War of 2050: a Battle for Information, Communications, and Computer Security

Hopefully there will be no war in 2050 or at any time in the future. But if the past is prologue, humankind’s warlike history compels a nation to think about and prepare for the challenges posed by a future conflict. To the extent we can predict, the bets are that the remarkable surge of information technologies of the last few decades will continue, even accelerate. Included in this set of technologies is the wide range of information-related and -enabled capabilities that are involved in obtaining, collecting, organizing, fusing, storing, and distributing relevant information as well as the capabilities associated with command and control (C2) functions and processes including reasoning, inference, planning, decision making, and collaborating (between humans, and between humans and machines). Finally, this term includes the capabilities that could be used to deny, deceive, disrupt, degrade, and compromise adversary information and information-related processes (e.g., cyber and electronic warfare). By the year 2050 these technologies, and the capabilities they offer, will transform the battlefield as we know it.