Drones: They might be the new wave but we don't have to like them

We read a headline recently that we found both amusing and disturbing.

An inmate in a South Carolina prison escaped using tools flown over the fence by a drone.

The inmate was later captured. But the fact that he was able to escape by means of the latest in technology we found fascinating, and disturbing. We don't much like drones. They seem to us old-fashioned types as technology gone too far. We understand their usefulness in some situations, such as warfare or in agriculture.

But the ability to fly drones virtually at will seems to us to defy the laws of privacy. We don't want to look up and see a drone flying over our house. Who knows what its purpose is?

In this particular case, the inmates' ingenuity coupled with the advance in drone technology proved a good combination -- at least until he was recaptured.

He probably saw the approach of the drone as a godsend. We would not.

Published in Editorials on July 9, 2017 10:05 PM