War in the age of intelligent machines : De Landa, Manuel : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive (original) (raw)

271 pages : 24 cm

In the aftermath of the methodical destruction of Iraq during the Persian Gulf War, the power and efficiency of new computerized weapons and suveillance technology has become chillingly apparent. This new weaponry has a significance that goes far beyond military applications; it represents a profound historical shift in the relation of human beings both to machines and to information. Details the mutating history of information analysis and machinic organization from the mobile siege artillery of the Renaissance, the clockwork armies of the Thirty Years War, the Napoleonic campaigns, and the Nazi blitzkrieg up to present-day cybernetic battle-management systems and satellite reconnaissance network, and provides a philosophical and historical reflection on the changing forms through which human bodies and materials are combined, organized, deployed and made effective. [back cover]

Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-266) and index

Introduction -- Collision course -- Bloodless transfusion -- Policing the spectrum