Why Technologies Become Geopolitical
There are many reasons technologies become geopolitical, but it goes deeper, to the very nature of humanity.
When we delve into a delicious cinnamon bun for a treat, we don’t tend to think about the how that spice impacted technological developments and geopolitics. But spices had a huge impact on technology development and geopolitics. Because colonial powers rather enjoyed new spices, they wanted to get more as fast as possible. This spurred on the development of ships and navigation techniques.
Today, the most well known technologies impacting geopolitics are wee computer chips and various types of Artificial Intelligence. In the early periods of metallurgy, the techniques and tools used to make stabby things like swords and spears were often closely held secrets that other powers wanted to get a hold of.
While we like to think that technologies are neutral, they are not. Technologies come from human imagination. A human sees a problem that needs solving, or a process that can be improved upon or living made easier by a technology. One creates a technology to serve a purpose, be it good or bad, no one invents a technology to just, well, sit there. That would be a bit boring.
“Everywhere we remain unfree and chained to technology, whether we passionately affirm or deny it. But we are delivered over to it in the worst possible way when we regard it as something neutral; for this conception of it, to which today we particularly like to do homage, makes us utterly blind to the essence of technology.” — Martin Heidegger, Philosopher
All technologies developed for peaceful purposes can also be used for nefarious purposes as well. TNT was developed to make mining easier and we all know how that turned out. Alexander Bell invented the telephone to share opera music, but it became a technology for faster communication and played a key role in geopolitics. The red telephone between White House and the Kremlin being one famous example.
Not all technologies have geopolitical implications. The ones that do are those that can be used to gain economic and/or military advantage over another country. The improvement in transportation technologies such as sails and then the steam engine enabled the rapid expansion of colonies by Western European powers. Even China many centuries ago, had advanced ships that enabled them to spread their influence and trade around the world.
At it’s most basic, nations are built from stories. Story telling is a key component to how we create communities, societies, nations and when they become significant, we use stories to inform our values, norms, behaviours and traditions.
Today, much of the world is forming into different value systems. Russia, China, and Iran along with a number of vassal states to these powers (like North Korea, sort of), have fairly aligned values that differ from those of Western powers and their vassal states and allies.
Artificial Intelligence has become so geopolitical, along with computer chips because they are tools that help create stories and spread those stories very fast, far and wide. The creation of mis/disinformation by various countries against another is a form of information warfare. It is psychological because stories can be used to change our perception of realities. From the stories we tell ourselves to the stories we tell about our nations.
Storytelling and communications technologies are the frontline technologies to often become geopolitical. The printing press enabled the spread of ideas and stories to spread around the world much faster.
Following storytelling technologies and sometimes in lockstep with them are physical technologies that enable kinetic warfare. Things that go boom, bang and splat. They are generally used to reinforce the story telling of one power to tell the other guy that their ideas and stories are better. If you don’t like my story I’ll come over and thump you around a bit until you agree with my stories.
Technologies tend to become geopolitical when we develop a narrative that aligns with the stories we tell about our countries. The more stories we tell and the stronger they are in a sociocultural system, the more geopolitical a technology becomes.
Technologies support both hard power (kinetic weapons) and soft power (information weapons) actions by nations. Ai can be applied to both forms of power. AI can be used to create stories, factual or not, as well as control weapons such as drones and missiles.
How sociocultural systems such as nations deal with technologies that can be used for harm varies widely. Treaties are one mechanism we use, such as those for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Although countries abiding by those treaties varies. But they are important.
Because our world is connected through both communications technologies (internet etc.) and physical technologies (ships, planes, roads and railroads) some technologies have taken on even greater significance. We use and control them not just through treaties, but through the use of economic systems such as trade agreements or blocking access to resources and manufacturing capabilities. We see this with America blocking Chinese access to chips and manufacturing of those chips.
Digital technologies are perhaps, the most geopolitical ones we have ever developed and will play a significant role as nations realign themselves based on value systems and the telling of stories around these values. It is certainly quite an interesting time to be alive.