Everything I read or see now nudges my thinking about history one way or the other. For instance, the other night I saw a movie, called The Sentinel, concerning an assassination plot against the President, one that depended on a mole with the Secret Service. As the assassination was unfolding, the mole was leading the President through the kitchen to the designated point for the kill. Historically, the assassination may have had some political effects, probably transient; the chef in the kitchen would not like be affected one way or the other. So what really drives historical change?
Yesterday I finished Richard Clarke's Breakpoint. The plot involves the destruction of selected infrastructure: internet cables and satellites; electric power grids; computer research labs about to be hooked up world wide; hedge fund owners' robotic dogs. A thesis of the book is that we really are on verge of melding human being and technology: "living software"-- machine written code that corrects human written software and is self correcting; reverse engineering of the brain to allow more brain-computer interface. Oh, I forgot, the rich were paying $100,000 to have their babies fitted with 2 extra chromosomes, which would allow them more traits of intelligence and immortality.
In the book the new technologies were restricted to the US, Japan and Europe. We could also extend this to say that the most benefits would go the wealthy elites in these areas, thereby creating an effective master race that rules the technology and the unmodified, inferior humans left to do the grunt work of picking fruit, and other manual labor that still could not be accomplished by machine.
Is there something inherent in this technology that must continue until we have created a BORG like master race to rule the Universe. Is this not the culmination of Nietzsche's Will to Power? And once in motion, can anything be done to stop it? Is this not the true driver of history?
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