The future is here

It happened about a week ago but news of it is just going viral now:

Drone Comes Within 200 Feet of Airliner Over NY

NEW YORK — An unmanned drone came within 200 feet of a commercial jet over New York, triggering an FBI appeal to the public for any information about the unusual and potentially dangerous incident.

The crew of Alitalia Flight 608 approaching John F. Kennedy airport on Monday reported the sighting.

“We saw a drone, a drone aircraft,” the pilot can be heard telling air traffic controllers on radio calls captured by the website LiveATC.net.

The FAA said it was investigating the incident.

The Alitalia aircraft did not take any evasive action and landed safely.

And the thing is, in the first place, this is just the beginning.

Second, presumably this was a government drone of some kind, either by a state (NY?) or federal agency.

In the not distant future, these things will be flying around for and by private companies, going who-knows-where.

We need rules on these things. We need laws and we need them quickly since clearly the drones are already out there and are only like to increase in quantities greatly, especially as the prices for them will inevitably fall.

And then we need laws on these things so the public is protected and not the companies and corporations, first.

I'm not optimistic.

I'm not optimistic in the speed the laws will happen in nor am I optimistic about exactly who those laws will protect, either, given that our legislators will get "campaign contributions" to create those laws.