EXPIRES: 1930

WRITTEN: 1912-10

The coming of the wireless era will make war impossible, because it will make war ridiculous.

Guglielmo Marconi

Technical World Magazine, October 1912

Written: 1912-10

Addressed to: the wireless era

Source: Technical World Magazine

Author: Guglielmo Marconi

Category: War & Conflict

Annotation

Marconi's claim that communication technology would prevent war was published less than two years before World War I. The belief that connectivity produces peace has been repeatedly asserted and repeatedly disproven — for the telegraph, radio, television, and the internet. Each generation's communication utopians make essentially the same claim.

What Actually Happened

World War I began in 1914, extensively using radio for military coordination. Every subsequent communication technology was also deployed for military purposes.

#radio#peace#communication-utopianism#world-war-I#technology-determinism

1995

I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.

Ronald Reagan

2003

It could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.

Donald Rumsfeld