# The next 30 years.



## Harpo (Jul 13, 2014)

Corporate armies, drone terrorism, laser weapons







Large multinational corporations could develop their own highly  capable security forces. Criminals and terrorists will have access to  increasingly cheap unmanned drones and space satellites. Sophisticated  environmental warfare will spread plant and human diseases by insects.
These are among an array of dire warnings spelt out in a study by a Ministry of Defence thinktank exploring potential threats to security that might emerge by the middle of the century.
The study, Global Strategic Trends – Out to 2045,  contains fresh warnings about the effects of climate change, the growth  of sprawling urban centres, and pressure on natural resources, notably  water. It paints a picture of a world in which the authority of states  diminishes in the face of powerful private multinational companies, and  national loyalties are weakened by increasing migration.
Rear  Admiral John Kingwell, director of the MoD's Concepts and Doctrine  Centre, which carried out the study, said it did not seek to predict the  future and did not reflect official government policy. However, he said  it described plausible outcomes on the basis of rigorous analysis of  existing trends.
"The pace and breadth of technological  advancements will change our perception of our role in the workplace,  reveal new opportunities for health advances, and facilitate the  deepening of global communications," he said.
"But as access to  technology increases, we will face new risks to our security both at  home and abroad. In the west in particular, a rise of individualism and …  a growing sense of disconnection from long-established governing  structures will challenge traditional systems."
The study says that by 2045:
• The world population could reach 10.4 billion, compared with about 7.2 billion at present.
• More than 70% of the population is likely to live in urban areas.
• 3.9 billion people are likely to suffer water shortages.
• Driverless transport is likely to be widespread.
• Unmanned systems are increasingly likely to replace people in the workplace, leading to mass unemployment and social unrest.
•  Robots are likely to change the face of warfare, but "military  decision-making is likely to remain the remit of humans for ethical  reasons, at least in western countries".
• Individuals may define themselves less by their nationality, with growing migration and stronger links to virtual communities.
• Chinese defence expenditure it likely to rival that of the US, but Russia's will not match that of China, the US or India.
The  study says the influence of non-state actors such as multinational  corporations is likely to increase at the expense of nation states, and  private companies may develop "highly capable security forces".
Cheaper  and more sophisticated drones will mean criminal and terrorist groups  are likely to find it easier to "gain, hold and use unmanned  capabilities".
Internal terrorist threats are likely to continue  in the Middle East and north Africa, while the expansion of alternative  currencies may make it easier for criminals and terrorist groups to  transfer funds between national jurisdictions, the study says.
However,  it says the pressure of globalisation will make it more difficult for  individual countries to act unilaterally. That could reduce conflicts  between states.
Future weapons are likely to include long-range  lasers capable of producing a beam of electromagnetic energy or atomic  radiation that can destroy equipment and infrastructure or cause  non-lethal damage to human targets, the report says.
"As the cost  of sequencing an individual's DNA continues to fall, targeting an  individual using their DNA may be possible by 2045," the study adds. "We  could also see sophisticated environmental warfare capable of spreading  plant and human disease by insects or insect-machine hybrids. Crops and  cattle could be destroyed, as well as people being incapacitated or  killed."
By 2020, more than 500 small satellites, sometimes called  cubesats, will join the 1,000 already operating in orbit around the  planet, according to the report. They will be increasingly vulnerable to  attack – and collision.
By 2045 or earlier, it says, "criminal  organisations could secure payload space on rockets operated by private  companies – this would allow them to launch their own surveillance  satellites, potentially threatening individual and corporate privacy".


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## farntfar (Jul 13, 2014)

*The ministry of defense has sponsored an extensive, multimillion pound, study into future threats.
Top scientists have watched Continuum.*
Shock horror.


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## BAYLOR (Jul 14, 2014)

The Future that we end up with , seldom if ever, resembles projections that we make.


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## Aquilonian (Jul 14, 2014)

Very interesting, and this also demonstrates that there's far more intelligence and imagination among civil servants, and even the military, than among elected politicians. 
The USA for one is very interested in using weather and earthquakes as weapons. Genetic weapons, that would permanently damage the DNA of whole ethnic groups, are another possibility- they'd be of more use to racially homogenous countries such as Japan and China, than to multiracial countries like UK or USA. THeir use would not be easily detectable, especially if they caused a build-up of chronic disabling illness rather than mass death. This would actually be preferred by military planners. From their perspective, if you kill a man you reduce enemy strength by one, but if you disable him you reduce by two- him and the person who will now have to look after him.


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## farntfar (Jul 14, 2014)

Ah well that's all right then.

As long as we can be sure that no matter who we vote for, there will always be someone to create racially targetted genetic viruses and who knows how best to use them (presumably a similar someone is targeting our ethnic group too), then we can all sleep easier in our beds.


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## Gramm838 (Jul 16, 2014)

It's been done already - it was called Blackwater.


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## Nick B (Jul 24, 2014)

BAYLOR said:


> The Future that we end up with , seldom if ever, resembles projections that we make.




I don't know what you mean..

/me dons silver all in one and gets into flying car. It is 2014 after all...


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