SECTION FOUR: EXTREME MEANS WILL BE EMPLOYED
One: The “Three Increases” of Extreme Means
We will separate the means of killing into three types according to their power levels: total extinction, destruction, and general murder. The “extreme means” here refers to total extinction.
Total extinction refers to killing methods that can result in the overall extinction of humanity, leading to the total annihilation of the human race.
Destruction refers to killing methods that can cause mass casualties (at least thousands and reaching tens of millions) in a generally crowded area (rather than in a highly concentrated area) with one use. If such means are weapons designed specifically for killing, they can also be referred to as weapons of destruction.
In addition to being highly lethal, destructive killing methods must also directly achieve a maximum body count with one use in a normally populated area. Indirect casualties caused by a series of attacks do not satisfy the requirement, nor do attacks in densely populated areas. Even normal weapons are capable of causing massive damage in highly populated areas or through multiple uses. Nuclear weapons and GMO weapons all count as destructive killing methods, and they can cause mass casualties in normally populated areas with one attack.
Some other means may be capable of causing high body counts, but they do not necessarily count as destructive methods. For example, crashing into a building with a plane does not count as a destructive killing method; it mainly causes indirect death through the collapse of a densely populated building. We call the 9/11 terrorist attack a destructive event, but planes cannot be designated a destructive means of killing.
Ordinary explosives caused tens of millions of deaths in World War I and World War II; however, since they caused damage through numerous occurrences instead of a single incident, they do not count as destructive means either.
When a destructive method of killing becomes dangerous enough to exterminate the human race, it becomes a method of total extinction. Total extinction methods do not need to be direct or single use. As long as they can achieve the destruction of the entire human race, they earn the title.
Realistically speaking, if a method required thousands of uses to exterminate humanity, it would not be a successful method for total extinction. Human survival instinct would find a way to stop the method before it reached its extinction quota. Only killing methods that could destroy humanity quickly and efficiently would be eligible as means for total extinction. Obviously, we have only mastered destructive killing methods and not total extinction methods. Destructive means are the most extreme means we currently have.
For distinguishing purposes, we will call all non-destruction and non-extinction methods of killing “general murder methods.” For the vast majority of human history, general murder has been the most extreme means of killing. We have only possessed destructive means of killing for seventy years (signified by the explosion of the atomic bomb).
The three increases of extreme means refer to the inevitable development trend of extreme means. That is, extreme means will increase continuously in three aspects: type, power, and controlling personnel. Whether extreme means are in the stage of total extinction, destruction, or general murder, they will all conform to the rule of three increases.
The ancestors of mankind used sticks and stones to fight among and kill each other; this was the extreme means of that time. Due to its low efficiency, it is naturally categorized as general murder. The general murder means possessed by humans millions of years ago and sixty years ago are vastly different. The types evolved from sticks and stones to stone axes and bows and arrows; from swords and spears to muskets and artillery, followed by missiles, tanks warships, aircraft, and so on. The progress of science and technology drastically increased the number of extreme means. Before extreme means progressed from the general murder stage to the destruction stage, its variety was already endless.
Once the explosion of the atomic bomb raised extreme means into the stage of destruction, people immediately began to expand upon the possibilities of nuclear fission, and the second-generation hydrogen bombs and third-generation neutron bombs followed. Fourth-generation nuclear bombs are on most countries’ research agendas as well. This is a clear indication of extreme means’ increase in type and variety. Though nuclear disarmament talks have been carrying on steadily, this trend still persists.
Additionally, breakthroughs in genetic engineering have not only been used to benefit mankind, but they have been applied to killing. GMO toxins have become another component of destructive means of killing.
After artificial intelligence started achieving considerable results, some countries immediately started considering using them as robotic combat alternatives for war. This type of weaponized robot would be terrifying. There is no doubt that as long as science and technology continue to develop, extreme means will continue the trend of diversifying and multiplying.
At present, humanity has not yet mastered total extinction methods of killing, but such methods will inevitably emerge with continued scientific and technological development. It is logical to assume that future total extinction methods will follow the same pattern and increase continuously in type and variety as well.
As extreme means multiply in type, their power will surely increase. Missiles and artillery obviously cause more destruction than earlier sticks and stones. The earliest atomic bombs had power equivalent to ten thousand tons of TNT, while the largest hydrogen bombs now have power equivalent to fifty-six million tons of TNT. This dramatic increase in power is extremely obvious, and the developmental trend is easy to understand.
Once the power of destructive methods increases to a certain extent, it has the potential to become a method of total extinction. Total extinction methods vary in power as well. Those that require many personnel, multiple launches, and are difficult to operate are primary, low-level methods of total extinction. Meanwhile, the easy to use, easily manned, one-time methods are powerful, high-level methods of total extinction.
