Citizen robots:biopolitics, the computer, and the Vietnam period

The Vietnam War coincided with an intense period of technological change in the US that marked a significant turning point in the relationship between the citizen and the state. While computer technology found new and deadly uses on the field of battle, it also found its way into people’s homes, giving the state the means through which to monitor and control subjects like never before. While Michel Foucault describes Vietnam as ‘the gates of our world’, this thesis argues that Vietnam stands rather as the gates of our biopolitical world – a period in which Foucault’s original concept of biopolitics is reborn in the computer age. To this end, this thesis examines some of the early impacts and implications of the computerized biopolitical state, and the robotized human subject. It offers an exploration of the ways in which biopolitical ideas can be used alongside science fiction texts to interrogate the cultural tendencies of the USA during the Vietnam War period, stretching from the start of the war in 1955 through to the war’s end in 1975 and the shadow cast in the years that follow. In doing so, it charts how human subjects are complicit in the means of their own oppression, and the ethical implications of the blurred distinction between the human and the machine. Thus, it calls for a new cybernetic form of biopolitical insight – a techno-biopolitics – that integrates the robotic with current understandings of the human, the non-human and the animal, and how they are used as a means of discursive control

Conscripts from birth:War and soldiery in the grim darkness of the far future

Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 universe (hereafter referred to as 40k) is one of the biggest and most well-established Science Fiction universes in circulation today. While it has been critically underrepresented to date, this paper seeks to assert the relevance and value of 40k for analysis, and explore some of the real-world implications of the themes the universe explores. Of particular focus in this paper, is the role of the super-soldier Space Marines, and the historical context of the 40k universe, the Horus Heresy. During this time, the Warmaster Horus fell to Chaos, taking many of his brother-Primarchs with him. These events sparked a galaxy-wide civil war between those loyal to the Emperor, and those loyal to Horus. While the individual Space Marines themselves tended to stay loyal to their Primarchs, the whole Heresy reveals a fundamental paradox at the heart of military ethics. Given that the Space Marines are trained and indoctrinated the obey orders without question, how much choice did they really have in betraying the Emperor? Was it even a choice at all? This paper will explore these questions and many more, alongside their real-life implications including the Nuremberg trials and the My Lai massacre of the Vietnam War (1968). This paper will also explore the use of emergency powers used to justify the suspension of law, and the creation of zones or spaces of exception as described by philosopher Giorgio Agamben. In a modern-day world of black ops, drone strikes, and the never-ending ‘war on terror’, Games Workshop’s 40k universe has never been so relevant. To adjust a phrase synonymous with 40k: “In the grim darkness of the future-present, there is only war”

Microfascism and the Double Exclusion in Daniel Keyes' 'Flowers for Algernon'

In Flowers for Algernon (1966) protagonist Charlie Gordon is trapped in a world of biopolitical control. Not only is he outcast and framed as an Agambian homo sacer, but he is also ‘programmed’ much like a robot through microfascisms planted in him from an early age. This paper explores the biopolitical implications of Charlie’s exile, and the significance of exclusions and microfascisms as an effective means of social control. It asks: why does Charlie desire his own repression, and how does his double exclusion serve to replicate social codes and manufacture consent to sovereign rule

Lessons from science fiction:Frederik Pohl and the robot prosumer

The diverse fields of business, management and marketing have long explored the concept of the ‘prosumer’ – the producer-consumer who not only consumes those products produced by industry, but also has some hand in their creation (Toffler 1980; Ritzer 1993; Ritzer and Jurgenson 2010; Ritzer 2015). But while the term itself is often credited to futurist Alvin Toffler (1980), the concept he describes (and that which Ritzer et al. adapt) is a central concern of science fiction, which has much to offer our understanding of modern-day prosumption and is not limited by the language and limitations of purely scientific academic discourse. Indeed, one of the most important voices in this area is author and editor Frederik Pohl, with his co-authored novel The Space Merchants (1952) and short stories including ‘The Midas Plague’ (1954) and ‘The Man Who Ate the World’ (1956). In each of these works, Pohl seeks to satirise the mindless robot-like behaviour of human beings, while also posing a word of warning for the social, economic and ecological impact mass-prosumption. This is a particularly relevant message given the rise of ‘surveillance capitalism’ (Zuboff 2019) – the real world manifestation of the dystopias that Pohl and his contemporaries describe. In this paper, I argue that science fiction isn’t just a useful tool for social theorists, but rather, a vital resource, as it provides a speculative framework through which to interrogate the potential impacts and implications of new technology, and the links between production and consumption, technology and work. Furthermore, it provides the means through which to imagine possible futures and the lasting impacts of consumption that go beyond describing the world as it is, and move into the realms of what the world may become

