11:39am 2/4/96 A Sunday -
I woke up very early this morning and had some trouble falling back to
sleep. But I conceived of a future history, when China fights India
in a war of maneuver, underground. The seas are a medium which are
difficult to see through. The ground is even more difficult, though.
If a technology comes into being in the next century which allows a
vehicle to burrow as quickly as a sub swimming through water, one has
the possibility of a strange mole-like conflict. To spot these
vehicles would be tough. The energies and technology might to us seem
like magic, but it is not so bizarre, especially if there is a liberal
use of nuclear energy.
11:45
Perhaps the flaw in the logic is that the wake of such a craft is very
visible. Although the medium may be easy enough to move through,
there is a very obvious trace of where a craft has been. The
possibility of burrowing craft is not absurd, but to describe them as
hidden may be less than true.
11:48
The idea that both China and India will rise to prominence at once is
based on an assumption of the value of the individual in the
near-future. Is it true? Especially when the infrastructure needed
to educate the individual is so expensive. But with low cost
computing and communication, maybe it is possible. Certainly there
are still the basics of food, shelter, and organization when have to
be solved. China continues to become more prosperous, but India shows
few signs thereof. And thus, perhaps, it will be India which later
comes to challenge China for dominance. Of the rest of the world,
what then? It should be remembered that there are other regions of
population, wealth, and organization which may be significant.
America may decline in relative power, but there are still vast tracts
of interesting land in the American West and the Canadian North. And
the melting pot continues to function beautifully.