Crossbows, von Clauswitz, and the eternality of software shrouds

reply to Christianson

Selmer Bringsjord

John Licato

pp. 365-367

in: Ludovica Glorioso (ed), Cyber-conflicts, Philosophy & Technology 28 (3), 2015.

Abstract

In his penetrating and compendious commentary, Christianson claims that reflection upon the advent and deployment of the crossbow reveals that our meta-argument has wider application against JWT than what we indicated in our paper. If he is right, how much wider? Well, since the crossbow case is of a pattern presumably seen countless times in the history of human conflict, if his reasoning is sound, our meta-argument’s reach could be wide indeed. We confess to finding this prospect agreeable. But is Christianson correct?