Welcome to the Drone Age, New Jersey – Computerworld

We have entered the Drone Age

While many journalists have written about the mystery objects and other strange phenomena in the New Jersey sky, one perspective is missing — which is why I wrote this column.

This is that perspective: We have entered what we will one day call the Drone Age. And people are just now starting to realize that. 

Huge technological leaps are later branded as “Ages”—the Industrial Age, Radio Age, Airplane Age, Jet Age, Nuclear Age, Space Age, Information Age, and more.

It’s true that we don’t know what every reported sky object is. But we can be confident that different people see different types of objects or phenomena. (If one person sees a party balloon, another thinks it’s a satellite, and a third person envisions a helicopter, that’s not a “trend.”)

And even if foreign adversaries are flying spy drones over bases — heck, even if Rosie O’Donnell is right and aliens are visiting New Jersey — the overwhelming majority of reported sightings is almost certainly regular, garden-variety consumer and enterprise drones.

We have entered the Drone Age. And all we have to do to realize that is go outside and look up.