- Hardcover: 280 pages
- Publisher: Zone Books (Dec 26 1991)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0942299760
- ISBN-13: 978-0942299762
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 454 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
In the aftermath of the methodical destruction of Iraq during the Persian Gulf War, the power and efficiency of new computerized weapons and surveillance technology have become chillingly apparent. For Manuel DeLanda, however, this new weaponry has a significance that goes far beyond military applications; he shows how it represents a profound historical shift in the relation of human beings both to machines and to information. The recent emergence of intelligent and autonomous bombs and missiles equipped with artificial perception and decision-making capabilities is, for Delanda, part of a much larger transfer of cognitive structures from humans to machines in the late twentieth century.
War in the Age of Intelligent Machines provides a rich panorama of these astonishing developments; it 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 networks. Much more than a history of warfare, DeLanda's account is an unprecedented philosophical and historical reflection on the changing forms through which human bodies and materials are combined, organized, deployed, and made effective.
Manuel DeLanda has published essays on philosophy and film theory. He is a computer programmer and a film artist.
A Swerve Edition, distributed for Zone Books
War in the Age of Intelligent Machines provides a rich panorama of these astonishing developments; it 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 networks. Much more than a history of warfare, DeLanda's account is an unprecedented philosophical and historical reflection on the changing forms through which human bodies and materials are combined, organized, deployed, and made effective.
Manuel DeLanda has published essays on philosophy and film theory. He is a computer programmer and a film artist.
A Swerve Edition, distributed for Zone Books
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Dubious Sources,
By
This review is from: War in the Age of Intelligent Machines (Paperback)
De Landa's theoretical connections are interesting and thought provoking but are unfortunately very often not adequately cited. In his attempt to explain the entire development of warfare, De Landa displays only a cursory knowledge of his topic frequently neglecting to mention crucial information. A few errors and mis-explanations early in the book made me question everything he had to say. This book is great for the images and connections it invokes. The theoretical leaps it makes are admirable. Do not however, rely upon this book for factual information.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A really good book, though by a non-rigourous popularizer...,
By J. Michael Showalter (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: War in the Age of Intelligent Machines (Paperback)
De Landa in the book puts together something that is both very impressing in unexpected ways and wholly disappointing in very predictable ways. As to substance, what he does is neat and innovative for what is, essentially, a popular book in an unread subgenre; it's of the same order as DJ Spooky CDs (more or less academic in a popularly predictable sort of way). And, again, like DJ Spooky, De Landa is REALLY smart but in a dilettente-sortish way; I know from having gone there that he is a professor at Columbia-- I'm not sure in what discipline (architecture[?]) but his class, I'm sure, is mind boggling and fun.....And here come this book's problems. Because of the scope of what he takes on, he makes some little mistakes. My academic background is in political economics; he misspells an author's name for the whole of the text (Douglass North has two 's's). That makes me a little scared of what other little mistakes he makes, or if he makes BIG mistakes that because of this work's broad scope I'd never catch. This book is a definate must-read; his '1000 years of Non-linear history' by all accounts is even more amazing (including my own!) and this is a really, really smart book. Buy this!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thinking machines - possible? What is "thought" then...,
By
This review is from: War in the Age of Intelligent Machines (Paperback)
A stunning book. Read it and you'll be amazed!
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