A critical look at how the US military is weaponizing technology and data for new kinds of warfare—and why we must resist. War Virtually is the story of how scientists, programmers, and engineers are racing to develop data-driven technologies for fighting virtual wars, both at home and abroad. In this landmark book, Roberto J. González gives us a lucid and gripping account of what lies behind the autonomous weapons, robotic systems, predictive modeling software, advanced surveillance programs, and psyops techniques that are transforming the nature of military conflict. González, a cultural anthropologist, takes a critical approach to the techno-utopian view of these advancements and their dubious promise of a less deadly and more efficient warfare.
With clear, accessible prose, this book exposes the high-tech underpinnings of contemporary military operations—and the cultural assumptions they re built on. Chapters cover automated battlefield robotics; social scientists involvement in experimental defense research; the blurred line between political consulting and propaganda in the internet era; and the military s use of big data to craft new counterinsurgency methods based on predicting conflict. González also lays bare the processes by which the Pentagon and US intelligence agencies have quietly joined forces with Big Tech, raising an alarming prospect: that someday Google, Amazon, and other Silicon Valley firms might merge with some of the world s biggest defense contractors. War Virtually takes an unflinching look at an algorithmic future—where new military technologies threaten democratic governance and human survival.
About the Author
Roberto J. González is professor and chair of the Anthropology Department at San José State University. His newest book, "War Virtually: The Quest to Automate Conflict, Militarize Data, and Predict the Future," has just been published by the University of California Press. Roberto is the author and editor of several books about science and technology, militarization in American culture, and life in a Mexican global village. These books include "Connected: How a Mexican Village Built Its Own Cell Phone Network," "Militarization: A Reader," "American Counteinsurgency: Human Science and the Human Terrain," and "Zapotec Science: Farming and Food in a Mexican Village." Roberto s other writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the San José Mercury-News, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Academe, and many other publications. Roberto received his BA degree from the University of Texas and MA and PhD degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.
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