Situational Awareness: Deadly Bioconvergence at the Boundaries of Bodies and Machines

Abstract

This essay sets out an initial analytic framing for research in progress on the problem of ‘situational awareness’ within contemporary forms of (particularly U.S.) warfare. My focus more specifically is on the logics, rhetorics and material practices of remotely-controlled weapon systems (particularly armed drones and weaponized robots). Drawing from reports in investigative journalism, military documents, and critical scholarship, I examine connections between the emphasis in military and security discourses on keeping ‘our’ bodies safe through so called network-centric warfare, and the project of cutting the networks that might bring our wars too close to home.

Keywords

• bio-convergence
• bioconvergence
• situational awareness
• remote control
• drones
• robots
• military technologies