Technological escalation describes the fact that whenever two parties are in competition, each side tends to employ continuing technological improvements to defeat the other. Technology is defined here as a creative invention, be it an object or a method of using an object. This is a natural result of mankind's use of our brains, and the nature of science and technology that understanding and innovations build on each other. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... Shortcut: WP:NPOVD Articles that have been linked to this page are the subject of an NPOV dispute (NPOV stands for Neutral Point Of View; see below). ...

Escalation is usually a negative term, meaning to make bigger in a bad way. However, if two companies are in an escalating war to produce the best widget, the consumer benefits because they get a choice between better and better widgets. In this interpretation, good modern illustrations are the comics Spy vs. Spy and the vicious circle of email spam filters vs. spams by the coding geeks and the spammers. Escalation is the phenomenon of something getting worse step by step, for example a quarrel, or, notably, military presence and nuclear armament during the Cold War. ... Look up widget in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Spy vs. ... E-mail spam, also known as bulk or junk e-mail is a subset of spam that involves sending nearly identical messages to numerous recipients by e-mail. ...

Objects and methods

Technology can include methods as well as objects. The ability to produce chlorine gas was prevalent before the first world war, but using it during battle was an (arguably unethical but) superior military tactic, and thus a technological escalation. General Name, symbol, number chlorine, Cl, 17 Chemical series halogens Group, period, block 17, 3, p Appearance yellowish green Standard atomic weight 35. ...

Paradigms, or worldviews

There is a philosophical difference of opinion on what constitutes the advancement of civilization, and technological progress lies at the heart of the discussion. One view holds that the most advanced civilization is the one that is the most peaceful, compassionate, tolerant (of non-evil acts), just, and worldly. The philosopher Socrates about to take poison hemlock as ordered by the court. ... A peace dove, widely known as a symbol for peace, featuring an olive branch in the doves beak. ... It has been suggested that Idiot compassion be merged into this article or section. ... It has been suggested that toleration be merged into this article or section. ... J.L. Urban, statue of Lady Justice at court building in Olomouc, Czech Republic Justice concerns the proper ordering of things and persons within a society. ...

The other view holds that the most advanced civilization is the one which has the most advanced technology; that civilization 'deserves' to succeed and defeat others, perhaps subjugating them in the process.

One might fairly question if these are, in fact, really in conflict, or if this is merely a misunderstanding by one or both parties. Such questioning would ask such questions as:

• Is the purpose of technology an indicator of advancement or the cause of advancement?
• What ethical constructs should rule the use of technology (power) to further the desires of a social group?
• How should social groups act towards each other when they come into conflict?
• Is technological escalation akin to 'greed' (one of the '7 deadly sins') in that a controlled or moderate amount is a healthy thing serving to motivate one towards a better life, while an immoderate or unrestrained use leads inevitably to evil acts?

Military technological escalation

Main articles: Arms race, Technological warfare, and Technological escalation during World War II

Technological escalation has been one of the most often-cited factors for the dominance of one civilization over another: those with flint, all else being equal, will defeat those with softer or duller stone spear heads, those with the bow defeat those with only the sling, those with the gun defeat those with the bow. The term arms race in its original usage describes a competition between two or more parties for military supremacy. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Technological escalation during World War II was more profound than any other period in human history. ... Central New York City. ... This article is about the sedimentary rock. ... This image depicts a typical bow, as made by the Huns, lying against a tree. ... Home-made sling. ... It has been suggested that Last Call Poker be merged into this article or section. ... This image depicts a typical bow, as made by the Huns, lying against a tree. ...

This view was dominant during the Enlightenment where science and technology began to be seen as the only way to approach natural law, subordinating views of mastery by social, moral, spiritual or other means. It was perhaps apparent that due to superior firepower and the ability to support larger numbers of people due to intensive agriculture which in turn relied on technological support (such as the iron plough and horse or ox yoke), the colonists were triumphing over people in many ways morally, socially and spiritually superior. The doctrines of social evolution and scientism became more common at this time, in the form of a belief in the inevitability of the triumph of better arms and better tools - which made "better people" in the self-serving view of those with such views. ... Natural law or the law of nature (Latin: lex naturalis) is an ethical theory that posits the existence of a law whose content is set by nature and that therefore has validity everywhere. ... Firepower is a measure of the ability of weapons, specifically weapons which involve fire or explosion, to inflict harm, damage, or kill. ... The traditional way: a German farmer works the land with a horse and plough. ... Oxen wearing head yokes A bow yoke is a shaped wooden crosspiece bound to the necks of a pair of oxen, or occasionally horses. ... It has been suggested that Benign colonialism be merged into this article or section. ... Social evolution is a subdiscipline of evolutionary biology that is concerned with social behaviours, i. ... Scientism is a term mainly used as a pejorative[1][2][3] to accuse someone of holding that science has primacy over all other interpretations of life such as religious, mythical, spiritual, or humanistic explanations. ...

