Six speculations on life in the computer age with Robert Powell
4: The Pact
Imagine that power has shifted from the Atlantic to the Pacific Basin; that
America, Japan, Australia and China form a military and commercial alliance. Suppose that warfare has become so automated that human reflexes are too slow to compete; that tanks and planes under the control of computers fight without people on board, and even declaring war is automated. Could an insurgent group in the Philippines accidentally start the countdown to the Third World War? Sound DOUG MAWSON
Graphic designer CLIVE HARRIS Producer PAUL KRIWACZEK