Abstract
This article investigates the role of technology in modernity based on the phenomenon of cyberwar. We argue that the conjunction of war, science and technology is a defining characteristic of the modernization process and that the incorporation of cybernetics into warfare is representative of this. In doing so, we establish a genealogy of cyberwar, which allows the study to investigate constitutive signifiers within current discourses, as well as analyzing its permissive conditions. This first step situates cybernetics as fundamental to the development of practices of warfare and as a trope capable of influencing the military imaginary. Finally, the phenomenon is situated in the broader context of the changes in warfare in modernity, highlighted by Bousquet (2009), which underscore the central role of technology in modern warfare. This allows for the problematization of the way in which cyberwar relates to the discourse on non-violence that permeates theories of modernization.
Cyberwar; Technology; Modernity; War; Violence