Short Abstract

This panel welcomes examples of hostile technologies and/or theorisations of hostility. Technologies of war are intended to be hostile to enemy combatants. The panel is concerned with less obvious examples, and the how, when, where and why they become hostile, to whom, and to what.

Description

Technologies of war and incarceration maim and kill, harming people, animals, the natural environment and our sense of what it is to be human. Artificial intelligence (AI) is used to profile and identify individuals so that they can be deported or denied welfare benefits, a use that is unconstitutional in many liberal democracies. Assembly lines and other technologies of mass production have long been deployed to maximise returns to owners and shareholders, and deskill workers.

These extreme examples are increasingly familiar from contemporary news reports. There are many other less dramatic examples of how technologies may not be deliberately designed to cause harm, but may become hostile. For example, poorly maintained road infrastructures might result in an increase in accidents, harming people and animals.

In this panel, examples of ‘hostile technologies’ are welcomed, particularly when the focus is on when, where and how technologies become hostile to people as individuals or groups; to flora, fauna and the environment; and to ideals such as trust and democracy. Abstracts addressing how examples of hostile technologies generate new ways to conceptualise technologies are also welcome. Is it productive to think about ‘hostility by design’, as a counter to the normally positive discourses about transparency, democracy or privacy by design.

This panel builds on a workshop held in Maastricht in June 2025, which may result in an edited volume (currently under review). But the workshop was just a beginning, and contributions to the panel will take the conversation further.

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