The story of Amazon's proposed introduction of eight-rotored octocopter drones to make deliveries direct to your door within 30 minutes of placing an order is either a wonderfully delivered bit of PR, or a true masterstroke in revolutionising the way in which we all receive our parcels.
Below is the story, as it was carried in today's Metro (Tuesday, 3rd December, 2013):
It was when I reached the bottom of the first column that my eye was drawn to the following:
The link here between military drones controlled remotely by trained members of the armed forces and what is essentially every lazy delivery boy's dream Christmas present is tenuous as best, but is another outstanding example of snap journalism tarring all technologies with the same brush.
While there have indeed been instances in the past where military drones have been blamed for the deaths of civilians, what Amazon proposes is an entirely different technology.
I doubt that these little guys will come armed with missiles.
As our reliance on technologies continues to grow, new developments needs to be introduced and embraced by the general public. Most importantly, it needs to be understood that the same technology can have different applications - something that the Daily Mail breed of journalism will never attempt to understand as long as they can instead feed our fears.
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