’m sure the people working on those projects imagined their technology replacing firearms. I, personally, would refuse to work on any weapons project, no matter how rosy a picture the client painted for me.

And now we have smart landmines that talk to each other and coordinate with each other as to how best to effectively kill the enemy. Princess Diana is rolling over in her grave. What the fuck is wrong with the world?