Synthetic Reality and Blind Flight: The Operationalization of Perception

Nina Franz,Rebekka Ladewig

doi:10.7146/politik.v20i1.27643

Abstract

In our contribution we trace the emergence of human perception as an actual object of design and engineering in the early history of aviation through the postwar rise of human factors studies, and into military research and its respective industries today. In this survey, (perceptual) engineering and high-technology weapons such as remote- controlled or (partially) automated drones blend into a military policy that distances human operators from the ‘theater of war.’ As we argue, this new form of warfare with its visual technologies (‘Synthetic Vision Systems’) and mental ecologies (Situational Awareness) is aligned with a ‘logic of simulation,’ as discusses by Jacques Rancière in his political theory of in/visibility.

Highlights

Remote-controlled or automated contemporary weapons systems by their very principle increase the distance between human actors and their targets in military engagements
In today’s remote warfare, ‘situational awareness’ is the domain of a new work force of visual data analysts on the one hand and of new technologies of visualization that are programmed to make data visible to the operators on the other. Central to these visualization technologies are ‘Synthetic Vision Systems’ (SVS), claiming to be on the forefront of a revolution in ‘situational awareness’ (General Atomics 2016). We argue that this relates directly to questions of in/visibility that are most pertinently expressed in the political philosophy of Jacques Rancière
The key issue when debating so-called autonomous systems and their possible implications in legal, ethical, and political terms is trying to locate the exact point at which a decision is made, or at which it is prefigured by software, preprogrammed algorithms or interface design

Summary

Introduction

Remote-controlled or (partially) automated contemporary weapons systems by their very principle increase the distance between human actors and their targets in military engagements.

Objectives

Results

Conclusion