Artificial Reason: AI, Rationality, and Violence

Artificial Reason: AI, Rationality, and Violence

In this Boston Review roundtable discussion, moderated by BR contributing editor Lily Hu, three prominent writers and scholars—historian Kevin T. Baker, anthropologist Sophia Goodfriend, and computer scientist Benjamin Recht—discuss the way AI is changing the way societies, individuals, and governments make decisions. The panelists discuss the nature and meaning of rationality, how new technology is interfacing with old institutions, what popular AI discourses get wrong, and the consequences for politics, war, and social life in general. This discussion took place on May 5. Further Reading: * “AI got the blame for the Iran school bombing. The truth is far more worrying [https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/mar/26/ai-got-the-blame-for-the-iran-school-bombing-the-truth-is-far-more-worrying]” by Kevin T. Baker in The Guardian * “The New Old Warfare [https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-new-old-warfare/]” by Sophia Goodfriend in Boston Review * The Irrational Decision: How We Gave Computers the Power to Choose for Us [https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691272443/the-irrational-decision] by Benjamin Recht * “⁠⁠How to Lie with (Political) Statistics [https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/how-to-lie-with-political-statistics/]” by Lily Hu in Boston Review To support work like this, please subscribe [https://www.bostonreview.net/memberships] to the magazine or make a tax-deductible donation [https://www.bostonreview.net/donations].

Imperial Anxieties: The U.S.-Israeli War on Iran

A decade ago, Donald Trump was clear. “Obviously, the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake,” he declared at a Republican presidential debate. “George Bush made a mistake. . . . We should have never been in Iraq. We have destabilized the Middle East.” “I’m not going to start wars,” he reiterated on election night in 2024. This February, the United States and Israel started a war with Iran, massively destabilizing the Middle East. In this Boston Review roundtable discussion moderated by BR contributor Alex Shams, four scholars of Iranian history and politics—Peyman Jafari, Ali Kadivar, Manijeh Moradian, and Naghmeh Sohrabi—assess the incoherent rationales offered by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu; the growing geopolitical, economic, and human toll; reactions from within Iran and the Iranian diaspora; and the fate of Iranian struggles for freedom and democracy “under the boot of empire.” This discussion took place on April 6, two days before a ceasefire was brokered. An edited version of the transcript appears in our Spring 2026 issue, Forever Wars [https://www.bostonreview.net/issue/spring-2026/]. Further Reading: * “Iran After Khamenei: An interview with Asef Bayat [https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/iran-after-khamenei/]” * “The Catastrophe That Has Befallen All of Us: A war diary [https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-catastrophe-that-has-befallen-all-of-us/]” To support work like this, please subscribe [https://www.bostonreview.net/memberships] to the magazine or make a tax-deductible donation [https://www.bostonreview.net/donations] to BR.