Today Congress overwhelmingly approved a $460 billion budget for the Department of Defense. That doesn’t include any money for the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, so one can only imagine how much bigger that number will be next month when Congress votes on funding for the wars.
I’m currently reading Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near, which is a fascinating book about today’s rapidly-advancing growth of technology and how it will profoundly affect our society and our lives in the next few decades. He has compelling arguments, and what I find most interesting is the fact that as technology blows past barriers of economics and national boundaries, things like $460 billion for national “defense” will seem quaint and backward. At least that’s my hope… because it’s a shame our country feels it necessary to spend such vast resources on such petty things.