On Revolutions

A contrarian classmember made this argument this week. I didn't immediately recognize it; but the idea that there have been no military revolutions -- not the 6-foot yew longbow, not the Longbow helicopter, not the entire path from one to the other -- is of a piece with Kubrick's vision. In 2001, the entirety of human history is simply the evolution of technology, from a bone club to an interplanetary spacecraft. In all of human history -- which for Kubrick is identical to the history of war; the "dawn of man" is in a warlike act -- there have been no revolutionary changes.

The real revolution comes when we raise ourselves to universal consciousness, man.

Or something like that.