The Kill Chain
The Kill Chain

Author: Christian Brose

Publisher: Hachette Books

Published: 2020-04-21

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 031653336X

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From a former senior advisor to Senator John McCain comes an urgent wake-up call about how new technologies are threatening America's military might. For generations of Americans, our country has been the world's dominant military power. How the US military fights, and the systems and weapons that it fights with, have been uncontested. That old reality, however, is rapidly deteriorating. America's traditional sources of power are eroding amid the emergence of new technologies and the growing military threat posed by rivals such as China. America is at grave risk of losing a future war. As Christian Brose reveals in this urgent wake-up call, the future will be defined by artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and other emerging technologies that are revolutionizing global industries and are now poised to overturn the model of American defense. This fascinating, if disturbing, book confronts the existential risks on the horizon, charting a way for America's military to adapt and succeed with new thinking as well as new technology. America must build a battle network of systems that enables people to rapidly understand threats, make decisions, and take military actions, the process known as "the kill chain." Examining threats from China, Russia, and elsewhere, The Kill Chain offers hope and, ultimately, insights on how America can apply advanced technologies to prevent war, deter aggression, and maintain peace.

The End of Killing
The End of Killing

Author: Rick Smith

Publisher: Page Two

Published: 2019-05-21

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1989025536

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"The End Of Killing is a book that asks a bold question: could we end killing as a human endeavor? In other words, could we eliminate killing using technology? Rick Smith's answer--born of a life dedicated to making the bullet obsolete--is yes. He argues that while humanity has accepted that killing is an unavoidable fact of life, it doesn't need to be. In this provocative book, Smith demonstrates that, because of advancements in technology, we are on the cusp of a world where killing is no longer required--nor acceptable. But getting there will require bold approaches that challenge conventional thinking. Showcasing the latest technologies in weapons, surveillance, artificial intelligence, and even bioinformatics, the book dives into the big, thorny questions about how technology is changing personal safety, police work, our justice system, and our national security. With clarity and conviction, Smith challenges conventional wisdom, showing how technologies that appear strange and scary can actually better human life dramatically. In a world of dead-end debates about gun violence and police brutality, he offers us a clear roadmap out of the violent present into a brighter future. Thought-provoking, insightful, and controversial, The End of Killing will make people stop and think about the world they inhabit--and about the future to come."--

Kill Chain
Kill Chain

Author: Andrew Cockburn

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2015-03-10

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0805099263

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Assassination by drone is a subject of deep and enduring fascination. Yet few understand how and why this has become our principal way of waging war. 'Kill Chain' uncovers the real and extraordinary story; its origins in long-buried secret programmes, the breakthroughs that made drone operations possible, the ways in which the technology works and, despite official claims, does not work. Taking the reader inside the well-guarded world of national security, the book reveals the powerful interests - military, CIA and corporate - that have led the drive to kill individuals by remote control.

The People Vs Tech
The People Vs Tech

Author: Jamie Bartlett

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2018-04-05

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 1524744379

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From the bestselling author of The Dark Net comes a book that explains all the dangers of the digital revolution and offers concrete solutions on how we can protect our personal privacy, and democracy itself. The internet was meant to set us free. But have we unwittingly handed too much away to shadowy powers behind a wall of code, all manipulated by a handful of Silicon Valley utopians, ad men, and venture capitalists? And, in light of recent data breach scandals around companies like Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, what does that mean for democracy, our delicately balanced system of government that was created long before big data, total information, and artificial intelligence? In this urgent polemic, Jamie Bartlett argues that through our unquestioning embrace of big tech, the building blocks of democracy are slowly being removed. The middle class is being eroded, sovereign authority and civil society is weakened, and we citizens are losing our critical faculties, maybe even our free will. The People Vs Tech is an enthralling account of how our fragile political system is being threatened by the digital revolution. Bartlett explains that by upholding six key pillars of democracy, we can save it before it is too late. We need to become active citizens, uphold a shared democratic culture, protect free elections, promote equality, safeguard competitive and civic freedoms, and trust in a sovereign authority. This essential book shows that the stakes couldn't be higher and that, unless we radically alter our course, democracy will join feudalism, supreme monarchies and communism as just another political experiment that quietly disappeared.

On Killing Remotely
On Killing Remotely

Author: Lieutenant Colonel Wayne Phelps

Publisher: Little, Brown

Published: 2021-06-08

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 0316628271

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A “can’t-miss for anyone interested in current military affairs,” On Killing Remotely reveals and explores the costs—to individual soldiers and to society—of the way we wage war today (Kirkus Reviews, starred). Throughout history society has determined specific rules of engagement between adversaries in armed conflict. With advances in technology, from armor to in the Middle Ages to nerve gas in World War I to weapons of mass destruction in our own time, the rules have constantly evolved. Today, when killing the enemy can seem palpably risk-free and tantamount to playing a violent video game, what constitutes warfare? What is the effect of remote combat on individual soldiers? And what are the unforeseen repercussions that could affect us all? Lt Col Wayne Phelps, former commander of a Remotely Piloted Aircraft unit, addresses these questions and many others as he tells the story of the men and women of today’s “chair force.” Exploring the ethics of remote military engagement, the misconceptions about PTSD among RPA operators, and the specter of military weaponry controlled by robots, his book is an urgent and compelling reminder that it should always be difficult to kill another human being lest we risk losing what makes us human.

