Killer Apps: War, Media, Machine

Jeremy Packer; Joshua Reeves

Published by Duke University Press 2020

Killer Apps

War, Media, Machine

Jeremy Packer and Joshua Reeves

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478007272

Overview
Contents

About this book

Jeremy Packer and Joshua Reeves provide a critical account of the history and future of automation in warfare by highlighting the threats posed by the latest advances in media technology and artificial intelligence.

Author / Editor information

Jeremy Packer is Associate Professor in the Institute for Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology at the University of Toronto.

Joshua Reeves is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Media at Oregon State University.

Reviews

“In this crucial new book, Jeremy Packer and Joshua Reeves offer a provocative, media-centric analysis of automated killing machines. Engaging with an armada of flying sensors, robotic submarines, and AI weapons already in use, they show that big data, computer vision, and super intelligence emerge not just to order and organize the battlefield, but to produce new enemies. Clever and incisive, the book provides a haunting look at warfare of the near future.”

-- Lisa Parks, coeditor of Life in the Age of Drone Warfare

“This is an excellent book: well designed, thoroughly engaging, informative and, unfortunately, extremely topical and timely. The authors have gone to great lengths to make Killer Apps relentlessly up to date, providing readers with the latest in weapons developments, including AI drones and ‘swarmanoid’ robotics. With its impressive grounding in theory and hardware, it will become the go-to book for critical understandings of the intersection of warfare, media, and enmity.”

-- Geoffrey Winthrop-Young, author of Kittler and the Media

“By focusing first and foremost on the epistemological function of military media, Packer and Reeves have produced a range of rigorous and highly engaging analyses, with broad applicability across a range of possible fields of research.”

-- Malcolm Ogden Critical Studies in Media Communication

"The book is a tour de force regarding the rise of automation in warfare. I recommend Killer Apps to anyone interested in media technology studies as well as political science and international security studies."

-- José de Arimatéia da Cruz International Social Science Review

"Through a careful presentation of technological developments in the domain of military affairs, coupled with a rigorous historical analysis, an effective application of media theory, and a vast array of case studies, Jeremy Packer and Joshua Reeves convincingly present an account of how we arrived where we are today in a world on the cusp of embracing new forms of executing war that will be largely dependent on AI."

-- Joseph Michael Gratale European Journal of American Studies

“For the national security, intelligence, and defense communities, Killer Apps presents both a valuable scholarly resource and a deeply ambiguous set of questions. . . . [Packer and Reeves] force readers to transcend the humanist epistemological orientation in order to understand what the machine age has truly ushered in.”

-- Zac Rogers Parameters

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface to an Inauthentic Document Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Identification Friend or Foe (DoD) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
2. Centralized Control/Decentralized Execution (DoD) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	48
3. Hostile Environment (DoD) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
4. In Extremis (DoD) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
5. Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (DoD) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
6. Autonomous Operation (DoD) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	124
6. Autonomous Operation (DoD) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
8. Escalation (DoD) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
9. Unidentified Flying Objects (USAF) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
Conclusion: Armistice (DoD) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 280

eBook

Published: February 28, 2020
ISBN: 9781478007272