NEW MODEL ARMY

Just finished reading a novel by Adam Roberts called NEW MODEL ARMY. The basic premise of the novel is that armies in the traditional feudal hierachy sense have become obsolete and as we follow the main character we find he is part of the wave of New Model Armies challenging the old guard in combat and ideology.

More information on the author and his work can be found at http://www.adamroberts.com/

The drive of the novel centres on the above conflict as it rages across a Great Briatin of the near future. How this relates to social media i hear you cry, well the New Model Army is essentially an army run and operated via a social network and the war is fought by a series of squads made up of people like you and I as opposed to the stiff regimented ranks of the military. The idea of uniformity in the visual sense is abandoned and replaced by a spiritual unity which thrives by way of the digital wiki with which the soldiers interact. The lead character is former military but that doesnt mean anyone can't join and essestially have a say in how the battle is fought.

The novel embraces the idea of a social network in the way one would interact with friends in a multiplayer game like CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 and even the MassiveMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame types of which World of Warcraft is the industry leader. Teams coming together and co-ordinating attack patterns against other teams or enemy AI via typed chat or bluetooth headset and voting and formulating patterns of attack and how to best defeat their digital enemy.

NMA transposes this idea into reality and has these mercenary like armies taking on Real world armies with the power of social networking as its greatest weapon. Every part of the network is a decision making weapon who can update the battlefield wiki (via an arm mounted digi pad) on the fly with instant pertinant tactical updates. These techniques succeed against the British army beacause the NMA is essentially making command decisions on the fly and without the confirmation of a general or superior offficer. If a particular event requires a large decision opposite views are put to a vote in order to maintain the pure democratic spirit of the Athenian Polis, which was for the people by the people, in the purest sense, but with the ladies this time as well.

end of PT.1