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Autonomous drones — or so the Republic's citizens are told.

The Republic reports a war fought entirely by unmanned machines and casualties of zero. The machines are piloted from inside by an ethnic minority legally reclassified as non-human, who serve until they die. Automation is the cover story for conscription.

Capital captures it — Nothing is abolished. The gains are simply owned by someone.

The sharpest argument here that the danger is not what machines can do but what people will claim they are doing. The citizens are not lying to themselves; they were lied to, and preferred it.