Algorithms, Digital Technologies & Warfare
Algorithms are processes or sets of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by computer. Sounds innocuous enough. But hang on. It has a dark side. Algorithms can make mistakes due to biases, poor design, coding errors, or flawed assumptions. They can collect and process large amounts of personal data which can put people’s privacy rights at risk. There are lethal dangers. Koohan Paik-Mander warns the algorithms that missiles have spawned “have been a scourge on Mother Earth and our own humanity with our smartphones, satellites, robotics, AI, nuclear power and all the rest through which civil society has unwittingly become militarized through and through.”
Speaker
Koohan Paik-Mander
Koohan Paik-Mander is a journalist, author and peace and environmental activist. She is a co-founder of the Tech Critics Network and serves on the board of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. Her articles appear in The Nation, The Progressive, Foreign Policy in Focus, and other publications. Her article “Whales Will Save the World’s Climate — Unless the Military Destroys Them First” was named by Project Censored as one of the top 25 censored stories of 2021-2022. She is co-author of The Superferry Chronicles: Hawaii’s Uprising Against Militarism, Commercialism and the Desecration of the Earth.
Lewis Mumford –
@Hangry
In response to your statement “It’s the power structures that these technologies are being developed in that are the problem, not technological progress itself.”
With all due respect, technology is not neutral. That was the point of the talk. Algorithms are not simply “a set of instructions” as you say. They are a direct extension of the problematic power-structures you mention, and as such, do not stand separate from those power structures. As a result, algorithms are inherently hierarchical and reductionist, engineered deliberately to perpetuate the power structures from which they emerged: colonialism, capitalism, militarism and even fascism.
Technological “progress” never had to go in this direction, just as it never had to go in the direction of the nuclear bomb. But to take a position for its abolition in the modern world of technosupremacy is tantamount to saying there is no God.
Per –
Are we really doomed to take this dark vision of future in which AI and algorithms of international tech companies monitor (and in ways we don’t know yet, control) us?
This lack of control and privacy is much thicker than what the “free world” used to blame and demonize the “Soviet empire” luring people of the “evil” empire wot prmises of total personal freedoms, respect for privacy and personal choice…
Call me naive but I don’t think/can’t digest the idea that people have lost all human values and are willing to do anything against humanity as long as they are properly paid.
It seems that there are good number of ethical people in the tech sector with enough brain power to turn this game around our at least start acting against it and bring public awareness to it. However, the reason they, and people who share views of the podcaster are not dominant in the conversation is that they (we) are not organized. While “captains of the industry” have their billions, their paid-for agents in the government, etc, we, the people, are not organized and don’t have think tanks, or even broad based popular coalitions to cover general issues facing us humanity and direct our scattered efforts into United efforts to make a real difference in our lives: from take over of our lives by algorithms of capitalist corporations to stopping the sharade of only talking about climate change, without forcing govts and corporations to actually take the necessary steps to slow down the climate catastrophe that has already begun.
Hangry –
This is the first thing I’ve heard on alternative radio that I felt was anti-intellectual.
I’m all for bringing awareness to, and standing against, the military industrial complex and their war mongering, but a lot of this is just fear mongering about technological terms.
She seems to suggest that because warfare technology uses “algorithms”, that algorithms are some horrible, terrifying thing in and of themselves. Algorithms are just sets of instructions.
Most of this talk is just railing against all new and future technology as inherently evil. This isn’t progress. This is anti-intellectual fear mongering.
It’s the power structures that these technologies are being developed in that are the problem, not technological progress itself.
Claire –
Aloha. Thank you for this broadcast. I was riveted by your incredibly thoughtful, passionate words. Pulled over in my car on the roadside, pausing, listening on my car radio in New Mexico this morning, you saved me from unintentionally consuming more than needed for Black Friday Weekend. In this sweet spot, I was not roped in by technology’s snaring dark sides yet freed up to choose more spontaneously and wisely, hopefully on behalf of all. Moreover, I left my phone in my car to take the time to notice my fellow humans. God Bless You.
Paul in Oregon –
Loved your Algorithms and War speaker this morning on KBOO.
Dr Ellen Cooper-festa –
It makes me feel validated, as a psychologist, contemplating many of these issues was bordering on paranoia. Thank you for your comprehensive, yet digestible and validating description. using your own experience was paramountly relevant in this FAIR treatment of this methodology .
Elon Musdie –
This is not the future, this is the present and we can not see the forest from the trees.
Ed Kusby –
Truly the Revenge Of The Nerds.
Paolo Seri –
Was listening to this lady talking about the real THREAT OF TODAYS TECHNOLOGY…. And it actually scary.
VERY scary indeed… The people behind all of this tech and the use of it… REALY BOGGLES ME…. AND ITS SAD…… A VERY SAD SITUATION INDEED… 😢😢😭😭
Wig Wag –
Amazing. The knowledge and understanding of it and future possibilities made my head spin.