Microcopter’s-Eye-View of Protest

It’s a big protest in Poland – I don’t think the drone is a police one… the uploader has other videos – it looks like one of these

And is not in fact DIY… they’re made by a Polish company

I can see how these things would be invaluable on either side – being Kettled? No problem – there’s 10000 of us and only 400 of you. I bet repressive regimes like England or America make them illegal. I bet we wind up with anti microcopter microcopters (or jets or jammers or whatever). That’s what happened with planes… firstly they were used only as surveillance… then as “nuisance-bombers”… then for fighting other planes… and then as a primary tactical piece on the board. It’s a kind of inevitable progression… from herbivore to predator.

I think it’s really interesting that this first one of these flying over a protest (in one country at least) is not in fact owned by the forces of old and evil… but by someone else. An entrepreneur? A hobbyist?

I had kindof imagined that these were going to be used for tourism… that you’d be able to hire one in Prague… sitting at home in (where ever it is) and cruise about looking at the sights etc. I guess we have better things to do. Still… welcome to Poland… cobbled streets, old buildings etc. God I miss Europe.

And you know… if you can hire these… in “trouble spots”, journalism is never going to be the same again – which is no bad thing. Mind you – if you could hire these in “trouble spots”, then there’s nothing to say that they couldn’t be armed, and joining in. In the 1930s people from the UK went to fight the fascists in Spain. Armchair-drones may allow us to do the same thing again – without getting out of our armchairs.