[Starhawk]

Yes but on the other side of the equation what kind of military would actually count as "Large" or "small" in terms of trillions of people?

As I said the Star Trek universe for example the Federation has something like 70k starships each wtih a minimum crew of about 50 and on several occasions we hear that starfleet personnel number in the billions.
Now add to that the very inconsistant number of planet-v-population-starfleet size and star trek just gets confusing.
I mean as I said unless the Federation has a few hive worlds how could they lose 900 BILLION people in a single war and not be utterly and totally destroyed as a people?


Well another argument Geoschmo is that technology has a way of winding back around in a circular pattern by that i mean eventually technology would nullify it's own effect, some say that we may eventually see the return of WWI and WWII style warfare someday in the future, not because the technology has become primitive again but because both sides having that kind of tech may very well result in a return to the old style of fighting.

Likewise it is not always a good idea to destroy a world, especailly one with billions of people because if you think about it Empires are not built by destroying those you seek to conquer. Just like the US and Russia don't go around nuking everyone we find a threat as that would hurt everyone in the long run and in the end increase future resistance against your nation/empire.

Now assuming a planet would have it's own military forces (lets say even a few hundred thousand) then you WOULD need ground forces to seize a planet from your enemy, of course an orbiting warfleet could help but it would likely be in the tactical sense not the strategic sense, I mean a well placed kinetic strike or energy strike could be very effective in haulting an enemy advance but the odds of friendly fire risks would skyrocket.

And if you look at it the threat of utter annihilation usually drives people to greater resistance not passivity as they may well begin to think you would destroy them anyway.

So if you think about it wouldn't military forces increase again as this "circular" pattern of technology countering it's self equalized the playing fields?