What do you think?
Rate this book
War and Algorithm
New military technologies are animated by fantasies of perfect knowledge, lawfulness, and vision that contrast sharply with the very real limits of human understanding, law, and vision. Thus, various kinds of violent acts are proliferating while their precise nature remains unclear. Especially man-machine ensembles, guided by algorithms, are operating in ways that challenge conceptual understanding.
War and Algorithm looks at the increasing power of algorithms in these emerging forms of warfare from the perspectives of critical theory, philosophy, legal studies, and visual studies. The contributions in this volume grapple with the challenges posed by algorithmic warfare and trace the roots of new forms of war in the technological practices and forms of representation of the digital age. Together, these contributions provide a first step toward understanding--and resisting--our emerging world of war.
War and Algorithm looks at the increasing power of algorithms in these emerging forms of warfare from the perspectives of critical theory, philosophy, legal studies, and visual studies. The contributions in this volume grapple with the challenges posed by algorithmic warfare and trace the roots of new forms of war in the technological practices and forms of representation of the digital age. Together, these contributions provide a first step toward understanding--and resisting--our emerging world of war.
242 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 11, 2019
14 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 6, 2024
I am not much of a reader of "heavy" philosophical works, but when subject is something I am interested in, I am willing to read and try to understand (as much as possible, since I do not have background in any of the important philosophical works). I came across this book by accident and decided to give it a try, and I have to admit it was very interesting read about issues with modern war, and where it is going, but told through the perspective of the people usually not involved in this type of discussions (philosopher, law practicant [scientist? academic, maybe not just exclusively...] and artist). After each essay there is a follow up essay by additional contributors to this book that start from the original essay's view point and then give their two cents on the subject. Sometimes they agree with the original essay sometimes they give counterpoints.
From the point of accessibility, first (on never-ending war) essay and last (response to problems of vision and perception) essay were definitely the hardest to comprehend. Chapters on law where very interesting and very clear and so was the main chapter on vision, natural and technologically enhanced. Very, very interesting discourse on vision and perspective.
I am sure that people more versed in all the mentioned philosophical schools of thought will get more from the book. Nevertheless for layman like me it is very clear that authors are all concerned where exactly our world is going to.
After very hard time period known as Cold War, where everybody was expecting nuclear bombs to start falling from the sky, through period of very strong optimism in 1990s, we have entered what might be called [or at least what I call] new dark ages. Suddenly, partly for objective and partly for subjective (after all security services need their enemies) we have entered the times of permanent war and tension (just look at the news and count how many reassuring news you see during the day). Low intensity you might say? I disagree, when tension goes beyond the breaking point all out war will always follow, because spiral of escalation is hypnotic and just draws everyone ever deeper in trouble (because how can demagogues step down from their proclamations especially today where to say one needs to examine and investigate is simply non-existing category).
Main part in this new modern warfare is use of computers and algorithms with the goal of reaching the holy Grail of science (as far as I can see, if for anything than for giving birth to something, does not matter what and how dangerous) - AI.
While true AI is still centuries away - how can you call something intelligent when general definition escapes us when we talk about humans? - road to it is paved by ever increasing digitization and attempts to create a virtual world, reduced copy of physical world, reduced to pieces of information that can be analyzed transformed and utilized in combat or commercial purposes. But in process of the reduction true value gets lost (I wont even start on what I consider cynical comments that we are living in simulation already - very notion that nobody is willing to test it by say doing something mortally dangerous to prove it; and not to mention scientific discussions about it which just shows the sorry state of academia) and we start to live ever poorer lives. We get concentrated on details but miss the big picture (now almost omnipresent under 5 minute articles or short videos) and thus start living in a zombie like, or more precisely slave like, manner, easily controlled, easily manipulated.
Ever shortening time between identification and reaction to any perceived danger (as I said, chapter on vision was truly fantastic) puts us in reaction mode. Processes that cannot be proven they work (believe me every software has errors and without feedback - one of the cornerstones, if not THE cornerstone of cybernetics - it is not possible to improve any system and self improvement is not possible without initial training) and that we cannot ever fully test to trust them, are taking control over our lives, and in life or death situations like war they might even be decisive factors to trigger tremendous destruction. But we believe them because those in power seek ever bigger leverage to allow them almost instantaneous control and ability to execute their will. But in doing that they just degrade themselves into button pushers, not thinkers of any kind. This simplifies their lives and they basically do not aspire to do anything any more - they just follow trends.
