2008年的科幻电影《睡眠商人》（Sleep Dealer）想象了一个可怕的地缘政治反乌托邦，它在离家相当近的地方出现-一个由庞大的计算机网络带来的无国界地球村与国家壁垒和移民法在物理领域的仇外扩散形成对比的未来。编剧兼导演亚历克斯·里维拉在接受《新调查》采访时表示，正是这种动力的出现，使空中无人机成为我们这个时代的一个强大象征：一种无处不在的远程呈现（和破坏）工具，在工作和工人、距离和数字之间造成了不和谐。
The millions of undocumented workers who are physically present but whose political body is denied by a legal regime, occupy a place in my imagination very close to the call-center worker or the drone pilot. The military drone as a traveler headed from the global north to the global south is a kind of mirror image of these other histories that have brought human energy from the south to the north. The transnational space is circular, with flows in and out of the U.S., all of them disembodied and disfigured in complex and fascinating ways.
至于最常见的反对无人机自身的论点，即无人机会麻醉操作员的间谍和暴力行为，里维拉表示，问题并不是那么简单。“无人机已经产生了第三种类型的军事瞄准器，”他说。“无人机飞行员有一种军事演员从未有过的视觉，那就是挥之不去，长时间观察，这样做绝对不会对自己造成威胁。”
