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Bullets or buttons?

Ponder this possible view of the near future:

The Euro has collapsed, leaving Europe a financial shambles.

Iran has launched a feeble but symbolically massive nuclear attack against Israel.

Russia has pre-emptively attacked key bases in the rapidly growing anti-missile defense system that as grown like a vine along its border with Eastern Europe.

Taiwan is calling on the USA for military help after China moves to regain control of this break-away territory.

Indonesian troops and boat-people are flooding south and landing on the beaches of Australia's Northern coastline.

In darkened rooms in key US military bases, small armies of highly skilled computer hackers tap away at keyboards, searching for vulnerabilities in the control and information systems of their foes.

Half a world away, equally skilled computer nerds do the same in Russia, China and a handful of Islamic states.

The most hi-tech war the world has ever seen (and perhaps will ever see) has begun.

Robotic unmanned aircraft are launched by the USA, scouting enemy territory for details of troop movements while, far overhead, military satellites move in their orbits so as to get a better view of sensitive areas.

Every now and then the armies of hackers score a victory and some part of the enemy's critical infrastructure goes down -- despite a designed resilience to such cyber-attacks.

China moves to play its trump card and thousands of critical pieces of communications hardware begin to malfunction -- the microcode embedded in their silicon brains having been triggered into action by seemingly innocent packets of data originating from outside the USA.

DARPA are in a huddle, but even its attempts to organise video-conferenced meetings are ankle-tapped by the double-agent chips on which much of the hi-tech infrastructure has been built.

Meanwhile, Israeli drones have over-flown strategic locations in several Arab states nearby and high-level talks have identified key targets from the live video streams that flow back to those in charge. The word is given and a number of hi-tech fighter jets are dispatched to deliver nuclear weapons in retaliation of Iran's first-strike and to subdue any attempts by those aligned with that nation to join in the battle.

Australia finds itself rapidly running out of weapons and munition as it seeks to fend off the overwhelming tide of invaders. The USA is far to busy to lend a hand. Taiwan is also told that the USA is too busy to respond right now. Things do not look good.

NATO, normally hog-tied by bureaucracy and indecision takes a surprisingly fast-track to retaliation against Russia's first-strikes and dozens of fighter-jets are sent to the border area in anticipation of further conflict. Russia sees this as an aggressive move and deploys the first nuclear weapon of the apocalypse.

Despite frantic attempts at telephone diplomacy, tensions rise. Putin, clearly aware that without a war his own fortunes will remain in steep decline, warns the USA that unless all NATO and other military forces are withdrawn from along the borders with Russia, more nukes will follow.

The USA finds itself unable to step back from the brink and launches an all-out pre-emptive strike on known Russian missile bases.

The Skies of the Northern hemisphere turn a crimson red.

...

Of course this is pure fiction - but there are those who believe we are very close to such fiction becoming reality.

The world, they say, is facing hitherto unmatched levels of financial, political, religious and environmental pressure. All it will take is some kind of trigger to set the whole planet afire with conflict.

What's more, thanks to the way we've been able to use technology to "depersonalise" such conflicts, there may be a reduced reluctance to take the first step.

It's a whole lot easier to push a button from the safety and relative comfort of an underground military base and, by doing so, kill thousands or even millions -- than it is to line those same people up against a wall and shoot them.

WW2 was a nasty, bloody, violent war. WW3 could be a lot more clinical but far more deadly.

Your thoughts?

Might the proliferation of hi-tech make those who press the buttons less hesitant to take the lives of those they see as their enemies?

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