Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/11/23/drone-catching-drone-portends.html
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shit, the Dutch have to retrain their eagles
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Robert Sheckley got it right in his 1953 short story “Watchbird”.
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This idea might be somewhat disruptive to one or two business models…
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…approaches to disable opposing drones without permanently damaging them.
Why not damage them? Isn’t disposable cheapness part of the charm of these flying hellbots?
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I wish. I feel the newly released DJI Mavic Pro marks the exact point in time when flying-camera drones became small and clever enough for me to consider buying one for filmmaking, as opposed to hiring the drone guy for the day.
The thing looks like a small miracle of engineering for all intents and purposes, the sort of wizardly artifact you might take with you as a time traveler to prove you’re from the future. It starts at $1000. Not bad for what it is, but not my idea of disposable cheapness.
Keeping in mind that the chances of it falling in a lake, hitting a tree, being stolen and who knows what else are much worse than with a regular camera you don’t send flying away. And you can’t even buy insurance for them.
This video needs a David Attenborough narration describing how the (small “p”) predator stalks and catches its prey.
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those eagles just lost their job to a robot.
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This drone on drone violence is just sad. 
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The government laughs at your idea of disposable cheapness, and so does the burgeoning meth industry.
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Hail the sky pirates of the future!
This might secure that my grandchildren’s sky won’t be a non stop swarm of mundane delivery drones.
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This all sounds a bit expensive. So I guess the only people in the future who will have any sort of privacy or security will be those with many thousands of dollars of disposable income they can use to buy a fleet of defense drones…
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Sure. But to those lovely institutions even we are cheap and disposable.
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It’s a Libertarian fantasy!
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Or companies could, I don’t know, just pay someone to deliver their @#$%! goods by car or truck.
Folks get so damn worked up over technology they forget the point of the actual task being performed. Nowadays when a store has a problem with their real-time SAAS-based, thin-client, POS registers with laser scanner all business stops because nobody can deal with the concept of using pen, paper, and a calculator to keep things going.
Time to go into barrage balloons.
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I suppose drones, upon detecting pursuit, could release decoy drones.
Or of course counter-attack drones - with the obligatory rotating scythes.
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Why is it in the interest of the companies to pay more for the same service?
Game on!
/presses the Cotton Candy launch button.
That drone-catching drone will pay for itself very quickly. Just use the money you make selling off all the stuff you get from having it catch Amazon delivery drones.
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