When technology evolves, its influence crosses all aspects of human society. Generally, it improves the everyday lives of the people who are able to obtain or access it. In each generation, those living view technology as the advances witnessed in their lifetime.
Technology has been around since mankind mastered fire, invented the wheel, and developed oral and written speech. To think that advancing technology will not change how terrorism operates would be more than a little naive.
To early man, the main tools of terrorism would have been clubs and large stones. Stronger men could carry larger and heavier stones and clubs and use them to terrorize their smaller weaker neighbors. This would have been done to gain feeding and mating rights. As language developed, terrorism would have used communication to formulate plans so that being bigger was not always better. Now, people could conceive and execute plans that required teamwork and stealth.
People learned to attach their stones to the end of their clubs and fashion crude axes and other tools. It did not take long for these talking humans to form weapons from the same technology. The same spears, bows, and slings that brought success in hunting were conscripted into service to bring success in battle.
The first crude wheels gave humans the ability to move heavy loads from place to place much more rapidly and easily. Before long, the invention of the axle meant that carts and chariots could be made to transport people just as quickly. Learning to domesticate animals like the ox and horse gave humans a way to move without significant effort. Neighboring tribes quickly used this technology to terrorize each other with raids and open battles.
Similar statements can be made as man mastered fire and gunpowder. Learning to smelt metals added another dimension as sharp swords could be brought into service. Even fireworks were used by the Chinese as a weapon to terrorize ignorant enemies.
This march of terrorizing technology continued to move forward with dynamite and cannons. The invention of the gun whether handgun, shotgun, rifle, or machine gun extended the quality and quantity of terror tools available. While we do not technically call war terrorism, it does have many of the same elements. Just the idea that a strike should involve "shock and awe" seems to imply waging battle to produce terror.
Ships became objects of terrorism with the rise of sea pirates. A new element of sea terror was introduced when ships began to be ironclad and some turned into submarines. Following the advent of the nuclear age, the power of the atom came into focus as a potential agent of terror. Except for the two bombs dropped to end World War II, this tool has not yet been mastered by those who seek to spread terror except for the threat of cataclysm.
In the last fifty years, terrorism has begun to resort to finding new ways to use old techology or updated versions of it. Communication has moved into the information age. Terrorists use cell phones, email, electronic funds transfers, and other technological marvels to lay plots and move funds to execute them. Borrowing from the military, they have commandeered ships, trucks, and jets to do their work. Beginning with the highjackings of jets in the sixties, terrorists have continued to surprise society with the inventive ways that they employ technology.
By using the electronic media, terrorist can now do their terror in relative secrecy and broadcast its results publicly while remaining anonymous. This gives the feeling terrorists are everywhere and nowhere is safe. Having a beheading flashed on your television screen brings terrorism into your living room.
Even the research that goes on to fight against the most hideous of diseases has fallen prey to the use of terrorists. Diseases like anthrax have already been used to inflict terror on multitudes.
Yes, technology has changed terrorism. What might the future hold as technology continues to advance? It is easy to envision a day when lasers will be used in the hands of terrorists. Space will offer a myriad of other possibilities as it becomes accessible to everyday life. Terrorists will always be looking for news ways to inflict the same old terror.
