Organized violence has depended on technology since prehistoric humans began using tools, including weapons, and passing on lessons through social learning.

As a label, technology carries two general meanings: It can refer to goods (artifacts such as weapons) and services (medical care) and to the knowledge used in conceiving, designing, and producing these. Many modern military technologies are complex and the knowledge demands high, as illustrated by command, control, communications, and intelligence (C3I) systems built around decentralized computing and sensor networks. Organizations of some size, government agencies, and private firms are needed to assemble and manage the necessary portfolios of knowledge and skill.

Technologies advance through evolutionary processes that are interrupted, and sometimes disrupted, by occasional bursts of more or less radical innovation, nuclear weapons, or integrated ...