The Devil's Toy Box: Exposing and Defusing Promethean Terrorists

253 Pages·2022·2.815 MB·English

by  Andrew Fox

THE DEVIL’S TOY BOX

T h e
D e v i l’ s
T o y B o x
Exposing and Defusing Promethean Terrorists
A ndr e w Fox
Potomac Books
An imprint of the University of Nebraska Press
© 2022 by Andrew Fox
All rights reserved. Potomac Books is an imprint of the
University of Nebraska Press.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Fox, Andrew J., author.
Title: The devil’s toy box: exposing and defusing Promethean
terrorists / Andrew Fox.
Description: Lincoln: Potomac Books, an imprint of the
University of Nebraska Press, [2022] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2021043988
isbn 9781640124790 (hardback)
isbn 9781640125360 (epub)
isbn 9781640125377 (pdf)
Subjects: lcsh: Terrorism— Prevention. | Security, Interna-
tional. | bisac: political science / Security (National &
International) | political science / Terrorism
Classification: lcc hv6431 .f677 2022 | ddc 363.325— dc23/
eng/20220114
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021043988
Set in Arno Pro by Mikala R. Kolander.
The views expressed in this book are my own and do not
necessarily reflect those of the sigma organization.
For Dara,
who managed the house and kids while I was in
Monterey, who put up with my stacks of research
materials in our bedroom, and who formatted my
big, fat thesis

Contents
List of Illustrations . . ix
List of Tables . . xi
Acknowledgments . . xiii
Prologue: The Parable of the Devil’s Toy Box . . 1
1. Future Shock Visits the Subway: The 1995 Aum Shinrikyo Sarin
Gas Assault as a Prototypical Promethean Terror Strike . . 7
2. Made in Japan? Or “Overeducated and Underemployed”? . . 29
3. Promethean Technologies: Adding Accelerants
to the Spreading Fire . . 51
4. Endless Threats: Promethean Technology’s Mind- Bending
Challenge to Homeland Security . . 71
5. Selecting the Tools to Build a Promethean Spyglass: A Brief
Survey of Seventy Years’ Worth of Forecasting Methods . . 101
6. The Core of a Devil’s Toy Box Analytical Team?
Science Fiction Writers . . 123
7. The Promethean Spyglass: Doing a Devil’s Toy Box
Analysis Right . . 155
Conclusion: Buy That Fire Insurance Policy! . . 213
Notes . . 223
Index . . 231

Illustrations
1. Example of Technology Sequence Analysis (harvesting robot) . . 108