Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija

This article employs phenomenological and post-phenomenological approaches to analyze the impact of FPV (First Person View) military drone usage on the consciousness of the drone operator. Contemporary technologies – especially drones – transform human sensory experience, the body’s relationship with the world, and the perception of warfare. Drones act as extensions of human senses, where vision becomes hypertrophied at the expense of other senses. As a result, the operator’s sensorium is distorted to the extent that their figure can be likened to a cyclops or a cyborg – symbols reflecting the blurring boundaries between the real and the virtual. Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s concept of the “body schema” helps explain how the FPV drone disrupts the usual sensory balance, turning the operator into an “eye without a body.” The operator exists in two realities simultaneously, leading to psychological tension. Moreover, drone operation resembles video gaming, raising concerns about the emergence of a “PlayStation mentality,” where remote killing may appear overly sanitized.