1. Sun Tzŭ said: The control of a large force is the same principle as the control of a few men: it is merely a question of dividing up their numbers.
2. Fighting with a large army under your command is nowise different from fighting with a small one: it is merely a question of instituting signs and signals.
Blowtorch said: Command and control leaves a signature that can be identified by both the method in which it is transmitted, and the processes it seeks to command. Because AI will be detecting these methods and patterns, commanding with signs and signals becomes a form of camouflage itself. This is different from the concept of decoys.
3. To ensure that your whole host may withstand the brunt of the enemy’s attack and remain unshaken—this is effected by maneuvers direct and indirect.
4. That the impact of your army may be like a grindstone dashed against an egg—this is effected by the science of weak points and strong.
Blowtorch said: The linked nature of forces today through networking and algorithmic processing of sensors and commands creates weak points in formerly strong formations, and overwhelming strength in formerly weak formations.
5. In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory.
Blowtorch said: The strategic and operational levels of warfare are linked in ways now that they have never been in the past.
6. Indirect tactics, efficiently applied, are inexhaustible as Heaven and Earth, unending as the flow of rivers and streams; like the sun and moon, they end but to begin anew; like the four seasons, they pass away but to return once more.
Blowtorch said: The difference between kinetic effects and non-kinetic effects is that non-kinetic effects are reversible. Kinetic effects set in motion a series of changes that cannot be taken back.
7. There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard.
8. There are not more than five primary colors (blue, yellow, red, white, and black), yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever be seen.
9. There are not more than five cardinal tastes (sour, acrid, salt, sweet, bitter), yet combinations of them yield more flavors than can ever be tasted.
10. In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack—the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers.
Blowtorch said: The two methods of attack today are kinetic and non-kinetic. Because of the linked nature of the environment, in many cases non-kinetic attack can have an equal or superior effect to kinetic attack on an adversary.
11. The direct and the indirect lead on to each other in turn. It is like moving in a circle—you never come to an end. Who can exhaust the possibilities of their combination?
12. The onset of troops is like the rush of a torrent which will even roll stones along in its course.
Blowtorch said: This can be tempered by non-kinetic means. Through the moral and heaven constants, troops can be dis-integrated or prevented from flowing at all.
13. The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.
Blowtorch said: Decisions quality will be the most important and most vulnerable aspect of warfare in the digital age. Algorithms and the hyper reality that surround us obscure decisions and compound decision effects. This can make risk invisible. Red teaming one of the most important capabilities to have in the digital age.
Blowtorch said: Isolation in planning and red teaming is of vital importance.
14. Therefore the good fighter will be terrible in his onset, and prompt in his decision.
Blowtorch said: Decisions in gradient descent warfare seem to be lightning fast, and require faster and faster AIs. But this is an illusion as trigger based decisions are already been made. A general’s true decision escapes the matrix of understanding in which his enemy has framed him.
15. Energy may be likened to the bending of a crossbow; decision, to the releasing of the trigger.
16. Amid the turmoil and tumult of battle, there may be seeming disorder and yet no real disorder at all; amid confusion and chaos, your array may be without head or tail, yet it will be proof against defeat.
17. Simulated disorder postulates perfect discipline; simulated fear postulates courage; simulated weakness postulates strength.
Blowtorch said: Understanding what is and is not simulation is key to modern warfare.
18. Hiding order beneath the cloak of disorder is simply a question of subdivision; concealing courage under a show of timidity presupposes a fund of latent energy; masking strength with weakness is to be effected by tactical dispositions.
19. Thus one who is skillful at keeping the enemy on the move maintains deceitful appearances, according to which the enemy will act. He sacrifices something, that the enemy may snatch at it.
20. By holding out baits, he keeps him on the march; then with a body of picked men he lies in wait for him.
21. The clever combatant looks to the effect of combined energy, and does not require too much from individuals. Hence his ability to pick out the right men and utilize combined energy.
22. When he utilizes combined energy, his fighting men become as it were like unto rolling logs or stones. For it is the nature of a log or stone to remain motionless on level ground, and to move when on a slope; if four-cornered, to come to a standstill, but if round-shaped, to go rolling down.
23. Thus the energy developed by good fighting men is as the momentum of a round stone rolled down a mountain thousands of feet in height. So much on the subject of energy.
Blowtorch said: The root of force is always derived beyond the operational level. If understanding isn’t holistic, energy and its direction will be invisible to the Joes’.
Yo Joe!