The Use of Drones: An Argument against Optimistic Technological Determinism Featuring the Work of Albert Borgmann and an Extended Analogy

Abstract

This paper applies philosopher, Albert Borgmann’s, device paradigm to the use of drones in contemporary society. Such application demonstrates the accuracy of Borgmann’s analysis, since a paradigm or technological pattern is described in disparate social and political areas of North American culture. The result is an analogy developed to connect drone usage to the mitigation of particular human skill sets and virtues. Such mitigation, coupled with a brief discussion of the device paradigm in the development of the American Military complex, reveals a technological determinism at work in consumer society. A conclusion suggests such technological determinism to be a dangerous ideology, which usurps democratic participation and dialogue about human values, particularly questions of war and global conflict.