War and Peace

Abstract

The impact of the information revolution on the problems and threats engendered by human conflicts has been ambivalent, as was the impact of the earlier technological revolution. The destructive potential of war has obviously been increased by several orders of magnitude. This increase is to be attributed not only to the harnessing of new, awesome sources of energy, but also to the creation of weapon systems whose effectiveness depends on the fantastically rapid information processing made possible by computers and servo-mechanisms —products of the information revolution. The possible positive contributions of the information revolution in alleviating other forms of human conflict depend upon the uses to which information technology will be put. The uses to which information is put depend on the value systems of those who direct the uses and on the value systems of those who give support or acquiesce to those decisions.