Drones Are the New Poker?
Call it lo-tech, but I bought an actual paper magazine on the way home from Christmas, Popular Science, which lured me with its cover story, “Predictions for 2014”.
Semi-fascinating stuff regarding 3-D printing, a looming crackdown on opiate painkillers, and a right-around-the-corner future filled with bots — the good kind, apparently, not ones that threaten security of the human race and sanctity of Full Tilt Poker. Anyhow, one item that was nifty-neato featured some rhetoric that sounded kinda familiar. Supposedly, according to one of the PS predictions, the drone industry is ready to boom right about now. All they need, say drone profiteers pioneers, is to attach hole-card cams CyberChris Moneymaker a little government oversight to make sure you don’t go attaching laser death beams to go through your neighbor’s underwear drawer.
“We’re one of very few industries that is actually begging for government regulations,” says Ben Gielow, government relations manager at the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. FAA rules could potentially lead to a drone registry to help punish reckless piloting.
Exciting stuff … sounds kinda like a drone-age Pocket 5s, no? Let’s just hope (for the sake of the drone pros) that they have more success with that line than the PPA and AGA have had. Meanwhile, the government seems to be making sure this boom doesn’t get out of hand too early … starting by targeting media operations who may or may not be currently benefiting from unregulated drone piloting.