The primary purpose of Clint Smith’s “The Drone” is to show how easily things can be perverted by malevolence and used for evil; Smith is able to effectively elucidate this point by going over the drone’s beginning as a mere piece of scrap. It is at this point of development, or the lack thereof, that Smith is quick to show us the various alternative routes of the scrap’s future; alternatives that would’ve been far more jovial and conducive to human life.
“the drone was once a scrap of metal. The drone looks as if it might be a toy. The drone is not a toy. The drone could have been something other than a killing machine. The drone could have been a house. The drone could have been a spoon. The drone could have been a swing.
