Battle by binary

War is never good, but have any good things come from it? James Snee, Marc Trepanier, Daniel Valverde and Yi Ming Woo, students at Queen Mary, University of London, investigate how military and security concerns are linked with the advancement of technology.

The growth of technology has affected our everyday lives to a huge extent. Inside a generation the notion of a personal computer in the home has gone from a fantasy concept to a reality for many of us. The technology explosion throughout the last 100 years has been phenomenal. Some of you may be old enough to remember the sense of wonder of watching Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. Now consider the fact that the birthday card you received this year that played an amusing tune as it opened contains more computational power than the spacecraft used that day in 1969! In most respects, the advancement of technology has improved our lives and in all sorts of ways. Many of us in the western world enjoy the Internet, mobile phones, personal mp3 players and plasma TV screens. However, the onset of technology has also affected work practices in some of the less pleasant aspects of society. In the following articles we look at how technology has affected military techniques and threats to our security.

War, what is it good for?

It's not too often you hear the argument for the benefits that war can bring. Rightly so, war is an overwhelmingly destructive business. Nonetheless it is interesting to note that the needs of the military, and times of crisis can provide the catalyst for technological development.