Tolkien, Technology, and... War

[Son of Númenor]

I see what you are saying Lhunardawen & Kuruharan, but your definition of 'easier' does not seem to be in line with Symestreem's. Surely it is 'easier' to lob missiles from miles away than to engage the enemy in close-range combat, & easier to use nightvision to scan enemy terrain at night than your own naked eyes.

Edit: I did not mean to imply with the above that war has become easier in an economical or humane sense, but merely in the sense that it requires less men & women to risk their lives, requires less tactical 'gambling', & has become more efficient strategically (for the United States & it's allies, anyway ). War is & has always been a horrible way to waste resources & lives.

But anyway, that does not seem the initial purpose of the thread.

Here are a few quotes from the Professor himself that shed some light on the issue at hand:

Well the first War of the Machines seems to be drawing to its final inconclusive chapter - leaving, alas, everyone the poorer, many bereaved or maimed and millions dead, and only one thing more triumphant: the Machines. As the servants of the Machines are becoming a privileged class, the Machines are going to be enormously powerful. What's their next move? (Letters, 196)

Worthy of Morpheus himself.

Unlike art which is content to create a new secondary world in the mind, it attempts to actualize desire, and so to create power in this World; and that cannot really be done with any real satisfaction. Labour-saving machinery only creates endless and worse labour. (Letters, 75)

How I wish the 'infernal combustion' engine had never been invented. Or (more difficult still since humanity and engineers in special are both nitwitted and malicious as a rule) that it could have been put to rational uses - if any... (Letters, 64)

Unfortunately I have no time to write my own thoughts on the subject, but I will be sure to do so later.