A Higher Form of Killing
A Higher Form of Killing

Author: Diana Preston

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2015-02-24

Total Pages: 508

ISBN-13: 1620402130

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In six weeks during April and May 1915, as World War I escalated, Germany forever altered the way war would be fought. On April 22, at Ypres, German canisters spewed poison gas at French and Canadian soldiers in their trenches; on May 7, the German submarine U-20, without warning, torpedoed the passenger liner Lusitania, killing 1,198 civilians; and on May 31, a German Zeppelin began the first aerial bombardment of London and its inhabitants. Each of these actions violated rules of war carefully agreed at the Hague Conventions of 1898 and 1907. Though Germany's attempts to quickly win the war failed, the psychological damage caused by these attacks far outweighed the casualties. The era of weapons of mass destruction had dawned. While each of these momentous events has been chronicled in histories of the war, celebrated historian Diana Preston links them for the first time, revealing the dramatic stories behind each through the eyes of those who were there, whether making the decisions or experiencing their effect. She places the attacks in the context of the centuries-old debate over what constitutes “just war,” and shows how, in their aftermath, the other combatants felt the necessity to develop extreme weapons of their own. In our current time of terror, when weapons of mass destruction-imagined or real-are once again vilified, the story of their birth is of great relevance.

Killing Times
Killing Times

Author: David Wills

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780823286119

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'Killing Times' starts from the deceptively simple observation - made by Jacques Derrida - that the death penalty mechanically interrupts mortal time, preempting our normal experience of not knowing when we will die. The text examines more broadly what constitutes mortal temporality and how the 'machinery of death' exploits and perverts time.

World Wide Waste: How Digital Is Killing Our Planet—and What We Can Do About It
World Wide Waste: How Digital Is Killing Our Planet—and What We Can Do About It

Author: Gerry McGovern

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2020-03-13

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 1916444628

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Speaking out when it's unpopular. Back in the day, Henry David Thoreau raged at the robber barons-the big shots of their age, despoiling the environment in the name of progress. Deep in the throes of the seemingly unstoppable growth of tech, a modern-day Thoreau has emerged in the guise of Gerry McGovern-decrying the massive, hidden negative impacts of tech on the environment. McGovern has thoroughly documented in World Wide Waste how tech damages the Earth-and what we should be doing about it. It is not just the acres of discarded computer hardware conveniently dumped in Third World countries. Every time an email is downloaded it contributes to global warming. Every tweet, search, check of a webpage creates pollution. Digital is physical. Those data centers are not in the Cloud. They're on land in massive physical buildings packed full of computers hungry for energy. It seems invisible. It seems cheap and free. It's not. Digital costs the Earth.

On Killing
On Killing

Author: Dave Grossman

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2014-04-01

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 1497629209

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A controversial psychological examination of how soldiers’ willingness to kill has been encouraged and exploited to the detriment of contemporary civilian society. Psychologist and US Army Ranger Dave Grossman writes that the vast majority of soldiers are loath to pull the trigger in battle. Unfortunately, modern armies, using Pavlovian and operant conditioning, have developed sophisticated ways of overcoming this instinctive aversion. The mental cost for members of the military, as witnessed by the increase in post-traumatic stress, is devastating. The sociological cost for the rest of us is even worse: Contemporary civilian society, particularly the media, replicates the army’s conditioning techniques and, Grossman argues, is responsible for the rising rate of murder and violence, especially among the young. Drawing from interviews, personal accounts, and academic studies, On Killing is an important look at the techniques the military uses to overcome the powerful reluctance to kill, of how killing affects the soldier, and of the societal implications of escalating violence.

Drone
Drone

Author: Hugh Gusterson

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2017-09-15

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 026253441X

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Drone warfare described from the perspectives of drone operators, victims of drone attacks, anti-drone activists, international law, military thinkers, and others. "[A] thoughtful examination of the dilemmas this new weapon poses." —Foreign Affairs Drones are changing the conduct of war. Deployed at presidential discretion, they can be used in regular war zones or to kill people in such countries as Yemen and Somalia, where the United States is not officially at war. Advocates say that drones are more precise than conventional bombers, allowing warfare with minimal civilian deaths while keeping American pilots out of harm's way. Critics say that drones are cowardly and that they often kill innocent civilians while terrorizing entire villages on the ground. In this book, Hugh Gusterson explores the significance of drone warfare from multiple perspectives, drawing on accounts by drone operators, victims of drone attacks, anti-drone activists, human rights activists, international lawyers, journalists, military thinkers, and academic experts. Gusterson examines the way drone warfare has created commuter warriors and redefined the space of the battlefield. He looks at the paradoxical mix of closeness and distance involved in remote killing: is it easier than killing someone on the physical battlefield if you have to watch onscreen? He suggests a new way of understanding the debate over civilian casualties of drone attacks. He maps “ethical slippage” over time in the Obama administration's targeting practices. And he contrasts Obama administration officials' legal justification of drone attacks with arguments by international lawyers and NGOs.