A recent incident in Afghanistan illuminates a military aspect of the new world of integrated electronics, as exemplified by smart phones. Integration means that formerly disparate functions, such as those of a camera, phone, and Internet access, are combined seamlessly in a single device so one can feed off the others. In this case, four new attack helicopters were delivered to a U.S. base, the location of which had apparently been unknown to the enemy. Soldiers there photographed them and put the photos on the Internet, presumably using a social medium such as Facebook. Not long afterward the helicopters were all destroyed by a Taliban mortar attack. The base was secret, and it was unlikely that Afghan agents had tipped off the Taliban. What happened?
