The new and old of emerging military technology - Maaike Verbruggen

In this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Maaike Verbruggen about how history can help us grapple with new military technologies. They talk about developments in AI, human-machine teaming and swarming capabilities and try to work through what can be taken from the histories of arms control and technology to help us understand our current situation.

Maaike Verbruggen is a historian & sociologist, who now works on the politics of future technology. She is currently a doctoral researcher at the Center for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy at the Brussels School of Governance at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her PhD thesis is on the drivers for and obstacles to military innovation in artificial intelligence, and she has broader interests in arms control, military innovation and emerging technologies. She previously worked at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on autonomous weapons and export controls. 

Further reading:

• Technical scientific literature (she tells us not to be intimidated!)
• Donald Mackenzie, Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance (1990: The MIT Press)
• David Edgerton, The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900 (2007: OUP)
• Maaike's Twitter thread of recommendations.