Through the 19th century, it was recognized that this put obligations on the conquerors, what Rudyard Kipling called the White Man's Burden. This began to dissolve as the 20th century commenced with the failure of several disarmament conferences, and a series of arms races, beginning with that between naval powers (Britain, United States, Germany, Russia and Japan). When previously minor power Japan destroyed the fleet of Russia in 1905, it acceded to the role of a "major" — clearly it had done this through technological mastery, as it was not even (in the European view) 40 years out of a long isolated period in which its had suppressed all forms of firearms. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the British author. ... The White Mans Burden is a Eurocentric view of the world used to encourage powerful nations to adopt an imperial role. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... Disarmament means the act of reducing or depriving arms i. ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ...

This view of technological mastery guaranteeing ascendance continued with very rapid technological advancement during World War I. By this point, the competing polities were only concerned with their own survival and conquering all the others — the notion of coexistence was subordinated in most, but especially in Germany, Russia and the United States, to the idea of technological escalation to the point of triumph of one master race or economic system. Germany and Japan lost World War II despite various ways (Germany in rockets and energy conservation, Japan in aircraft and materials conservation) in which they had clearly superior grasp of civilian technology. The machine gun was one of the decisive technologies during World War I. Picture: British Vickers machine gun crew on the Western Front. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... A Soyuz rocket, at Baikonur launch pad. ... For the physical concepts, see conservation of energy and energy efficiency. ... “Flying Machine” redirects here. ...

However, the doctrine that technology, rather than say fossil fuel reserves or control of the education of people who ruled the subject peoples, suited the British Empire in its negotiations with the United States to pass off many imperial obligations, where Britain wished to retain such strategic advantages, and also suited the USSR which wished to make no overt point of its massive oil reserves nor its total control of the belief system of great numbers of its own people, and preferred to play the role of victim nation which would "inevitably" win its confrontation with the "decadent" West. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons, primarily coal and petroleum (fuel oil or natural gas), formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants and animals[1] by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earths crust over hundreds of millions of years[2]. The theory that hydrocarbons were formed from these... The British Empire in 1897, marked in pink, the traditional colour for Imperial British dominions on maps. ...

As after the destruction of the Tsar's fleet by Japan in 1905, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left Russia, once again, reconsidering what causes empires to rise and fall. Combatants Empire of Japan Russian Empire Commanders Heihachiro Togo Zinovi Rozhdestvenski # Nikolai Nebogatov Strength 4 battleships 27 cruisers destroyers and auxiliary vessels 8 battleships 3 coastal battleships 8 cruisers Casualties 117 dead 583 injured 3 torpedo boats sunk 4,380 dead 5,917 captured 21 ships sunk 7 captured 6... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... The rise of Gorbachev Although reform stalled between 1964–1982, the generational shift gave new momentum for reform. ... Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the 1991 Gregorian calendar). ...

Due to the immense cost of maintaining the mutual assured destruction balance of terror during the Cold War, and the increasing number of so-called dual use technologies after that War, however, it became important to look more deeply at the dynamics of technological conflicts and escalations. Accordingly, the subject of escalation and the dynamics of technology transfer have come under some scrutiny, more in Russia than in the United States. It is from the Russian analysis that the rest of this article is largely drawn. Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by one of two opposing sides would effectively result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender. ... Balance of Terror, written by Paul Schneider and directed by Vincent McEveety, is a first-season episode of the original Star Trek series that first aired on December 15, 1966. ... For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ... Dual-use is a term often used in politics and diplomacy to refer to technology which can be used for both peaceful and military aims, usually in regard to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. ... Escalation is the phenomenon of something getting worse step by step, for example a quarrel, or, notably, military presence and nuclear armament during the Cold War. ... Technology transfer is the process of developing practical applications for the results of scientific research. ...

