Issues in National Security Lecture Series - NWC Issues in National Security, Lecture 1 "Men versus Machines”

This lecture took place on September 26, 2023. From Professor Schultz: Naval War College graduates must think, lead, and fight at the frontier. This goes beyond the frontiers of sea and air to include the frontier of techno-scientific change where humans and machines cooperate and collide. This presentation provides some perspective on the evolving relationship between human and machine. It uses historical and modern concepts to examine how human-machine fusion advances our creativity. It includes the fears associated with robotic overlords and Orwellian consequences, along with what it means to be human--and how we can lead--in the age of technology. Tim Schultz is the U.S. Naval War College Dean of Academics (interim). Prior to joining the Newport faculty in 2012 he served as the Dean of the U.S. Air Force’s School of Advanced Air and Space Studies. Tim earned his Ph.D. in the History of Technology from Duke University, and his research interests include the interaction between technology and strategy and the transformative role of automation in warfare. He is the author of The Problem with Pilots: How Physicians, Engineers, and Airpower Enthusiasts Redefined Flight (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018) and co-editor of Air Power in the Age of Primacy: Air Warfare since the Cold War (Cambridge University Press, 2021). He is a graduate of the USAF Academy, Colorado State University, Air Command and Staff College, and the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies. Formerly a USAF colonel, he spent much of his aviation career as a U-2 pilot enjoying a high-altitude view of interesting places. The views presented by the faculty do not reflect official positions of the Naval War College, DON or DOD.