Monday, July 13, 2015

IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE, IT'S A DRONE!



 Well, I’ve seen my first drone. On July fourth, there was a drone hovering over Spiritus Pizza. I heard it before I saw it. The sound is quite annoying, enough to make me wish this new craze doesn’t catch on, but somehow I think that horse has left the stable. I don’t know what made me look up, but I did and there it was, little red lights blinking madly, suspended in the sky by its tiny propellers. For one insane moment I imagined Spiritus was delivering their pizzas by drone. Nah.
   More interesting were the reactions of others on the street. It was very crowded, and I witnessed delight on quite a few faces, and rage on many others. One guy was standing in the middle of the street, shaking his fist skyward and yelling, but I’ve seen him before. He does that all the time. Some people actually ducked, though there was no danger of being hit. Maybe they thought the drone would fire something at them. Some folks looked sad, I suppose because these little flying machines carry with them the promise of invasion of personal space and privacy, big time. We’ve all heard the stories of celebrities being photographed by camera-equipped drones. Amazon proposes using drones for their deliveries in the near future, but with the amount of business they do, drone-jams are a real possibility. I mean, think of the number of boxes with that smile one sees on porches, in mailboxes and doorsteps and of course, at the post office. It would take a rather large flock of drones to deliver all that. And when would they deliver? Not at night, I hope. Talk about noise pollution! What if something had to be signed for? And that all important question, should I tip the drone and if so, how much? Sigh. I hope it’s in the far future. I’d rather my skies were full of birds, singing sweetly, not drones, buzzing loudly. 

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