“It occurred to me that if I could invent a machine — a gun — which could by its rapidity of fire, enable one man to do as much battle duty as a hundred, that it would, to a large extent supersede the necessity of large armies, and consequently, exposure to battle and disease [would] be greatly diminished.”
Yet armies did not get smaller. WWI, 40 years after the Gatling gun, saw more soldiers die from infection and disease than from gunfire.
Technology has made militaries more efficient and multiplied the number of bullshit jobs in the sector. Projecting forward we can maybe expect to all work bullshit jobs, rather than facing unemployment.
— Doctor Richard Jordan Gatling