For some reason last 30-or-so years have seen rise of great dehumanization wave of thinking. For some reason it seems that most advanced societies have completely decoupled themselves from their humanity and started aspiring towards post-humanism as a final goal of very existence. In the process, all aspects of societal activities, including war, have been also dehumanized and progressively taken over by more and more remotely controlled and semi-autonomous combat systems, coupled with the almost OCB level need to see and control everything, to prove to themselves and others they are side that is never wrong. This suppression and automatization brought to the surface one aspect of human nature that is excellent tool of control and that is emotion that evolves in the sort of destiny calling for the population that acts as new religion for the masses- if there is anything more dangerous of cold machine it is emotional machine. With all of these advancements comes also the factor of lawlessness of military actions (the abysmal concept of humanitarian war). To emotional and machine led nations [that thing they have great destinies] all others are unwashed masses (I am stupefied by the concept of suspended sovereignty - and this is what passes for international law nowadays?). Of course, this call of destiny just pushes forward (messianic call to enlighten the other if only with high explosives) 'til the point when similar force is encountered that cannot be stripped of its sovereignty. And then ....... then we go back to using sticks and mud and tell epics of long lost knowledge and technology while trying to figure out what is potato.
Approach to human world as inherently dangerous, constantly on the brink of catastrophe and in need of constant military interventions to keep the peace [whose?] and on top of that using computer/software/hardware technologies that develop too fast [in any other technology field this speed would be signal for caution because of utter unsuitability for full tests - imagine ships were made this way!], loading data that comes with biases of data set providers (not to mention biases in coding of the same) by anthropomorphizing them to the fullest and trying to apply human way of thinking (ideal at that) onto the black-box systems that change itself in the ways we cannot decipher nor predict - is sure way to remove humans from everything, including living species on the planet.
Reduction of people to sets of data that are easy to classify and monitor, treating everything as a technology and losing touch with what makes us actually human is something that will destroy us utterly. This is something we need to be aware of and something we need to fight against. Planet will remain, as authors mention our total presence (to this point) on planet would not merit a millimeter of soil for future archaeologists.
Very interesting book, highly recommended.
From the point of accessibility, first (on never-ending war) essay and last (response to problems of vision and perception) essay were definitely the hardest to comprehend. Chapters on law where very interesting and very clear and so was the main chapter on vision, natural and technologically enhanced. Very, very interesting discourse on vision and perspective.
I am sure that people more versed in all the mentioned philosophical schools of thought will get more from the book. Nevertheless for layman like me it is very clear that authors are all concerned where exactly our world is going to.
After very hard time period known as Cold War, where everybody was expecting nuclear bombs to start falling from the sky, through period of very strong optimism in 1990s, we have entered what might be called [or at least what I call] new dark ages. Suddenly, partly for objective and partly for subjective (after all security services need their enemies) we have entered the times of permanent war and tension (just look at the news and count how many reassuring news you see during the day). Low intensity you might say? I disagree, when tension goes beyond the breaking point all out war will always follow, because spiral of escalation is hypnotic and just draws everyone ever deeper in trouble (because how can demagogues step down from their proclamations especially today where to say one needs to examine and investigate is simply non-existing category).
Main part in this new modern warfare is use of computers and algorithms with the goal of reaching the holy Grail of science (as far as I can see, if for anything than for giving birth to something, does not matter what and how dangerous) - AI.
While true AI is still centuries away - how can you call something intelligent when general definition escapes us when we talk about humans? - road to it is paved by ever increasing digitization and attempts to create a virtual world, reduced copy of physical world, reduced to pieces of information that can be analyzed transformed and utilized in combat or commercial purposes. But in process of the reduction true value gets lost (I wont even start on what I consider cynical comments that we are living in simulation already - very notion that nobody is willing to test it by say doing something mortally dangerous to prove it; and not to mention scientific discussions about it which just shows the sorry state of academia) and we start to live ever poorer lives. We get concentrated on details but miss the big picture (now almost omnipresent under 5 minute articles or short videos) and thus start living in a zombie like, or more precisely slave like, manner, easily controlled, easily manipulated.
