A Framework for Understanding two Macro Techno-Revolutions and our Naval Future

The three realms of warfare will be defined by more than technology or processing speeds. Due to the influence in democracies of what can be called Policy-Law-Ethics-Norms (PLEN), there will be restraints exerted to varying degrees, depending on the context, on unmanned systems in populated areas of the Earth. While land combat may be constrained by PLEN, the maritime domain will know few limits, and will become subsumed into the realm of machine on machine combat, where the fastest, most lethal mass of machines will dominate. In light of that threat the Navy Department should not slow the movement of resources and talent into the study and development of “Machine Realm” technologies, in all domains of air/surface/subsurface.