A former U.S. military officer turned novelist details in his new book that technology alliances may be on the political agenda for the world in the coming years.
“For us, the true source of national power may not be military or economic, especially when it comes to the technology we imagine and the incredible power it will unleash, but it may soon become a technological force.” “It’s become clear that there is,” Elliott Ackerman told FOX News Digital.
“Whoever gets there first will be far ahead of their rivals and will be able to dominate as a nation,” he said.
Ackerman served eight years in the U.S. Marine Corps, serving in the Middle East and Central Asia as an infantry and special operations officer. After his retirement, he pursued a career as a novelist and used his experience to write highly acclaimed novels.
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A few years ago, Ackerman began collaborating with retired U.S. Navy Admiral James Stavridis, who wanted to look into the future of war in his novel 2034: The Next World War. This book looked at how a naval war between the United States and China would unfold ten years from now.
Their latest collaboration, “2054,” goes further, taking us into a world that is still unrecognized but visibly and deeply transformed by advances in technology, including burgeoning modern technological ideas such as artificial intelligence (AI) and genetic manipulation. Focused.
Let. U.S. Marine Elliot Ackerman stands alongside veterans.Admiral James G. Stavridis (Getty Images)
For example, this future Japan “leveraged artificial intelligence, robotics, and quantum computing to compensate for its shrinking workforce and traded frequently with India, which provided a huge market for the technology.” and clearly reflect current concerns about the population. Decline of East Asian nations.
“AI can enhance decision-making processes, increase the speed and accuracy of operations, improve surveillance and reconnaissance, optimize logistics and resource management, and facilitate advanced simulations for training and strategic planning. ,” retired U.S. Navy Admiral James Stavridis said in a paper. Interview about the book by El Blog.
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But he noted that “technical challenges include ensuring reliability and security against cyber threats,” adding, “legal and regulatory considerations for the use of AI in combat, and the need for machine autonomy and human “The challenge of maintaining a balance between oversight remains key,” he said. The trajectory of technology in the hands of humans.
The novel also describes what the novel calls “an ‘intelligence explosion’ when machine and human learning merge into a single consciousness, equivalent to thousands of years of biological evolution packed into months or weeks.” It also repeatedly focuses on the quest to achieve the Singularity, defined as . . ”
Recruits of the 1st Independent Mechanized Battalion “Da Vinci Wolves”, named after Dmytro Kotsiubairo, train during five days of training at the military’s outdoor firing range in central Ukraine, March 12, 2024. Learn how to operate an FPV attack drone. (Valentina Polishchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
“This is a story about great power competition, and it’s the oldest story out there,” Ackerman said. “But in our case, it’s not an arms race, it’s not necessarily a nation-to-nation war. It’s a technology race, it’s a nation-to-nation race to be the first to reach the singularity. So we… We both wanted to tell a compelling story.”It’s a very old theme, but one that looks to the future. ”
Ackerman explained that his day as a journalist means always having “one foot in the technology space and the other in the international and domestic political space.” His novel 2054 therefore provided an opportunity to merge these interests and consider how they would influence each other in the coming years.
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Ackerman reiterated the general idea that the introduction of AI would prove a “power multiplier for the military” and “fundamentally change the way wars are fought, from targeting to command and control.”
But he expressed concern about the ethical questions that will continue to be at the heart of the use of AI, particularly “who or what controls the U.S. military’s movement systems?”
On May 7, 2024, Israeli military tanks take up positions in southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip as the conflict continues between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. Smoke rises in Gaza during Israeli shelling. (Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)
“Who decides to pull the trigger?” Ackerman asked. “Who will use deadly force? Is it always a human? Or will that authority be delegated to algorithms and AI in some cases to shorten response times?”
“These are all really big questions that are being raised right now, and I think we’re living in a time of incredible change in the military as we speak,” he added. Ta. “Look at what’s happening in Ukraine. There’s a very different war going on than the one I fought 10 years ago.”
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The novel includes many technological advancements that improve the quality of life, such as the advantages of suborbital flight to speed up travel, allowing the characters to traverse the world in just a few hours. Masu. While this idea may have served as a plot convenience, it creates a strong sense of world-building and helps connect the present and future presented in the novel.
“We spent a lot of time talking about how this book would feel. And what remains the same?” he explained.
“It’s always this process of trying to guess what changes in technology will be, but also doing it in a way that serves the story and isn’t distracting,” he added. .
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Throughout the conversation, Ackerman dances along a line that betrays the central tension. It is to the desire to find and provide answers that comes from his days as a journalist, and to the novelist’s urge to ask questions and stimulate thought.
“I try to write the type of books that I enjoy reading, but the types of books that I enjoy reading tend to leave me asking questions rather than providing answers when I close the book. That happens a lot,” Ackerman said.
