Drone surveillance transforms the panopticon from a punishing to an annihilating gaze.

Evidence

Harun Farocki tells us that the technology of military vision produces not so much representations as ” ‘operative images,’ images that do not represent an object, but instead are part of an operation.” Here, vision is a sighting: it serves not to represent objects but to act upon them, to target them. The function of the eye is that of a weapon. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 395 (#expands, via linked claim)

In other words, the argument here is that, so far as the capacity for discrimination goes, the drone technology destroys the traditionally established link between visual acuteness and physical proximity. The proximity of the operator is no longer necessarily a pertinent factor in the identification of targets. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 1016 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The drone’s core formula was removing the pilot except his eye; Drones transformed from surveillance eyes into weapons almost by chance.; Drone war’s core task shifted from destroying enemies to finding and tracking them (+3 more)

Related

• Drone imagery functions as targeting rather than representation (similarity 0.93)
• Drone technology severs visual discrimination from physical proximity to targets. (similarity 0.89)
• Drones are less precise than rifles and grenades at discriminating targets. (similarity 0.86)
• Drones transformed from surveillance eyes into weapons almost by chance. (similarity 0.86)
• Signal latency makes drone operators aim at obsolete images of an earlier moment (similarity 0.86)
• Drones evolved from surveillance eyes into lethal hunter-killer weapons. (similarity 0.85)
• Drone killing is reduced to clicking on tiny on-screen figures (similarity 0.84)
• Drone operators see strikes in vivid detail, overturning the distancing logic (similarity 0.84)
• Drone targeting hinged on remote visual guesses about sex and combatant status (similarity 0.84)
• Drone war’s core task shifted from destroying enemies to finding and tracking them (similarity 0.83)
• Faceless blurry drone imagery reduces moral resistance to killing (similarity 0.83)
• Drone technology produces a strong moral buffering effect that offsets visual proximity to victims. (similarity 0.83)
• Drone surveillance cannot reliably distinguish combatants from civilians (similarity 0.82)
• Drone technology produces a combined morale-buffering effect on operators (similarity 0.82)
• Drones add the remote control’s range to the weapon’s range. (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Drone imagery functions as targeting rather than representation #expands (0.65) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 395
• Drone technology severs visual discrimination from physical proximity to targets. #expands (0.60) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 1016