IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2017 - 13
GUEST EDITORIAL
Katina Michael
Heather A. Love
Judy Wajcman
Speaking Out Against
Socially Destructive
Technologies
The Military-Industrial Complex:
Technological Development
Behind Closed Doors
ver the last century,
the greatest accele-
ration of technologi-
cal development has
come during times
of conflict and war. The impetus for
these flurries of innovation has been
the need for nation states to keep one
step ahead of their enemies by con-
ceiving, creating, and closely guard-
ing the technological secrets behind
ever-more complex weaponry with
ever-greater destructive capacity. The
offensive tactic that emerges is
characteristic of modern asymmetric
warfare, where competing forces per-
petually threaten one another: "Comply at once!" they seem to say, "or we
will unleash our arsenal on you, the
terrible consequences of which will
leave you no choice but to comply!"
Underlying this military logic is a
particular form of synergy forged by
collaborations between classified
operations research and the indus-
trial and systems engineering fields.
It rose to prominence during World
War II and set the stage for the large-
scale information-processing and
complex machine-building projects
that have proliferated over the last
seventy years. For reasons rooted in
military tactics and strategy, many
of these technological projects take
place behind closed doors and are
not available for public scrutiny.
Nonetheless, they have led to break-
throughs that also circulate in the
O
Norbert Wiener and the Call
for Ethical Engagement
open market. These products (or
parts thereof) were initially developed
for use within the military sector but
become available - albeit in slightly
modified forms - to a global public
that is eager to access and use new
tools and gadgetry. Among the list
of technologies that have emerged
through these types of "military-to-
market" adaptations are: mechanical
calculators, radio-frequency identifi-
cation (RFID) sensors, satellites, the
Internet, Global Positioning Systems
(GPS), and drones. Many of these
technologies provide practical servic-
es that make previously complicated
tasks more convenient and accessi-
ble; however, thanks to the ease and
speed with which new technological
devices become integrated into our
daily lives, it is easy to ignore the
more ethically problematic dimen-
sions of the larger (often nebulous)
systems that make those tools avail-
able to us.
Take, for instance, the way that
the close relationship between mili-
tary and consumer production pro-
cesses can lead to the perception of
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2017.2705779
Date of publication: 8 June 2017
June 2017
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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine
war as a beneficial (or at least nec-
essary) catalyst for kick-starting and
sustaining technological production,
employment, and economic growth -
and therefore, as something not to
be questioned. In his 2006 book,
Is War Necessary for Economic
Growth?: Military Procurement and
Technology Development, Vernon
W. Ruttan admits as much, noting
that he "find[s] it very doubtful, in
the absence of at least the threat of
major war, that the U.S. political sys-
tem could be induced to mobilize the
very large scientific, technical, and
fiscal resources" upon which both
military and general-purpose tech-
nological developments depend.
Indeed, he posits that "it was access
to large and flexible resources
that enabled powerful bureaucrat-
ic entrepreneurs ... to mobilize the
resources necessary to move the
general-purpose technologies from
initial innovation toward military
and commercial viability" [1, p. 184].
While we may appreciate the end
result of these processes as we surf
the web for travel deals or Skype
13
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