As long as humanity’s enthusiasm for scientific and technological pursuits persists, primary means of total extinction will emerge. With that as a starting point, higher-level methods will emerge and continually update in terms of power. As science and technology continues to evolve in the future, more means for total extinction will surface.
As more types of extreme means emerge, the personnel capable of controlling such means will increase as well. The development of technology and breakthroughs in scientific theory will make the research and production of extreme means much easier and more accessible.
The world’s first atomic bomb development—the Manhattan Project—took four years to implement, two years of preparation, 2.2 billion US dollars, and half a million personnel. More than five hundred thousand researchers worked on the project, and it used nearly one-third of national electricity. As a completely new weapon, everything had to start from scratch, and enormous investments were required.
Today, the manufacture of nuclear weapons has become much simpler. Well-established theories and techniques have enabled many nuclear physicists to design effective nuclear weapons. Fifty years ago, a study by a US Agency concluded that two ordinary physics undergraduates could design the general structure of an atomic bomb within three months, guided only by public information from the library. Scientists describe the manufacture of nuclear weapons in simple terms as well. A nuclear physicist, a metallurgist, an electronics scientist, and a chemical explosives specialist could direct a group of workers to assemble a nuclear weapon.
If nuclear weapons are still considered to be costly, complex, and easily monitored, then genetic bio-toxins are much easier to control individually. A high-level biologist could independently develop GMO toxins in a laboratory. It would require very little investment and be difficult to monitor. Artificial Intelligence would also be relatively easy for an individual to develop into an extreme means of killing.
Looking to the future, it is inevitable that only a few countries or individuals will initially possess total extinction methods; however, as science and technology developed further, total extinction methods will increase in type and become easier to obtain by a wider scope of people. As long as humanity exists, this trend will not change.
Two: Types and Features of Killing
Those who witnessed the 9/11 broadcast live will probably never forget that imagery. In the aftermath, people cannot help but wonder what could possibly motivate attackers to do such a thing. What kind of “wisdom” guides them in turning ordinary modes of transportation into weapons of mass destruction? And how was the attack so well coordinated that four planes were hijacked simultaneously to accomplish their goal? From history, we can see that although there are no precedents for hijacking four aircraft at once, large-scale suicide attacks are not uncommon. Individual suicide attacks occur even more often.
We know that human killings can be divided into two categories: war and criminal homicide. War has existed since the formation of human society; it is the conflict between groups and generally takes place on a large scale. Small-scale massacres held in secret are also a component of war. Criminal homicide is a more personal attack by individual criminals or small groups of criminals. It defies national laws and social justice; some instances are secretive and small-scale, while others are mass public killings.
The occurrence, development, and methods of war are largely influenced by the character and ideology of rulers. The good and evil within the rulers’ nature is a deciding factor in the characteristic of the specific wars.
In human society, criminal homicide is the most common and frequent type of murder. The inherent evil within human nature and the enormity of the human race means that some people will always deprive others of their lives for various reasons. The motives for criminal homicide can be divided into the following four categories:
1. Financially motivated homicide. The purpose of such crime is to obtain the victim’s wealth and belongings. Robbery homicide and abduction homicide fall into this category.
2. Revenge killing. This type of homicide usually results from deep-rooted hatred and is perpetuated out of revenge.
3. Mission-based homicide. This type of homicide is usually an execution-type murder that follows specific instructions from an organization. The organizations behind the scenes are the true murderers in these cases. These organizations can be government-backed, ethnic, or religious.
4. Psychopathic killing. This type of murder is perpetrated by extremely dysfunctional people who may have abnormal psychological traits, mental illnesses, or have been affected by nefarious religious ideologies. They regard killing as a form of pleasure and enjoyment, or a sense of personal obligation and responsibility. They may or may not be lucid when committing the murders, and their victims are usually innocent civilians.
Some other psychopathic killings are committed by people suffering set-backs or extreme hatred who turn their anger towards certain groups or even all society, entire countries, entire races, entire religions, or all of humanity. These perpetrators kill innocent people to alleviate the resentment and hatred within them.
By studying homicide cases, we can see that the most serious murders are usually either mission-based or psychopathic in nature. In general, these two types of homicide take up a small portion of all murder cases, but they enact great damage and have widespread effect. The victims in these two types of homicide are usually innocent people who do not even know the perpetrators.
