War Games - Computer Simulation, Sovereignty and the Military
The media history of computer simulations is closely related to the history of military technology.
Analog computers were essential hardware for scenario simulations in WWII War Rooms; digital computers became central for the think tanks of the Cold War, with their computer facilitated scenarios, creativity games and Synthetic Histories (Claus Pias). Today's command and control centers employ simulation techniques for planning and conducting networked operations involving drones, special forces and ordinary troops. Simulations are also used in re-enactments of historical battles, as artificial battlegrounds for urban warfare, and in game-like virtual training software like American Army. Computer simulation plays a key role not only in the immersive environments of tank and flight simulators, but also in stress simulations in artificial social environments. Last but not least, testing the viability of counterinsurgency strategies for specific populations sometimes entails computer simulations employing paradigms derived from social networks.
Thus, military simulations have had an essential role in shaping the development of digital media. At the same time, certain developments signal the increasingly close relationship between computer simulation and sovereignty: for instance, the USA's push for a worldwide atomic test ban during the mid-1990s indicated its confidence in the superiority of simulations. A state's independence and authority depend, on the one hand, on its mastery of simulation hard- and software, and, on the other, on its promotion of a diverse culture of simulations.
Our workshop investigates the media history of computer simulations along three axes of inquiry. Firstly, we aim to investigate the genealogies of military simulations, producing a historicized and systematic mapping of a heterogeneous field that distinguishes between pure computer simulation in the development of weaponry and mixed uses in tactical and strategic planning. These must in turn be differentiated from analysis of big data and graphs with the goal of obtaining knowledge about (potential) enemies and from training software. Secondly, we are interested in the history and nature of the relationship between computer simulation and military-dependent sovereignty, especially with respect to historical continuities and ruptures. Finally, we seek to learn about the way in which computer simulations from outside the military realm relate to those within it.
Workshop organized by Christoph Engemann & Sebastian Vehlken.
Conference Venue: Stadtarchiv Lüneburg, Wallstraße 4, 21335 Lüneburg
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Program:
Friday, February 21 2014
13:00 Welcome Address
13:15 Robertson Allen (Seattle): Ethnographic Access and Research in Military Simulation Organizations
14:00 Dierk Spreen (Lüneburg): Digitalisation and the Concept of 'Innere Führung'
14:45 Lunch Break
15:15 Jutta Weber (Paderborn): Drone Visualisations
16:00 Patrick Crogan (Bristol): Permanent and Everywhere: Military Robotics and the Virtualization of Space-time
16:45 Coffee Break
17:00 Sebastian Vehlken (mecs): From War Games to Strategic Dynamics – Rand Strategic Assessment Center (RSAC) and SIMNET
17:45 Claus Pias (mecs): What Problems do Problem Solvers Solve? Decision and Cognitive Simulation in Early Warning Systems
Saturday, February 22 2014
10:00 Nikita Braguinski (Berlin): The game of Go as a mathematical battleground
10:45 Niklas Schrape (mecs): The discoursive construction of the computer wargame
11:30 Coffee Break
12:00 Christoph Engemann (mecs): The Virtuality of Sovereignty: Non-Proliferation and Computer-Simulation
12:45 Wolfgang Hagen (Lüneburg): "Kriegsspiele" or: The Disunity of Sciences and the Epistemology of Simulation
13:30 Wrapup and Responses
14:00 End of conference
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Contact:
Jantje Sieling
Geschäftsführung
mecs - DFG-Kollegforschergruppe
Medienkulturen der Computersimulation
Leuphana Universität Lüneburg
http://mecs.leuphana.de/aktuelles/workshop-war-games/