Digitised Necrophilia: Technology and Psychosocial Orientations in the Age of ISIS and Drone Warfare

Abstract

In this paper, I draw on the work of psychoanalyst Erich Fromm and his postulation of fundamental psychosocial orientations -- necrophilia and biophilia -- to reflect on two contemporary exemplars of human-computer interaction: the use of media communications technology by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and the military use of weaponised drones. I consider the emergence of these modes of human-computer interaction located at the extremities of our social world as a key historical moment requiring urgent reflection on the interfaces of the psyche, the social, and the digital.