Computer Says Kill: How a Calculator Company Reshaped Modern Warfare w/ Jeff Stern
Show notes
Precision weapons are meant to make warfare more exact. But what happens when the executive branch uses precision as an excuse to make more war and target with less and less accountability for accuracy?
More like this: Computer Says Kill: Collapsing the Chain w/ with Matt Mahmoudi
In part two of Computer Says Kill, Jeff Stern shares how a calculator company transformed modern warfare by making more precise weapons. After the Second World War, the US military wanted to be able to wage more war and target with more accuracy. At first it was about saving American troops. Over time it became a permission structure for more executive control over lethal force.
What does this history tell us about the role of precision and accountability in war?
Further reading & resources:
- Get The Warhead by Jeff Stern now
- More on Weldon Word and the development of precise weaponry during the Vietnam war
- Operation Desert Storm: 25 years on — CNN 2019
- Right to strike when your boss sells AI to the military? — Cori Crider, The Register Lecture, 2019
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Computer Says Maybe is produced by Georgia Iacovou, Kushal Dev, Marion Wellington, Sarah Myles, Van Newman, and Zoe Trout