In 1964, the engineer John W. Clark produced a study of “remote control in hostile environments”: “When plans are being made for operations in these environments, it is usual to consider only two possibilities: either placing a machine in the environment or placing a protected man there. A third possibility, however, would in many cases give more satisfactory results than either of the others. This possibility employs a vehicle operating in the hostile environment under remote control by a man in a safe environment.” Rather than deep-sea divers or autonomous machines, one could use remotely controlled machines or what Clark, forging an awkward neologism based on ancient Greek roots, called “telechiric machines,” or “technology of manipulation at a distance.”

Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, loc. 131