Drone technology produces a combined morale-buffering effect on operators

Evidence

The filtered nature of perception, the figurative reduction of the enemy, the nonreciprocity of the fields of perception, and the dislocation of the phenomenological unity of the action are all factors that, when combined, produce a strong “moral buffering” effect. Thus, offsetting the visual proximity, the device presents its operators with powerful means of distancing. But this form of experience also presents a second important characteristic: the fact that the violence of warfare is being exercised from a peaceful zone. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 407 (#corroborates, 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: Drones lower political, economic, and ethical costs of war; Drone psychopathology lies in produced compartmentalization, not operator trauma — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 427; Drone design produces a strong moral buffering effect on operators — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 407 (+8 more)

Related

• Drone technology produces a strong moral buffering effect that offsets visual proximity to victims. (similarity 0.96)
• Drone design produces a strong moral buffering effect on operators (similarity 0.95)
• Drone technology severs visual discrimination from physical proximity to targets. (similarity 0.91)
• Drone psychopathology lies in produced compartmentalization, not operator trauma (similarity 0.89)
• Faceless blurry drone imagery reduces moral resistance to killing (similarity 0.88)
• The psychological effect of drone killing on operators remains empirically unresolved. (similarity 0.87)
• Drone operators experience home and warzone as simultaneous parallel universes (similarity 0.85)
• A few hundred drone operators’ moral feelings can be dismissed as irrelevant (similarity 0.85)
• Drones lower political, economic, and ethical costs of war (similarity 0.85)
• Eliminating reciprocal exposure to violence makes drones look like cowardly weapons. (similarity 0.85)
• Drone targeting hinged on remote visual guesses about sex and combatant status (similarity 0.84)
• Drone operations constitute a pure case of perpetration-induced traumatic stress. (similarity 0.83)
• Drone killing is reduced to clicking on tiny on-screen figures (similarity 0.82)
• Drone surveillance transforms the panopticon from a punishing to an annihilating gaze. (similarity 0.82)
• Drone war turns strategic evaluation into disconnected body counts. (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Drone technology produces a strong moral buffering effect that offsets visual proximity to victims. #expands (0.90)
• Drone design produces a strong moral buffering effect on operators #corroborates (0.85) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 407
• The psychological effect of drone killing on operators remains empirically unresolved. #complicates (0.60) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 391
• Drone technology severs visual discrimination from physical proximity to targets. #expands (0.60) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 1016
• Faceless blurry drone imagery reduces moral resistance to killing #expands (0.55) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 404
• Drone operations constitute a pure case of perpetration-induced traumatic stress. #complicates (0.50) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 389
• A few hundred drone operators’ moral feelings can be dismissed as irrelevant #complicates (0.40) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 627