Criminology has another classification system for homicide; within it, two are most dangerous. The first is serial homicide, in which criminals kill frequently over a period of time and create a high body count. For example, the 2002 DC sniper attacks that took place in the US caused many deaths in a succession of days and seriously affected people’s normal life and work schedules. In 2007, the Russian police arrested a man who had killed more than sixty people in a few years, most of whom were elderly. From September 2000 to April 2003, a Chinese man struck twenty-six times and killed sixty-seven people. These were all serial homicides.
The other type is mass murder, which refers to crimes that cause massive deaths and injuries in one strike; 9/11 is a typical example of mass murder. It caused over three thousand deaths and shook the world. The subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were all directly or indirectly caused by this incident.
Both serial homicide and mass murder are usually either mission-based or psychopathic in terms of motivation. In the above examples, the murderers either killed out of psychological abnormalities or because they were following orders.
Psychological analysis of murders shows that when someone is driven by evil beliefs, there is nothing they will not do. Some criminals voluntarily surrender themselves in order to publicize their actions; some criminals disregard their own lives to commit suicide attacks or kill themselves after the act, while some criminals even turn upon those closest to them and murder their own parents, children, or siblings.
Some sinister religions encourage their followers to commit mass suicide as a sacred pursuit. In November of 1978, the US-based Peoples Temple Agricultural Project (better known as “Jonestown”) encouraged its communes to commit suicide collectively, resulting in 918 deaths. Among the deaths was one member of congress and the cult leader himself: Jim Jones. In October 1994, the Geneva-based Order of the Solar Temple directed three mass suicides in Switzerland and Canada, resulting in fifty-three deaths, including that of the cult leader.
Many such cults exist in the world. They encourage people to seek liberation through suicide and organize mass suicide events every few years. These large-scale acts of suicide are, at their root, criminal homicides motivated by psychopathic mentalities.
Three: Corollary: Extreme Means Will Be Employed
By saying that extreme means will be employed, we mean that the most advanced murder techniques will be used. Even if no one is using such techniques within one period of time, they will be used sooner or later. This does not mean that every type of extreme means will be employed, but that one type will be used at some point. Since we are discussing the issue of overall human survival, we will focus on the inevitable employment of total extinction methods.
1. There are those who dare to use extreme means at any given time.
At any given time in human history, there are a number of people who harbor motives for killing. These people may wage wars or commit criminal acts. They each have different expectations for killing (hereinafter referred to as expectations) and can be separated into two cases accordingly.
The first case is limited killings. This type of killing has a limited number of victims and does not seek the elimination of mankind. It can also be divided into two sub-categories.
a. Murder on a small scale. This refers to targeted attacks directed towards individuals or small groups that happen on a small scale. This type of murder is usually perpetuated by criminals with various intents, but they may also occur in war time.
b. Murder on a large scale. As the name suggests, this type of killing aims for mass casualties. They can be clearly targeted attacks (war is a typical example) or mass murder for no clear reason (for example, psychopathic murder for pleasure).
The second case is unlimited killings. This type of killing seeks to achieve as high a body count as possible, and the murderers usually commit suicide during or after the attacks. This type of murder is usually carried out by psychopathic individuals. Some of them are driven by cult religions, some are motivated by intense hatred, and others are in a state of complete insanity or hallucination.
In order to achieve different expectations, different methods of killing must be employed. When it comes to limited killings, general murder means are enough to accomplish murder on a small scale, while destructive means and total extinction means are certainly not necessary. Large-scale murders can be accomplished through one application of a destructive means or multiple applications of general means. Generally during war, groups will take into account the negative effects of destructive means and avoid them. Meanwhile, individual criminals will choose the most lethal ways possible, and sometimes that includes destructive means (but not total extinction means).
When it comes to the case of unlimited killings, only total extinction means can achieve the expectation of the perpetrators. When total extinction means are not available, the murderers will seek the methods that can create the greatest possible destruction. That is to say, they will seek the most extreme means of that era, as long as they can be acquired.
Extreme means are also preferable to murderers because they are highly publicized and garner much attention from the entire society. Those who have limitless expectations in their crimes will always think of such extreme means when choosing their weapons.
The above analysis shows that not only do people with murderous intent exist at all times, but some of them will require extreme means to achieve their goals. They will most likely be extremely dedicated to the acquisition of the most deadly and extreme methods of killing.
It must be stressed here that we are focusing on the issue of human extinction in this book. Those who dare to use total extinction methods must be those with limitless expectations of murder. They are only a very small portion of society. The various social systems designed by human society are dedicated to further reducing the number of such extreme individuals; however, due to the inherent weaknesses of humans as a species, even the best legal and moral systems cannot constrain and rationalize everyone. We can seek to perfect social systems to reduce the number of extremists as much as possible, but we cannot hope to eradicate them completely.
