The cubicle warrior: the marionette of digitalized warfare |
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Authors: | Lambèr Royakkers Rinie van Est |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands;(2) Department of Technology Assessment, Rathenau Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands |
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Abstract: | In the last decade we have entered the era of remote controlled military technology. The excitement about this new technology
should not mask the ethical questions that it raises. A fundamental ethical question is who may be held responsible for civilian
deaths. In this paper we will discuss the role of the human operator or so-called ‘cubicle warrior’, who remotely controls
the military robots behind visual interfaces. We will argue that the socio-technical system conditions the cubicle warrior
to dehumanize the enemy. As a result the cubicle warrior is morally disengaged from his destructive and lethal actions. This
challenges what he should know to make responsible decisions (the so-called knowledge condition). Nowadays and in the near
future, three factors will influence and may increase the moral disengagement even further due to the decrease of locus of
control orientation: (1) photo shopping the war; (2) the moralization of technology; (3) the speed of decision-making. As
a result, cubicle warriors cannot be held reasonably responsible anymore for the decisions they make. |
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