As Wars Stretch Past Five Years, Drones and AI Turn Them into Tedium

When Modern Conflict Becomes a Social Condition

According to ХВИЛЯ: This philosophical critique speaks to current debates about how advanced military technology is reshaping the experience of conflict. Once fighting goes on for more than five years, it loses its strategic uncertainty, and the attention it draws comes at the expense of meaning, the future, freedom, and culture. The author argues that such a drawn-out war turns into boredom and pushes people toward a state labeled "dysexistence." Along the way, the text introduces concepts like "dissensual meanings," "dysexistential proliferation," and the "historical trap," suggesting that escape remains possible through collective forgetting and the idea of Kairos.

What Makes Long Wars Different

Wars that last up to five years tend to feature recognizable cycles: transformations, lulls, and shifts in who is driving the conflict. But those that run longer become another creature entirely, largely because of new tools-drones, artificial intelligence, neural networks, and kill zones. The analysis also lists the many arenas in which such wars continue: cyberwarfare, space, information operations, economic pressure, sabotage networks, and cognitive warfare.

Several historical and intellectual references appear along the way, including the 1988 Soviet two-part animated film "Treasure Island," the Nuremberg trials that followed World War II, and the Dark Ages in Western Europe from the 5th to the 10th century. The piece invokes memory scholars Maurice Halbwachs and Jan Assmann, philosopher Martin Heidegger and his "Black Notebooks," and Carl von Clausewitz, whose idea of the "fog of war" remains central. It also touches on Alexander Dugin's philosophy, which frames Russia as an instrument for negating the Western world.

The essay goes on to say that when interest in a war fades, peace becomes subjectively unattainable, the future slips away, and meaning isolates itself. Staying interested is just as costly: meaning, future, curiosity, freedom, culture, and memory are all eroded. The text traces a causal chain beginning with the loss of transit, moving through ressentiment, dysexistence, dysexistential proliferation, and pseudotransit, and ending at the historical trap.

Different ideas of time also structure the argument: chronos means linear, measurable time; Kairos points to the decisive moment; aeon suggests eternity or duration; and cyclos captures the endless self-reproduction of war. By approaching war through boredom and dysexistence, the author opens a fresh way to think about current conflicts and their effects on society.

This philosophical look at warfare shows that long conflicts do not just leave scars on the battlefield-they also generate new notions of time, memory, and identity. Understanding how technology and ideology change the way wars are fought is essential in an era of prolonged violence, and the concepts laid out here can guide further inquiry into both military strategy and the human cost of conflict.

As the dynamics of warfare evolve, the impact of advanced technologies like AI and drones becomes increasingly evident. This shift not only alters the nature of conflict but also contributes to a pervasive sense of monotony on the battlefield, reshaping the experiences and perceptions of those involved. Understanding this phenomenon is crucial for grasping the broader implications of modern warfare.