Towards the Commercial Drone—From Projectized Weapons Back to the Hobbyist’s Shed

Abstract

This review-essay of Adam Rothstein’s Drone (2015) analyzes drone technology, more explicitly, the emerging opportunities for commercial and private usage of drones, in two parts: While the first part is dedicated to a careful reading of Rothstein’s book and an exploration of his method of tracing emerging technologies as narratives in terms of their constitutional technologies—the stories of four technologies that preceded the drone and proved integral to its emergence—the second part of this review seeks to extend his method toward recent examples of commercial and private drone-usage, exploring how the adaption of drone technology in different realms of application (such as commodity delivery, entertainment through drone-races, or even political protest and terrorism) shapes the societal conception of drones and their perceived usage. Since drones represent a derivative of military technology, a short section on the ethics of drones that engages with some of the points raised by Rothstein will show how, despite the drone’s unglamorous past as a hunter from above, the adaption of drone technology in new contexts might over time change this one-sided conception of drones as mere tools of warfare and surveillance toward a balanced understanding of the risks and chances associated with this young technology.