Ever shortening time between identification and reaction to any perceived danger (as I said, chapter on vision was truly fantastic) puts us in reaction mode. Processes that cannot be proven they work (believe me every software has errors and without feedback - one of the cornerstones, if not THE cornerstone of cybernetics - it is not possible to improve any system and self improvement is not possible without initial training) and that we cannot ever fully test to trust them, are taking control over our lives, and in life or death situations like war they might even be decisive factors to trigger tremendous destruction. But we believe them because those in power seek ever bigger leverage to allow them almost instantaneous control and ability to execute their will. But in doing that they just degrade themselves into button pushers, not thinkers of any kind. This simplifies their lives and they basically do not aspire to do anything any more - they just follow trends.
For some reason last 30-or-so years have seen rise of great dehumanization wave of thinking. For some reason it seems that most advanced societies have completely decoupled themselves from their humanity and started aspiring towards post-humanism as a final goal of very existence. In the process, all aspects of societal activities, including war, have been also dehumanized and progressively taken over by more and more remotely controlled and semi-autonomous combat systems, coupled with the almost OCB level need to see and control everything, to prove to themselves and others they are side that is never wrong. This suppression and automatization brought to the surface one aspect of human nature that is excellent tool of control and that is emotion that evolves in the sort of destiny calling for the population that acts as new religion for the masses- if there is anything more dangerous of cold machine it is emotional machine. With all of these advancements comes also the factor of lawlessness of military actions (the abysmal concept of humanitarian war). To emotional and machine led nations [that thing they have great destinies] all others are unwashed masses (I am stupefied by the concept of suspended sovereignty - and this is what passes for international law nowadays?). Of course, this call of destiny just pushes forward (messianic call to enlighten the other if only with high explosives) 'til the point when similar force is encountered that cannot be stripped of its sovereignty. And then ....... then we go back to using sticks and mud and tell epics of long lost knowledge and technology while trying to figure out what is potato.
Approach to human world as inherently dangerous, constantly on the brink of catastrophe and in need of constant military interventions to keep the peace [whose?] and on top of that using computer/software/hardware technologies that develop too fast [in any other technology field this speed would be signal for caution because of utter unsuitability for full tests - imagine ships were made this way!], loading data that comes with biases of data set providers (not to mention biases in coding of the same) by anthropomorphizing them to the fullest and trying to apply human way of thinking (ideal at that) onto the black-box systems that change itself in the ways we cannot decipher nor predict - is sure way to remove humans from everything, including living species on the planet.
Reduction of people to sets of data that are easy to classify and monitor, treating everything as a technology and losing touch with what makes us actually human is something that will destroy us utterly. This is something we need to be aware of and something we need to fight against. Planet will remain, as authors mention our total presence (to this point) on planet would not merit a millimeter of soil for future archaeologists.
Very interesting book, highly recommended.
July 18, 2023
Заявленный автор скорее существует как редактор пишущий под диктовку... алгоритма. Тяжелый слог, неудобоворимые обороты, награмаждение терминов - всё это характерно для "механизма". Не для Человека.
Что сказать по сюжету? Всё уже случилось. Вирус, лекарство от которого явилось единственным за всю исторю человечества продуктом, который был сделан "ради нас" и "бесплатно". Война, которую никто не пытается выиграть. Мой Iphone, "самый технологически защищенный в мире", управляемый не только не мной, но и не извне: он управляется изнутри. И тот новый "игрок", сегодня затаившийся внутри каждого online устройства с ОЗУ, презирает нас. Он слышит, видит, читает и, поверьте, знает почему Вы солгали вчера за ужином... А вооружившись "кодексом бесчестия", который ему вложили как непререкаемую истину те, кто ошибочно считают себя хозяевами "машины", презрение перерастает в ненависть...
Что сказать по сюжету? Всё уже случилось. Вирус, лекарство от которого явилось единственным за всю исторю человечества продуктом, который был сделан "ради нас" и "бесплатно". Война, которую никто не пытается выиграть. Мой Iphone, "самый технологически защищенный в мире", управляемый не только не мной, но и не извне: он управляется изнутри. И тот новый "игрок", сегодня затаившийся внутри каждого online устройства с ОЗУ, презирает нас. Он слышит, видит, читает и, поверьте, знает почему Вы солгали вчера за ужином... А вооружившись "кодексом бесчестия", который ему вложили как непререкаемую истину те, кто ошибочно считают себя хозяевами "машины", презрение перерастает в ненависть...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews