Towards automated warfare?

Maison Suger is pleased to host the sixth session of the seminar cycle "Accumulations and Accelerations: Computer Totalitarianism III", with Claude Serfati, senior lecturer in economics at the University of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, author of Un monde en guerres (A World at War), Textuel 2024, and Laure de Roucy-Rochegonde (sollicitée), Doctor of Political Science, Director of the Geopolitical Center for Technology at the French Institute of International Relations, author of La guerre à l’ère de l’intelligence artificielle. Quand les machines prennent les armes, PUF 2024.

At the heart of the meeting is the question of to what extent and with what effects military operations, and in particular decision-making processes, can be automated, for example through the use of killer drones. This question should be distinguished from the possibility that, in the context of an international conflict, computer networks and data centers could be attacked, whether by conventional, nuclear, or electronic weapons.

Following the success of the first two years of the seminar, which focused on the all-encompassing influence of computing, a third cycle has been organised to explore new counter-truths. The promise of virtual communities can sometimes prove harmful to physical social relations. Remote working, far from promoting equality, tends to increase disparities. The mechanised school, often presented as virtuous, risks reducing education to mere conditioning. And the fantasy of the “augmented” human reinforces capitalist logics of accumulation and acceleration.

The seminar will also examine the threats posed by automated warfare and the mechanised rationalisation of medical care, which can obscure the environmental causes of many diseases. New techniques for manipulating texts, sounds and images are making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between true and false. Finally, the artificialisation of life fosters endless individualisation: isolated humans are caught in a race toward immediate technical pleasures and struggle to grasp collective issues.

Inspired by an interactive pedagogy, the seminar is free and open to all, particularly students and researchers in the humanities, law and philosophy.