War Virtually (eBook)

The Quest to Automate Conflict, Militarize Data, and Predict the Future

Roberto J. Gonzalez (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022
270 Seiten
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-38477-4 (ISBN)

Infos

A critical look at how the US military is weaponizing technology and data for new kinds of warfareand why we must resist.War Virtually is the story of how scientists, programmers, and engineers are racing to develop data-driven technologies for fighting virtual wars, both at home and abroad. In this landmark book, Roberto J. Gonzlez gives us a lucid and gripping account of what lies behind the autonomous weapons, robotic systems, predictive modeling software, advanced surveillance programs, and psyops techniques that are transforming the nature of military conflict. Gonzlez, a cultural anthropologist, takes a critical approach to the techno-utopian view of these advancements and their dubious promise of a less deadly and more efficient warfare. With clear, accessible prose, this book exposes the high-tech underpinnings of contemporary military operationsand the cultural assumptions theyre built on. Chapters cover automated battlefield robotics; social scientistsinvolvement in experimental defense research; the blurred line between political consulting and propaganda in the internet era; and the militarys use of big data to craft new counterinsurgency methods based on predicting conflict. Gonzlez also lays bare the processes by which the Pentagon and US intelligence agencies have quietly joined forces with Big Tech, raising an alarming prospect: that somedayGoogle, Amazon, and other Silicon Valley firms might merge with some of the worlds biggest defense contractors. War Virtually takes an unflinching look at an algorithmic futurewhere new military technologies threaten democratic governance and human survival.

Inhalt

Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Terms and Abbreviations

1. War Virtually
2. Requiem for a Robot
3. Pentagon West
4. The Dark Arts
5. Juggernaut
6. Precogs, Inc.
7. Postdata

Acknowledgments
Appendix: Sub-rosa Research
Notes
References
Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 5.4.2022
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: algorithms • Anthropology • Artificial Intelligence • Contractors • Department of Defense • Drone warfare • Palantir • Predictive Modeling • Robotic Weapons • Silicon Valley • tech companies • United States military technology
• ISBN-10: 0-520-38477-6 / 0520384776
• ISBN-13: 978-0-520-38477-4 / 9780520384774