August 5, 2026

Seeing the news reports on the Russian drone that was hunting a Ukrainian fruit vendor made me think of today's quote by Hermann Hesse. Hesse understands that every new weapons system that we develop causes us to lose a little more of our humanity. To me, this has never been more true than seeing the rise of drones and autonomous robots on the field of battle.

We are able to kill without putting ourselves and our loved ones at risk. We take life without ever having to come face-to-face with those we murder. As these systems become cheaper to produce and more capable of inflicting damage, we will see the bar for entering into conflict lowered and the amount of pushback from the citizens of the country decrease.