It was Thucydides who called war “the human thing” – the only definition the Greek historian was willing to offer. War and humanity have evolved together from the beginning. The problem is that 21st-century technology is changing our understanding of war in deeply disturbing ways. “The human [element] is becoming the weakest link,” in the words of an unclassified report from 2003 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), the Pentagon body responsible for the development of technologies for the US military.
修昔底德(Thucydides)稱戰(zhàn)爭是“人類本性”，這是這位古希臘歷史學(xué)家愿意提供的唯一定義。從一開始，戰(zhàn)爭與人性就交織在一起不斷演變。問題是，21世紀(jì)的科技正在以極其令人不安的方式改變著我們對戰(zhàn)爭的理解。美國國防高級研究計(jì)劃局(DARPA)在2003年的一份公開報(bào)告中指出：“人類（因素）正在成為最薄弱的環(huán)節(jié)。”DARPA是五角大樓負(fù)責(zé)美軍技術(shù)開發(fā)的機(jī)構(gòu)。