In America's Next War, Machines Will Do the Thinking

Think of all the things we depend on daily life that were made possible by the U.S. military: the internet, jet travel, GPS and, perhaps most important, duct tape. That such things grew out of a desire to find new and better ways to kill lots and lots of people is easy to put out of mind, just as we tend to forget where that juicy ribeye on our plate originally came from. If consumers want truly smart machines (smarter than Amazon's new Astro, anyway) and the "internet of things," Google and Apple and Elon Musk will all play their roles, but much of the research and development will come from the Pentagon -- and, no doubt, the People's Liberation Army. Congress, holder of the strings to the Defense Department's $740 billion purse, is going to have to make it happen.