The Societal Impact of Rapid Technological Change: The Centrality of the Social Sciences

Every war is about the non-warriors: the civilian populations in whose name the warriors fight. This truism has never been more relevant than in today’s cyber warfare where the non-warriors are a prime target. A technological revolution made this new kind of warfare possible. As a result, conflict is presently waged in the “Gray Zone” and it may, perhaps, remain confined there. Perhaps all future war will be waged in the gray zone because defeat there may amount to capitulation. Gray zone warfare (see Figure 1) is only one manifestation of a technological revolution sweeping across all aspects of human life. We need to understand how rapid technological change such as the this impacts societies and creates disruption and disorganization. Our argument is that the Social Sciences have been, are, and will continue to provide the intellectual core of that understanding.