Motives

Motives for technological escalation go far deeper than simple desire to triumph in the " necessary evil" of conflict between states. For one thing the massive military spending of the 20th century led to what many called "war profiteering" — supply of war materiel to nation-states for profit. Although some, like the Krupps of Germany, lost a great deal, others, like the Messerschmitts or Daimlers, did very well — the latter remains a prominent name in automotives today. The ends justify the means is a phrase encompassing two beliefs: Morally wrong actions are sometimes necessary to achieve morally right outcomes. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... A war profiteer is any person or organization that makes profits (rightly or wrongly) from warfare or by selling weapons and other goods to one or even both of the parties at war in their own or in foreign countries. ... Materiel (from the French matériel for equipment or hardware, related to the word material) is a term used in English to refer to the equipment and supplies in military and commercial supply chain management. ... For the U.S. town, see Krupp, Washington. ... Messerschmitt is a famous German aircraft manufacturer, known primarily for their World War II fighter aircraft, notably the Bf 109 and Me 262. ... Daimler may refer to Gottlieb Daimler, German engineer and automobile inventor in the 1880s Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, his Stuttgart-based company, maker of Mercedes vehicles since 1903, later merged into Daimler-Benz, maker of Mercedes-Benz vehicles (since 1926) DaimlerChrysler (1998), a part German, part American, part Japanese car maker...

Another convergence is the role of media, especially radio and television, not only in propaganda but also directly in warfare: signals warfare in particular has become a major field, and led to the modern specialized study of information warfare and of civilian persuasion technology. It is often observed that this has shaped the modern discourse on advertising, and the invention of technologies (such as video games) for entertainment that are also of use in military training. So another motive of technological escalation is the provision of new toys, and training devices, that can feed a military-industrial complex. Soviet Propaganda Poster during the World War II. The text reads Red Army Fighter, SAVE US! Chinese propaganda poster from during the Cultural Revolution. ... In telecommunication, command and control warfare (C 2 W) is the integrated use of operations security (OPSEC), military deception, psychological operations (PSYOP), electronic warfare (EW), and physical destruction, mutually supported by intelligence, to deny information to, influence, degrade, or destroy adversary command and control capabilities, while protecting friendly command and... Information warfare is the use and management of information in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. ... Persuasion technology is technology that can be used for presenting or promoting a point of view. ... “Advert” redirects here. ... “Computer and video games” redirects here. ... A stilt-walker entertaining shoppers at a shopping centre in Swindon, England Entertainment is an event, performance, or activity designed to give pleasure or relaxation to an audience (although, for example, in the case of a computer game the audience may be only one person). ... This article needs cleanup. ... President Dwight Eisenhower famously referred to the military-industrial complex in his farewell address. ...

Importantly, a key motive in all competition in all mammal species, especially among males, is simple showing off. Such abstracted arms races as the space race, for instance, show that there need not be any direct gain or material motive involved to cause vast sums of skill and energy to go into goals that are, ultimately, symbolic. Subclasses & Infraclasses Subclass †Allotheria* Subclass Prototheria Subclass Theria Infraclass †Trituberculata Infraclass Metatheria Infraclass Eutheria Mammals (class Mammalia) are warm-blooded, vertebrate animals characterized by the production of milk in female mammary glands and by the presence of: hair, three middle ear bones used in hearing, and a neocortex region in... For a list of key events, see Timeline of space exploration. ...

However, some claim that the space race had by far more spinoff value in the commercial sector per dollar than any money ever invested directly in the military in the 20th century — often estimated as much as seven times greater. In part this is due to the increased demand for extreme environment clothing and life support technologies required for investigating hostile environments for science and for oil exploration. A spin-off (or spinoff) is a new organization or entity formed by a split from a larger one such as a new company formed from a university research group. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... Extreme environment clothing normally refers to clothing for arctic or mountainous areas on land, although it is sometimes used for survival suits worn by mariners. ... Life support, in the medical field, refers to a set of therapies for preserving a patients life when essential body systems are not functioning sufficiently to sustain life unaided. ... Part of a scientific laboratory at the University of Cologne. ... Oil exploration is the search by petroleum geologists for hydrocarbon deposits beneath the Earths surface. ...

These motives (commercial spinoffs, showing off by wasting resources, control of opinion of an elite class of technologists users and scientists whom one will need in warfare, and simple profit) combine in most cases to render technological escalation all but inevitable once a conflict has begun between two technological and industrial civilizations. For these and other reasons, Marxian economics focuses on the inevitability of wars under capitalism. Note: Marxian is not restricted to Marxian economics, as it includes those inspired by Marxs works who do not identify with Marxism as a political ideology. ... Capitalism generally refers to an economic system in which the means of production are all or mostly privately[1][2] owned and operated for profit, and in which investments, distribution, income, production and pricing of goods and services are determined through the operation of a free market. ...

By contrast, theorists of green economics tend to subscribe to the view from feminism that it is the "showing off" and the need to waste resources to prove one's competence and sexiness, that dominate the logic of technological escalation of warfare. Green economics is an approach to economics in which the economy is considered to be a component of, and dependent upon, the natural world within which it resides and of which is it considered a part. ... Feminists redirects here. ...

