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.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: Our Emerging World of War Max Liljefors, Gregor Noll and Daniel Steuer 2. Prolegomena to Any Future Attempt at Understanding Our Emerging World of War Daniel Steuer 3. Anthropokenosis and the Emerging World of War Howard Caygill 4. War by Algorithm: The End of Law? Gregor Noll 5. Law’s Ends: On Algorithmic Warfare and Humanitarian Violence Sara Kendall 6. Omnivoyance and Blindness Max Liljefors 7. Of the Pointless View: From the Ecotechnology to the Echotheology of Omnivoyant War Allen Feldman 8. Visions Max Liljefors, Gregor Noll and Daniel Steuer Bibliography About the Authors Index

About the Author :
Max Liljefors is a Professor in the Division of Art History and Visual Studies, Lund University. Gregor Noll is a Professor in the Department of Law, University of Gothenburg. Daniel Steuer is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics, University of Brighton.

Review :
War and Algorithm offers a concise but thought-provoking ensemble of texts reflecting on the emerging world of war in the age of high-speed computation and artificial intelligence. … The text is organized along a tripartite structure of understanding, law and vision, distributed among the editors in accordance with their respective specialisms. Yet the three core chapters resonate richly with each other in their engagement with some profound questions raised by the present transformation of war. This very powerful and disturbing book opens up a host of deeply problematic interconnections between humans and machines, war and climate catastrophe, formal and informal warfare, law and vision and blindness. The authors and commentators, who have coordinated their work over some considerable time, bring an exceptionally original and complementary set of approaches to their topic. To speak of ‘impact’ would be crass, but this major contribution to social theory deserves to attract a good deal of attention. Engaging the reader in a tripartite critical conversation organized into closely-knit, yet individually rich, movements, War and Algorithm is a must-read for anyone looking for an unflinching interrogation of the urgent questions raised by the transforming relationship between technology and violence. How should we think about the rise of intelligent machines as instruments, weapons, or perhaps even agents of warfare? The authors of this vital collection insist that this is not a question that should be left to military officials, defence analysts, or humanitarian lawyers making decisions in the fog of war. By staging a conversation between philosophers, jurists, art historians, and cultural theorists, the authors attempt to make visible what we cannot yet see about the future of warfare that is emerging, to trace the material and spiritual investments that are being made to bring it about, and in so doing to humanize the implacable move to war that seems to be accelerating within our institutions and beyond our control. Part philosophical meditation, part jurisprudential speculation, part reflection on visual history, this volume makes a major contribution to reframing the urgently needed public debate about our emerging world of war. This is a remarkable book, speculative and unruly in the best possible meanings of these terms: highly informed scholars spanning the fields of philosophy, law and art history searching for new grounds of resistance in the face of weaponized algorithmic systems where artificial agents and human agents have started to bleed into each other.