Droni, profilazione elettronica e guerra nella postmodernità digitale. Per una genealogia concettuale e storico-culturale

One of the most pronounced trends in contemporary society, closely related to postmodern processes of individualization, coincides with «microtargeting». First developed in marketing and commercial advertisement circles, microtargeting is increasingly extending to other areas, such as electoral campaigning and warfare, with light weaponry (primarily drones) trained to strike precision targets from a distance. These are different sectors brought together by the opportunities offered by Artificial intelligence (Ai, in its various declinations) and big data, which disproportionately fuel the possibility of segmenting markets based on the traces left on the web. Microtargeting presents numerous risks and grey areas that further stimulate the debate on the effects of digital transformation and Ai on the public sphere and the legitimacy of representative democracies. This article aims to use the characteristics of microtargeting, on the one hand, and the social and cultural implications of profiling, on the other, as analytical keys to asymmetric warfare. There will be a specific reflection on how Lethal autonomous weapons systems (Laws) reshape narratives and political storytelling around warfare in Western liberal democracies. Since the First World War, what has been defined as the «home front of public opinion» has gained increasing importance in the management of wartime conflicts. The narrative of the last frontier of asymmetric warfare has, therefore, mainly focused on the notion of saving the lives of soldiers in combat on the one hand, and, on the other, the idea of precise profiling of target hits to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. According to a certain cultural genealogy, the dronisation of warfare finds its roots in the Enlightenment as well as in colonialism. Hence, the aim of this article is also to reconstruct this conceptual genealogy up to current postmodernity, showing how these principles constitute an expression of neo-liberal governmentality within the framework of military theory.