One interpretation is that capitalism permits inferior beings qualified only for deception to lay access to media with which they can lay claim to the achievements of the superior beings who actually create the technology and do the science. Another interpretation is that the ability to grab attention being in fact the point of the whole exercise, superiority must itself be measured by ability to control the media and claim credit for things done by others — a form of fraud-based kleptocracy. Thus the issue is a deeper one of sexual cognition — females pay attention to males in proportion to their ability to waste great amounts of resources, and males compete with other males to gain power to do so. This article or section includes a list of works cited but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... It has been suggested that Neural mechanisms behind shifts of attention be merged into this article or section. ... Kleptocracy (sometimes Cleptocracy) (root: Klepto+cracy = rule by thieves) is a pejorative, informal term for a government that is primarily designed to sustain the personal wealth and political power of government officials and their cronies (collectively, kleptocrats). ...

Proponents claim it would be hard to imagine a theory that is more strongly rooted in biology than this, and more difficult to convincingly and fully refute, and that the theory is not much criticized because there is no way to gain status from criticizing something so clearly and obviously true. Biology studies the variety of life (clockwise from top-left) E. coli, tree fern, gazelle, Goliath beetle Biology (from Greek: βίος, bio, life; and λόγος, logos, knowledge), also referred to as the biological sciences, is the study of living organisms utilizing the scientific method. ...

Effects

Technological escalation has occurred in many wars, and been key to victory in some of their battles — the longbows at the Battle of Agincourt and the chariots of the Hyksos. Clearly other factors exist as in the Vietnam War, the United States utilized a far higher level of technology and production than the Viet Cong, and the technology specific to fighting in Southeast Asia did improve during the war progressed — but other factors overshadowed this technological superiority, and the United States ended up losing. Combatants Kingdom of England Kingdom of France Commanders Henry V of England Charles dAlbret Strength About 6,000 (but see Modern re-assessment). ... For the torpedo-shaped underwater vehicle ridden by two frogmen, sometimes referred to as a chariot, see Human torpedo. ... An image representing the Egyptian pharaoh Ahmose I defeating the Hyksos in battle. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... A Viet Cong soldier, heavily guarded, awaits interrogation following capture in the attacks on Saigon during the festive Tet holiday period of 1968. ...

In the present day, the effects of technological escalation on the largest scales are not disputed: constant threat of terrorism and asymmetric warfare due to, for instance, nuclear proliferation spreading to militant groups and individuals, and a great degree of tension and confrontation between an increasing number of industrial states that have the capacity to wipe out each other's populations — thus, an increasing percentage of the skills and energy and resources of each such power is devoted to anticipating and preventing the conflict arising from the weapons that they, due to whatever motives, feel compelled to produce. Terrorist redirects here. ... Asymmetric wsexfare originally referred to war between two or more actors, or groups of actors, whose relative power differed by a significant amount. ... World map with nuclear weapons development status represented by color. ...

However, these effects are often taken as inevitable or manageable, and much more explicit attention is paid to the commercial effects of technological escalation, which is most usually known by the euphemism innovation.

Examples of commercial technological escalation are often indistinguishable from examples of pro-technology propaganda, of which the 1980s AI boom and much larger and global 1990s dotcom boom are the best known examples. In each case, the applicability of expert systems and e-commerce respectively had yet to be proven, but the same factors as above led to the invented "need" to have the "latest and greatest" technology to brag about in one's advertising, and to have at least some of one's portfolio in the "sexy", "high-tech", "growth" stocks — which of course turned out largely to be incapable of sustaining the required profitability. The 1980s refers to the years from 1980 to 1989. ... For the band, see 1990s (band). ... Dot-com (also dotcom or redundantly dot. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Electronic commerce, EC, e-commerce or ecommerce consists primarily of the distributing, buying, selling, marketing, and servicing of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. ... Investment management, also called portfolio management or money management, it is a branch of investment analysis that looks into the process of managing money. ...

The effects of technological escalation are also trivially visible in the computer gaming world — where access to higher Internet bandwidth and faster computers tend to determine success in the popular first person shooter and even, increasingly, the real time strategy computer games. This of course leads to a larger and larger percentage of one's income being "invested" in computer hardware for these purposes, perhaps in pursuit of some prize or recognition for success at a game. ... A first-person shooter (FPS) is a computer or video game where the players on-screen view of the game world simulates that of the character, and there is some element of shooting involved. ...

See also

• Arms race
• Competition
• Conflict
• Industrial revolution
• Technological escalation during World War II
• War