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

The US military is weaponizing technology and data for new kinds of warfare, transforming the nature of military conflict. Roberto J. González's book exposes the high-tech underpinnings of contemporary military operations and the cultural assumptions they are built on. Chapters cover automated battlefield robotics, social scientists' involvement in experimental defense research, the blurred line between political consulting and propaganda in the internet era, and the military's use of big data to craft new counterinsurgency methods based on predicting conflict. González also lays bare the processes by which the Pentagon and US intelligence agencies have quietly joined forces with Big Tech, raising an alarming prospect of Google, Amazon, and other Silicon Valley firms merging with some of the world's biggest defense contractors.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 270 pages
Publication date: 23 April 2024
Publisher: University of California Press

The US military is weaponizing technology and data for new kinds of warfare, and we must resist. Roberto J. González's book "War Virtually" provides a lucid and gripping account of the autonomous weapons, robotic systems, predictive modeling software, advanced surveillance programs, and psyops techniques that are transforming the nature of military conflict. González takes a critical approach to the techno-utopian view of these advancements and their dubious promise of a less deadly and more efficient warfare.

The book exposes the high-tech underpinnings of contemporary military operations and the cultural assumptions they are built on. Chapters cover automated battlefield robotics, social scientists' involvement in experimental defense research, the blurred line between political consulting and propaganda in the internet era, and the military's use of big data to craft new counterinsurgency methods based on predicting conflict. González 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 someday Google, Amazon, and other Silicon Valley firms might merge with some of the world's biggest defense contractors.

War Virtually takes an unflinching look at an algorithmic future where new military technologies threaten democratic governance and human survival.

Weight: 370g
Dimension: 151 x 230 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780520402171