The Digital, Robotic and Artificial Intelligence Revolutions: Tools of War, Terror, and Eyes of Big Brother

Hall Gardner (History and Politics): The Digital, Robotic and Artificial Intelligence Revolutions: Tools of War, Terror, and Eyes of Big Brother  

The Digital, Robotic and Artificial Intelligence Revolutions: Tools of War, Terror, and Eyes of Big Brother is a book project, which will examine the use of digital technology, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) for negative purposes of social and political manipulation, reduction of labor (without substitute work), sabotage, surveillance, and hybrid warfare, as well as for positive purposes of peace and diplomatic compromise and for sustainable socio-economic and environmental development---by way of developing theories of Marshall McLuhan, Louis Mumford, Norbert Wiener, among others. The book will first provide a brief history of the digital revolution since the launch of the Soviet space satellite Sputnik and the rise of what President Eisenhower initially referred to as the 'Military-Industrial-Congressional-University' complex which first began to coordinate public and private resources for these technological revolutions. The book will then analyze how these new technologies are impacting the global economy in terms of Joseph Schumpeter's concept of "creative destruction," of Shoshana Zuboff's concept of "surveillance capitalism," as well as post-colonialist concepts of resource extraction, for example, and how these new technologies are likewise exacerbating a new high-tech arms race by enhancing the ability of both major and regional powers, as well as anti-state actors, to engage in "hybrid warfare" in new forms of global geo-economic, military-technological, and socio-cultural rivalries. The book will conclude by discussing and critiquing ways in which the malevolent use of such technology can potentially be limited, if not proscribed, if possible, while also proposing ways for digital technology, robotics and AI to achieve more positive goals in areas ranging from diplomacy to sustainable socio-economic and environmental development through what has been called “digital democracy.”