Drone targeting hinged on remote visual guesses about sex and combatant status

Evidence

Furthermore, in determining that status, one slips from an epistemology of manifest observation and statements of fact into an epistemology of suspicion in which a targeting decision is based on the identification of behavior or a pattern of life that suggests membership in a hostile organization. For example, your pattern of life might suggest a 70 percent chance that you are a militant, in other words a combatant, and we accordingly have the right to kill you. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 482 (#expands, via linked claim)

The passengers traveling in three vehicles that, a few hours ago, left their little village in the province of Daikundi have no idea that for quite some time now, dozens of eyes have been watching them. Among those invisible spectators are not only the pilot and sensor operator but also a mission intelligence coordinator, a safety observer, a team of video analysts, and a ground force commander, the last of whom will eventually give the go-ahead for an aerial strike. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 24 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Their video view then allows them to see the effects of the strike. That is a very important difference from the experience of traditional pilots: ” ‘When you come in at 500–600 miles per hour, drop a 500 pound bomb and then fly away, you don’t see what happens.’ … But when a Predator fires a missile, you watch it all the way to impact, and I mean it’s very vivid, it’s right there and personal. So it does stay in people’s minds for a long time.” This new combination of physical distance and ocular proximity gives the lie to the classic law of distance: the great distance no longer renders the violence more abstract or more impersonal but, on the contrary, makes it more graphic, more personalized. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 403 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Preemptive drone targeting rests on epistemologically fragile predictions; Drone technology severs visual discrimination from physical proximity to targets. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 1016; Drone imagery functions as targeting rather than representation — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 395 (+11 more)

Related

• Drone targeting decisions rest on probabilistic inference from behavior rather than observed facts. (similarity 0.90)
• Drone surveillance cannot reliably distinguish combatants from civilians (similarity 0.90)
• Drone strikes depend on a network of remote invisible human observers (similarity 0.89)
• Drone operators see strikes in vivid detail, overturning the distancing logic (similarity 0.88)
• Drone technology severs visual discrimination from physical proximity to targets. (similarity 0.88)
• Preemptive drone targeting rests on epistemologically fragile predictions (similarity 0.85)
• Each drone strike involves a distributed network of human watchers and deciders (similarity 0.84)
• Drones are less precise than rifles and grenades at discriminating targets. (similarity 0.84)
• Drone imagery functions as targeting rather than representation (similarity 0.84)
• Drone technology produces a strong moral buffering effect that offsets visual proximity to victims. (similarity 0.84)
• Drone surveillance transforms the panopticon from a punishing to an annihilating gaze. (similarity 0.84)
• Drone technology produces a combined morale-buffering effect on operators (similarity 0.84)
• Drones produce constant terror because targets never know when they are tracked. (similarity 0.84)
• Drone killing is reduced to clicking on tiny on-screen figures (similarity 0.83)
• Preemptive drone strikes rest on fragile and therefore dangerous prediction claims. (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Drone targeting decisions rest on probabilistic inference from behavior rather than observed facts. #expands (0.80) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 482
• Drone technology severs visual discrimination from physical proximity to targets. #expands (0.70) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 1016
• Drone strikes depend on a network of remote invisible human observers #corroborates (0.70)
• Drone operators see strikes in vivid detail, overturning the distancing logic #contradicts (0.70) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 403
• Each drone strike involves a distributed network of human watchers and deciders #corroborates (0.70) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 24
• Drone imagery functions as targeting rather than representation #expands (0.60) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 395
• Faceless blurry drone imagery reduces moral resistance to killing #corroborates (0.50) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 404
• Drone war turns strategic evaluation into disconnected body counts. #expands (0.50) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 282
• Drone design produces a strong moral buffering effect on operators #expands (0.50) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 407