Drones, Starlink, and the Ukraine war
The war in Ukraine deserves more attention. I say this knowing that other conflicts also merit coverage – the Middle East and Sudan foremost among them – but I decided to devote this week's Techtonic to Ukraine, for a couple of reasons.
First, I wanted to share a book. I spoke with Yaroslav Trofimov, chief foreign-affairs correspondent of The Wall Street Journal, about his book Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine’s War of Independence – which describes the first year or so (2022—2023) of the war.
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Throughout the book, Trofimov notes the growing influence of technology on the war. Drones of all types, and Starlink (Elon Musk's satellite internet service), have proven crucial to Ukraine's defense.
At any one moment, hundreds or thousands of drones are in the air across the front lines – on both sides, Ukrainian and Russian – spotting targets, guiding missiles, and in some cases delivering the explosives onto the target. This is a change in how warfare on land is fought (and at sea, in the case of Ukraine's naval drones attacking the Russian fleet). It's worth learning how things have changed since I interviewed Arthur Holland Michel five years ago about drone surveillance and his book Eyes in the Sky.
As for Starlink, it's a complicated situation. The world's richest man can decide – as he has, at least once – when Ukrainian units can, and can not, access Starlink. One unelected, unaccountable billionaire is making unilateral decisions that affect the war. (And then there's his recent alliance with a presidential candidate who wants to cut off support for Ukraine.)
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I should also note that Starlink is poised to wreak all sorts of harm to the upper atmosphere – and compromise the research of astronomers worldwide – and possibly set off a catastrophic runaway cascade of collisions called Kessler syndrome – all of which I discussed in my Techtonic interview with astronomer Samantha Lawler a few months ago. (Strong recommendation for that interview if you missed it.)
But beyond all of this, perhaps the most important reason we should pay more attention to Ukraine is because of what's at stake. As I say in my Techtonic intro this week, Ukraine is fighting for its life – and its freedoms – against an authoritarian dictatorship that deploys surveillance technology against its citizens. We should be against this use of digital tech, whether it's invading from Russia, or indeed being installed under our noses in the US and UK. As I wrote in last week's column:
Dismantling the surveillance state is going to take years, decades even, as citizens begin to stand up for their civil rights. It's work that must be done, assuming we want to live in a democracy, and I wish Carlo and Big Brother Watch all success.
Further complicating matters is that Ukraine is defending itself, in part, with drones – the same tech that is so often used to spy on citizens against their wishes. The use of drones in Ukraine will surely help normalize their use in war, and in other aspects of life beyond the battlefield – much like the US Army's drones in Iraq led directly to their use in domestic US law enforcement. (Again, see my Arthur Holland Michel interview.)
In a perfect world, there would be a way to push Russia out of Ukraine without the use of technology that could rebound on us in nasty ways. But the fight against authoritarians and dictators is taking place in this world. It's messy, compromised, complicated, and anything but pure. The best I can hope for is that Ukraine gets the support it needs so that Russia is stopped now, before Putin decides to move on to other European countries. Meantime I’ll keep fighting the surveillance state.
What you missed on the Forum
This is just a sliver of what I've posted for the Creative Good community this week. If you join Creative Good, you'll both support my work here and gain access to all the resources I've posted on our members-only Forum, such as:
• Two updates on Google's antitrust woes
• Update on social media and teenagers' mental health
• There's no more truth in music or photography
• You should not have to be nice to chatbots (a new thread for discussion)
• News items about self-driving risks, information vs. intelligence, AI powered by manual labor, and Sam Altman's eyeball-scanning orb.
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Until next time,
-mark
Mark Hurst, founder, Creative Good
Email: mark@creativegood.com
Podcast/radio show: techtonic.fm
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