Lab 5: Computing in War
Starting with the earliest digital computers, military applications have driven the development of the technology. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was nearly the only funder of computer science research throughout the 1960s and '70s, and is still a major funder today. It doesn't fund all technologies equally; it solicits research proposals in areas of military importance.
Despite that, virtually all of the DARPA technologies have been of immense value for non-military uses. The Internet, itself, was originally a DARPA development.
The goal is neither to encourage nor to dissuade students from later working on military projects. The goal is to help students understand the implications of computing in warfare, both for informed citizenship for all of them, and so that those who may later choose to work on military projects do it mindfully—with an awareness of the ethical issues involved.
Pacing:
The 3 lab pages could be split across 3–6 days (
120–240 minutes). Expected times to complete follow:
Prepare
- The issues raised in this lab
will be difficult to handle in a classroom. Purely technical, factual information about the way computers are used by the military is hard to separate from students' opinions (and your own!) about patriotism, terrorism, world peace and justice, and their own fear of death. It would be much easier just to skip this lab, but this aspect of the social implications of computing is particularly important for citizens to understand.
- Even more than usual, read over the entire lab yourself before introducing it to students. You won't want to be taken by surprise when questions come up.
- The presentation here is more US-centric than in any other unit, because at this moment in history the US has no rivals when it comes to military technology.
Lab Pages
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Page 1: War and Technology.
- Learning Goal: Come to understand the importance of technology not just in modern warfare but since the earliest human wars.
- Tip: This page isn't specifically about computers. It gives some background by encouraging students to think about the long history of military technology, from the castle moat to nuclear weapons. It's not meant to be challenging, either intellectually or emotionally; the tone is set by an explanation of how the invention of the Super Soaker changed everything about water fights.
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Page 2: Computers and War.
- Learning Goal: Explore several examples of computer-based military technology, especially military malware, autonomous weapons, and drone aircraft.
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Tips: Computers are used in warfare in many ways; students have already seen how cryptographic analysis using computers helped win World War II. On this page we focus on three military computing technologies that are especially current:
- Military malware. Stuxnet is the prime example, but there have been recent stories about alleged Chinese attacks on the US, and a possible US attack (much less sophisticated than Stuxnet) on North Korea.
- Autonomous weapons. We want students to understand that there are technological risks, especially including the possibility of bugs in the software.
- Drones. As the page explains, the real importance of drones in warfare is not military but political; they make war more likely by reducing the political cost of war.
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Page 3: Military Technology in Everyday Life.
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Learning Goals:
- Learn about the concept of dual-use technology, developed for military purposes but with civilian benefits also.
- Struggle with the question of whether building military technology can be justified ethically.
- Tip: This page introduces the idea of dual-use technology, with examples such as GPS. It then, in what we expect to be the only really controversial part of the lab, raises the ethical question of whether it's ever okay to build technology for killing people.
Solutions
Correlation with 2020 AP CS Principles Framework
There are no AP CSP standards connected to this lab.