Modern technology extends action beyond the moral vanishing point, enabling harm

Evidence

The significance – and danger – of moral indifference becomes particularly acute in our modern, rationalized, industrial technologically proficient society because in such a society human action can be effective at a distance, and at a distance constantly growing with the progress of science, technology and bureaucracy. In such a society, the effects of human action reach far beyond the ‘vanishing point’ of moral visibility. The visual capacity of moral drive, limited as it is by the principle of proximity, remains constant, while the distance at which human action may be effective and consequential, and thus also the number of people who may be affected by such action, grow rapidly. The sphere of interaction influenced by moral drives is dwarfed by comparison with the expanding volume of actions excepted from its interference. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 548

Categorization

• XREF: This is the core ‘distance undermines morality’ mechanism that later Islamophobia readings on remote bureaucratic control of populations will build on. — connects to: Modern execution technologies fused democratic equality with mass-scale killing. — Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics, 50; Modern fears now center on runaway technology rather than genocide — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 622; Technical remoteness from victims enables moral substitution — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 459 (+14 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The constant-moral-visual-range vs. expanding-action-range asymmetry is the chapter’s dense theoretical payoff — paradigm-shifting for thinking about modern harm.

Related

• Technical remoteness from victims enables moral substitution (similarity 0.88)
• Modern fears now center on runaway technology rather than genocide (similarity 0.81)
• Moral inhibition is neutralized by making victims remote and invisible (similarity 0.81)
• Modern society weakens morality through distance, technical responsibility, and segregation (similarity 0.80)
• Morality dies when social distance replaces proximity, enabling mass murder (similarity 0.79)
• Modern artillery made killing morally irrelevant by severing aim from effect (similarity 0.79)
• Remote killing of humans drew less moral outrage than remote hunting of animals (similarity 0.79)
• Functional task separation replaces moral responsibility with technical responsibility (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Technical remoteness from victims enables moral substitution #expands (0.90) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 459
• Modern society weakens morality through distance, technical responsibility, and segregation #expands (0.90) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 567
• Drone morality inverts ethics to make unendangered killing good #exemplifies (0.90) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 453
• Ethical-robot advocacy lowers moral barriers to deploying lethal robots. #exemplifies (0.85)
• Potent technology plus designed-order ambition produced modern genocide #exemplifies (0.85) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 620
• Ethical-robot rhetoric is a Trojan horse that lowers moral barriers to killer robots #exemplifies (0.85) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 669
• Modern societal organization can weaken moral drives and make immorality more plausible #corroborates (0.85) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 566
• Functional task separation replaces moral responsibility with technical responsibility #expands (0.85) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 293
• Remote killing free from retaliation creates a moral hazard problem #expands (0.85)
• Drone technology produces a strong moral buffering effect that offsets visual proximity to victims. #expands (0.85)
• Emerging technologies can obscure important social responsibilities. #expands (0.80) — Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna, The AI Con- How to Fight Big Tech’s…, 431
• Tele-technologies dismantle the body’s unified synthesis of action, perception, perceptibility, and vulnerability #expands (0.80) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 953
• Drones fuse killing and caring into an integrated humilitarian power #exemplifies (0.80)