Thursday 20 November 2008

The Next Big Thing

My regular column, over at TechLifePost is about autonomous flying vehicles and imaging systems.

The trouble with writing futurist stuff is just as often being too conservative as being too imaginative. This one I think is about right. Similar gear exists today, but is only slowly getting into service, and will take a while to become commonplace.

But I may have been too conservative after all. PopSci.com.au published this article before mine was published - though after I'd provided an outline to the editor.



Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking of, based on some research here at the ANU. And a bit bigger, 30" diameter rather than 18", and rather better performance.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What prevents it from getting shot down?

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile, people come to oppose a subset of the population more than the state that divides them and causes unnecessary social conflict. When they get power, they punish those who used power against them. We all lose in the long term. But the state thrives.

Some gay activists and Mormons, major victims of the state in this country not that long ago, have recently turned to fighting over state power in California because of the gay marriage issue. Neither side seems to want a truce based on the idea that the state should get out of marriage entirely, leave people to their own consciences and religious and secular arrangements, a position most Americans would probably agree to if it were presented to them. Instead, the two sides of the polarized debate all fight over control of the state.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory172.html

Christine said...

I'll be interested to see what comes out of it. I was under the impression that there were already much smaller (and more importantly to troops lighter) ornithopter-based designs in the works though.