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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The Literature of Drones: Ethics and Remote Killing in Ender’s Game
AU - Ryder, Mike
PY - 2023/3/24
Y1 - 2023/3/24
N2 - Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game (1985) envisages a world in which humans areremoved from the process of warfare, replacing human-piloted aircraft and soldiers on the ground with remotely-controlled spaceships sent to destroy a distant alien foe. In this way, the novel pre-empts and engages with many of the issues we contend with to this day with drone warfare and the ethics of killing targets that have been selected by a machine. To this end, this paper explores the ethics and practical implications of remote killing in Ender’s Game, drawing on modern-day drone theory to examine key issues of responsibility, accountability and guilt. It also explores the relationship between the human and the machine, asking where we draw the line between the human and the robot, and to what extent the human serves as an alibi for robotic control.
AB - Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game (1985) envisages a world in which humans areremoved from the process of warfare, replacing human-piloted aircraft and soldiers on the ground with remotely-controlled spaceships sent to destroy a distant alien foe. In this way, the novel pre-empts and engages with many of the issues we contend with to this day with drone warfare and the ethics of killing targets that have been selected by a machine. To this end, this paper explores the ethics and practical implications of remote killing in Ender’s Game, drawing on modern-day drone theory to examine key issues of responsibility, accountability and guilt. It also explores the relationship between the human and the machine, asking where we draw the line between the human and the robot, and to what extent the human serves as an alibi for robotic control.
KW - Drone Theory
KW - Drones
KW - Ender's Game
KW - Remote Killing
KW - Autonomy
KW - Ethics
KW - Vietnam
KW - Science Fiction
KW - Cold War
KW - Gregoire Chamayou
KW - Gilles Deleuze
M3 - Journal article
JO - Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction
JF - Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction
IS - 144
ER -