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Cover of Terrorism and Technology: From Dynamite to Artificial Intelligence. Line drawings of a dynamite stick, a transistor, a radio, a jet airliner, a television, a mobile phone, a drone and a processor stand on a red line.

Book · Free digital edition

Terrorism and Technology

From Dynamite to Artificial Intelligence

Terrorism Portal Research Desk

  • 316 pages
  • 109 figures
  • 1,144 notes
  • 635 bibliography entries
  • Version 1.0 · 2026

For more than 150 years, technologies created for industry, communication, transport and everyday life have repeatedly acquired uses their inventors never intended.

Terrorism and Technology traces that history from dynamite and the transistor to television, aviation, the Internet, smartphones, commercial drones and generative AI.

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Read online: screen edition, 39 MB. Download: full-quality edition for print, 88 MB. Both are complete: 316 pages, A4. Free, with no registration.

Also available in Spanish: Terrorismo y tecnología: 150 años de innovación (PDF, 342 pages).

Contents

  1. Introduction: The First Technology Was a Person11
  2. Part I · Industrial Power
  3. 1The Age of Dynamite 1860–191419
  4. 2What the War Left Behind 1914–194835
  5. Part II · Portable and Airborne
  6. 3The Portable Revolution 1945–196553
  7. 4Terrorism Takes Flight 1960–197573
  8. Part III · The Audience
  9. 5Live to the World 1965–198591
  10. 6Electronics Enters the Underground 1970–1990113
  11. 7The Global Signal 1980–2000131
  12. Part IV · The Network
  13. 8The Network Arrives 1990–2005155
  14. 9A Small Battery in London 2005173
  15. 10Everything in One Pocket 2005–2015185
  16. Part V · Platforms and Machines
  17. 11Propaganda at Platform Scale 2010–2020203
  18. 12The Machine Becomes Mobile 2015–2025223
  19. 13The Algorithmic Age 2020–241
  20. Conclusion: Uses Nobody Ordered261
  21. Notes · Bibliography · Image credits269

Between the chapters stand 14 short object interludes: the dynamite stick, the radio set, the transistor, the Boeing 707, the satellite, the photocopier, the fax machine, the VHS cassette, the website, the 9-volt battery, the smartphone, the hashtag, the commercial drone and the generative model.

From the book

Page 18: opening photograph of chapter 1, Heleneborg in Stockholm around 1900
Chapter 1 opens at Heleneborg, Stockholm · p. 18
Page 32: the object interlude on the dynamite stick
Object 1 · The Dynamite Stick · p. 32
Page 47: diagram of five routes by which state capabilities reached small groups
What the war left behind: five routes · p. 47
Page 175: map of London, 7 July 2005
A city that kept records: London, 2005 · p. 175
Page 256: timeline of the algorithmic age, 1999 to 2026
Timeline 13 · The algorithmic age · p. 256
Page 258: the object interlude on the generative model
Object 14 · The Generative Model · p. 258

About this edition

Every claim in the book is tied to a source that was read, and every disputed or uncertain point is labelled as documented, official assessment, disputed, plausible interpretation or unresolved. The book is a history of what technologies made possible, not a guide to doing any of it. Images are in the public domain or used under the licence named in the Image credits.

How to cite: Terrorism Portal Research Desk, Terrorism and Technology: From Dynamite to Artificial Intelligence (Terrorism Portal, 2026), version 1.0.