Quote · Added 15 February 2026
Filed underdrones·technology·war
There's something unsettling about how we've automated the hardest human decisions. A drone operator might go home to dinner after a day of remote strikes, and that disconnect—between the button pressed and the consequence—feels like a new kind of moral hazard. We've always wanted warriors who follow orders without question, but drones make that wish technically real in a way that strips away the friction that sometimes stops us.
What makes Galeano's observation sting is the last part: "never reveal the names of their masters." Drones create perfect plausible deniability. Unlike a soldier who might speak out, or a general who can be held accountable, a drone is just machinery. It's easy to hide behind that. We've built a technology that lets power operate almost invisibly, and that invisibility is often the whole point. The warrior doesn't question orders because it can't; the public doesn't know who decided, so no one can really be blamed.
This isn't just about warfare anymore. We're surrounded by systems—algorithms, automated decisions, corporate policies—that feel impersonal and unaccountable in similar ways. Galeano was warning about what happens when we hand over consequential choices to machines: someone still made the choice to build the machine, but they're nowhere in the picture.
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