Drone operators live with two stacked presences rather than mistaking one for the other.

Evidence

Another operator, describing the collision between family life at home and the violence of war at the office, and his own constant efforts to maintain a mental separation between the two spheres, explains: “Sometimes it’s hard to keep switching on and off. Back and forth. It’s like living in two places at the same time. Parallel universes… . It was enough to make a Predator pilot schizophrenic.” — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 409 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The particular design of tele-technological devices determines the forms of co-presence that are possible. These devices also make it possible to introduce hitherto unknown reconfigurations into the structures of experience. How do they do this? Mainly in two ways. First, the tele-technological devices can “filter” the dimensions of co-presence that they retransmit. They can sort through the immediate richness of the phenomenal assortment and select only certain aspects of it. For example, they can provide nothing but an image, or nothing but a sound. However, if equipped with adequate receivers at the other end of the line, they can add to the gamut of our sensorial capacities a dimension that was not available when working solely with a human body (for example, infra-red vision). It all depends on the technical choices available. Second, these devices can choose from among these various dimensions in order to bestow upon the co-presence a structure that is either more or less reciprocal, ranging from complete unilaterality to full reciprocity. Tele-communication devices generally adopt structures of a reciprocal nature, but that is by no means a necessity. Again, it is a matter of a decision on the design of the tele-technological device. The structural choices for the devices used by drones are, on the contrary, of a nonreciprocal nature. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 955 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Tele-operators experience a reversible shift of viewpoint without being deceived about their location.; Drone operators experience home and warzone as simultaneous parallel universes — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 409; A tele-operator’s two presences are layered, so neither fully effaces the other. (+1 more)

Related

• Drone tele-technology is engineered to be nonreciprocal in co-presence (similarity 0.91)
• A tele-operator’s two presences are layered, so neither fully effaces the other. (similarity 0.89)
• Drone operators experience home and warzone as simultaneous parallel universes (similarity 0.89)
• Tele-operators experience a reversible shift of viewpoint without being deceived about their location. (similarity 0.88)
• Tele-technologies make non-reciprocal forms of co-presence possible, necessary, or impossible (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Drone operators experience home and warzone as simultaneous parallel universes #corroborates (0.85) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 409
• A tele-operator’s two presences are layered, so neither fully effaces the other. #expands (0.80)
• Drone tele-technology is engineered to be nonreciprocal in co-presence #expands (0.75) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 955