I'm reminded of Kurt Vonnegut's book "Cat's Cradle", Ice-9 and the law of unintended consequences.

A couple of years ago on a mountain I met an interesting guy, Russian, MS in physics from a Moscow university, trained in climbing by a Russian labor federation. He had also served his 2 years in the Russian military in a missile silo in the early '90s. We were stuck in the same place for a while and talked, and we've maintained contact ever since.

He said that besides general military stuff the specifics of his training applied only to a Chinese threat. His particular unit was a missile unit aimed at China.

During his basic training he said the instructors told them of Chinese squads which consisted of 5 people and one litter, each person with a 5 kg. bag of rice. The idea was that 4 people would carry the litter, and one of them would sleep. Every two hours they would rotate, and keep going for as long as they had to.

These folks wouldn't need helicopters and the entire infrastructure which would go with them.

You know, and I know, there are limitless problems with this idea, though I have to admit there have been times I could have slept on that litter.

When I asked if this were a reality, he said the instructors acted serious when they told about it, but the students had their doubts. I do too.

The point is that the technology may be wonderful, and may work well, and may revolutionize "personal" warfare, and ya gotta wonder. Who will monitor all that information, how relevant is it, what will they do about it anyway? How well would they do on enemy territory against a determined, resourceful, mobile enemy willing to take losses?

I do like the idea of recycling water, though. Water is heavy, and having enough of it is a problem. A dehydrated person is a dumber, tired person.

Arf