With rare exceptions, the USN has not really been challenged on the sea
since WWII, so the two or three generations of technical advances have never
really had to withstand the reality of physical warfare.  From our looking
glass, this will probably be the case for the foreseeable future.  However,
we still have to have a Plan B and Plan C in case someone actually shoots
back.

Remember the last time your cable service went out, or power was lost for a
day or two?  (I know that this doesn't happen often in major population
centers.)  All of a sudden, there is no CNN, no local news, no piped-in
entertainment.  If the phone lines are down, there is no email, no Internet,
no external communication.  If you got a Coleman lantern, you can read.  If
you got a Coleman stove, you can heat water and cook food that isn't yet
spoiled. If you still have muscles and a hatchet, you can chop some firewood
(if you have some trees around.)  You get the idea.

All you Trekies out there should be reminded that most of the episodes
involved the loss of some technical capability or other and the substitution
of  "old fashioned" methods to overcome their weekly dilemmas.  It was a
series about man's abilities, not some deus ex machina.

Real war (where people shoot back) has a tendency to degrade the spiffy
stuff first.  Damage control, brute force, and mental acuity kept many a
ship afloat and fighting back.  While we want all the technology we can
muster, let's be sure the Next Generation knows how to fight without it.
top