Jessica Behm
This course examines 21stcentury technologies of war and asks: What is the edge of ethical engineering? Students will critically examine U.S. Military technologies including robotic exoskeletons, military robots, neural prosthetics and networking (brain warfare), biometric scanning, and UAVs (drone warfare). Soldiers from the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, and U.S. Marine Corps branches will join class sessions along with guest speakers to discuss the role of new technologies and robotic warfare during their service in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Students will produce a final course project that may be submitted as an essay, multimedia project, or applied technology that engages with the ethical questions posed in the class. Each project will be designed over the course of the semester in direct collaboration with a U.S. Military former or active duty soldier who will work with students on a theoretical, technical, or performative final project.
In 1992, French theorist Gilles Deleuze observed, “There is no need to fear or hope, but only to look for new weapons.” In the 21st century, the U.S. government, universities, and private institutions collaborate to “look for new weapons” by engineering technologies for American warfare. These technologies often focus on the human body as the site of military innovation. If the U.S. Military is primarily concerned with engineering “technologies of war,” is there an opportunity for engineers, such as ITP graduates, to engineer “technologies
of peace”? What design and function would such embodied “technologies of peace” play and can they intervene in an increasingly militarized U.S. society where Google owns military robotic companies and Apple iPhones are used to detonate bombs throughout the Middle East?