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Friday, May 15, 2015

A Different Soldier

At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? Occasionally I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish.

Question Mark, Characters, Question

What if we sent older people to fight our wars rather than using the youth as soldiers? (For example, taking more experienced individuals and having them virtually fight via robots or such. But the question doesn't need to be limited specifically in this way.)

3 comments:

Charity Bradford said...

John Scalzi wrote an awesome book with this "What if" question. It's called Old Man's War. LOVED IT!

Those old people got new enhanced bodies to use in a war they were 90% sure they couldn't win. The old were easy to recruit because they had nothing to lose and the experience to make a go of it. Highly recommend the book.

mshatch said...

This isn't an answer to the question but I always wondered what would happen if we went back to fighting with swords and bows. Less war?

Liz A. said...

Thanks, Charity. It is a great concept for a book. I'll have to check that out.