the future of warfare and Ukraine
Hello my fellow futurists!
It seemed appropriate given the nature of the ongoing situation in Ukraine to focus on the war from a forward looking perspective.
I, like most of you, did not have major European war on my bingo card for 2022. Not just because we're only just now getting out of Covid, but because the whole thing is backwards.
We're trending more towards secession on a national scale and unity on global scale than the old model of nation's expanding their territory.
Putin's desire to get the USSR back together bucks this trend and the world at large won't stand for it.
We're seeing in real-time a fundamental shift in warfare, European mentalities, the geo-political situation, and potentially the crumble of a (former?) world superpower.
If you put this war in a bigger perspective it's fascinating. Meanwhile though, our distant fascination does nothing for Ukraine. If you're so inclined, donate some cryptocurrency to Ukraine:
BTC Wallet - 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P
ETH Wallet - 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14
If Crypto's not your thing, you can always use USD via a credit card here: https://uahelp.monobank.ua/
3 crazy things in Ukraine ✌ + ☝
🚀 Ukraine asks and Musk answers
A few days ago a Ukrainian government official asked for Elon to provide Starlink internet to Ukraine, Elon delivered the goods in just a few days.
This is interesting on two fronts, one that a tech CEO is acting in the role of a sovereign nation and sending aide, and that something like Starlink makes disrupting a country's information infrastructure that much more difficult in future wars.
🌐 Tank driving instructions from TikTok
This isn't the first time social media has participated in large world events, there was the Arab Spring back in 2010, but here it's incredible the information (and misinformation) flying back and forth in this war. We can see first hand from smartphones both in Ukraine and Russia what's happening. Russia can't silence millions of phones streaming the war on Reddit, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook.
This may be the first armed conflict where social media plays such a central role, but it's certainly not the last.
Having millions of "War Correspondents" on the ground streaming the events changes the rules of engagement. I'm not sure Putin was ready for this.
More on the topic in an excellent NYT piece
💸 Crypto war
This is the first war that crypto has played such a massive role. Supporters of Ukraine have now sent millions of dollars worth of crypto (and many high valued NFTs) to the wallet addresses I listed above.
Many Ukrainians, amidst financial uncertainty of their own banking systems have cashed in their fiat currency for crypto. However, Russia can leverage the same benefits amidst their own financial uncertainty as well.
Of course a currency, a method of financial exchange, has no moral value. Crypto's value here is its ability to supersede national situations.
This war in Ukraine has been another notch for crypto's future. We'll see more government's accepting crypto in the future
The first new war
This conflict in Ukraine has proven to be a first of it's kind in so many ways, from big tech's involvement, to social media, to cryptocurrency's involvement.
What has been the most surprising aspect to you, from a futurist's perspective?
Let me know. Just hit reply, I read and respond to everyone!
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Have an awesome week and see you next Tuesday!
Daniel
I'm not iconic, I think Ukraine is iconic.
Volodymyr Zelensky