The technology industry is rife with bottlenecks

Re:The technology industry is rife with bottlenecks by BurningFrog on Tuesday June 11, 2019 @10:02AM (#20155452)

As I recall it, Barbara Tuchman argues/describes in the Excellent "The Guns of August" that once precautionary mobilization had been ordered in one country, due to the nature of the railway system driven technology behind the logistics of the day, war was pretty much inevitable.

Nobody realized "the system" had this side effect before it was started, and once the button was pressed, it was pressed...

As your quote says. "economic relationships can decrease the likelihood that states will engage in war".

https://smile.amazon.com/Guns-August-Pulitzer-Prize-Winning-...

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Re:The technology industry is rife with bottlenecks by iguy on Tuesday June 11, 2019 @01:13PM (#20157394)

But was this really in the nature of the technology, or was it a choice on the part of the German planners? Choosing to only have an invasion plan, and not bother scheduling out the 80%-option which leaves not quite as many troops but all on your side of the border, and so on down? That sounds like the generals wishing for war, to me, and limiting their masters' options.

Not quite parallel, but IIRC it emerged afterwards that the Soviets had no non-nuclear battle plans for Germany. While the US planners kept two sets ready.

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Re:The technology industry is rife with bottlenecks by BurningFrog on Tuesday June 11, 2019 @05:14PM (#20159606)

Well, the nature of the technology certainly added to it. Once the trains were running, troops were flooding to the borders, and if stopped, they couldn't (somehow...) be restarted easily, because all the plans were interlocked so precisely. Or something.

Or that's the picture Tuchman paints.

Not just on the German side, BTW, but everywhere.

Now, this is just a popular history book I recall from memory several decades ago, and the questions you ask sound very relevant!

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