Get ready. Within a few years they will be everywhere.

Drones. They'll be flown by national governments, state governments, local governments. By news agencies, archeologists, meteorologists, real estate investors, transportation engineers, paparazzi...the list goes on. Their price is going to keep dropping.

The effects will be dramatic. Local SWAT teams, tick-full of Homeland Security money, will be desperate to acquire them to survey for drugs, bust in doors, and overawe evil doers. A war of assassination will pervail throughout unsettled areas of the world. Outdoor weddings will be less popular. Secure delivery of small parcels will have a new modality. Hobbyists will create ever stranger devices.

And, at some point, things could get rough. Our government is already overarmed, both internationally and domestically.  What happens when you can officially be ordered to stay inside, and that order can be enforced everywhere?

Well, for a long time it's just going to be pointless extra feeds of drone visuals in local news shows and shots of celebrities trying to sunbathe somewhere. And a few bad guys killed in peripheral areas. Maybe that's all it's going to be. I have to say, I don't even know how to prepare.