Drones have been all over the news for quite a while. Initially the talk was all about their military use in the assassination of various targets, but ever since Amazon announced the fleet of drones they plan on having deliver packages for them, the focus has shifted to civilian use.
People use them for making films, as a hobby, and various other pursuits. They have become a lot more affordable and their applications are limited only by the imagination of their users.
The latest story has been all about how one breached the airspace over the presidential mansion, and the subsequent calls for tighter controls. This comes at a bad time, because some progress was being made in getting the Federal Aviation Administration to be more permissive.
Is it a non-story? Another reason to panic to distract us from the real problems? Or does it actually have real ramifications in terms of the nascent technology’s future? Most technologies seem to go through this teething phase where talk of the potential good arrives hand in hand with fear over the potential bad uses something can be put to.
If the media tires of telling us how everything from shoes to drones, to stuffed animals can be weaponized, and turns its attention instead to people using these things creatively, then some of that bad PR might fall away and be forgotten.
Look to Kickstarter and Indiegogo and the other crowdfunding sites and you can see these adaptable items being reimagined. You can expand your repertoire as a film-maker, maybe like Amazon you can revolutionize your delivery methods. The viewpoint that gets adopted and pushed really can change how these things are viewed.
Good press and bad press in the weighing scales – technology, especially something that first became know for bad things, is always going to be one of those fronts where people go to war. It is going to be interesting to see how this battle plays out.