The Darkest Hour

The Darkest Hour by M.J. Ryder is a heroic fantasy novel for young adults. Phae is a girl unlike any other. Her father is the most powerful mage in the realm, and her mother is a member of the Lintari – a small, secretive band of warriors bound to the earth as its sworn guardians. With such powerful blood inside her, growing up was never going to be easy. But when her powers bring about catastrophe and the death of her tutor, Phae finally decides she’s had enough. With her unstable magic threatening to bring about even more danger to those she loves, Phae flees her home on the Magical Isle to seek sanctuary on the mainland. Only there does she realise her problems have barely just begun

EMSIAC Wars:Re-inserting the Human in Bernard Wolfe’s Limbo

Bernard Wolfe’s dystopian satire Limbo (1952) remains a critically under-discussed work, and despite its many controversies, offers important insight into the ethical dilemmas surrounding modern-day drone warfare and human-machine relations. While the EMSIAC war computers in Limbo may be blamed for World War III, they are only ever a scapegoat to shift blame away from the humans who follow orders blindly, and themselves behave much like machines. To this end, this paper will explore the ethical implications of Wolfe’s novel and what it means for the way we wage wars with robotic drones controlled by humans from afar

Rethinking reflective practice:John Boyd's OODA loop as an alternative to Kolb

The world is changing and business schools are struggling to keep up. Theories of reflective practice developed by the likes of Schon (1983), Gibbs (1988), Driscoll (1994, 2007) and Kolb (1984, 2015) are outdated and unfit for current purposes. Problems include the chronology of events, the orientation of the observer, the impact of external inputs, and the fact that neither education nor the workplace follow a structured, linear path. In response to these challenges, we propose a new ‘solution’: John Boyd’s OODA loop. We argue that OODA loops offer the chance to reshape reflective practice and work-based learning for a world in which individuals must cope with ‘an unfolding evolving reality that is uncertain, ever changing and unpredictable’ (Boyd, 1995, slide 1). By embracing the philosophy of John Boyd and his OODA loop theory, business schools can develop greater resilience and employability in graduates, preparing them to embrace change while also embedding the concept of life-long learning to make them better equipped to face the uncertainty that the modern world brings

Re-routing development in peripheral regions:exploiting anchor institution networks for micro/SME enterprise growth and innovation

Purpose This research explores the socio-cultural barriers to enterprise in economically disadvantaged communities across five countries: UK, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. Design/methodology/approach Our EU-funded project took the form of community-based participatory action research (PAR). In this article, we focus on the data from our interviews and network mapping exercises. A total of 40 individual interviews took place, with interviewees from communities with entrenched disadvantage and limited opportunities for employment and education and low rates of business start-ups. Findings Our research shows that barriers to entrepreneurship can be overcome where a trusted representative (or ‘mediator’) can act as a bridge, facilitating access to new knowledge and networks. This approach can be used to support micro / SMEs for growth and innovation. In targeting these businesses, policy makers need to recognise the power imbalances between actors and take steps to overcome these, by establishing links with community-based mediators who can act as trusted interlocutors, enabling sustainable relationships to be developed. Originality This research targets many often hard-to-reach groups and offers insights into the lived experiences of those who often operate at the peripheries. In doing so, it shows how trusted individuals can be used to remove barriers and promote growth, making clear links between theory to practice

Are undergraduate internships worth the effort?:Time to reconceptualize work-based learning for building protean meta-competencies

Internships are widely recognized within higher education as a useful work-based learning (WBL) approach to enhance student employability. However there remains a need to understand whether internships provide a developmental experience that includes higher-level (soft) skills such as self-responsibility, flexibility and innovation. Our study inductively analyses 154 undergraduate student-interns’ reflective diaries over a three-year period to explore the relationship between internship experience and development of higher-level skills, or protean ‘meta-competencies’. In the research, we find the interns’ developed three meta-competencies that can broadly be categorized as: self-regulation, self-awareness and self-direction. Our findings also highlight the role of socio-political dynamics of internship work in shaping students' experiences as an indicator of the changing world of work. The study has implications for higher education institutions (HEIs) and host organisations in adopting a WBL approach that supports interns with reflexive engagement with situated organizational practices and accessing (in)formal learning opportunities in the workplace. Our research therefore offers insights into a learner-centred WBL approach that contributes towards a more holistic internship/WBL experience that facilitates student-interns in developing protean meta-competencies and graduate employability