Noah Smith offers his assessment of the social impact of  drones on Quartz.  He asserts they will cause the most societal upheaval in 700 years since the adoption of the gun. For military power, Smith is forecasting a shift in battlefield technology towards the use of piloted and eventually autonomous drones and robots. He predicts a massive shift when robotic weapons are less expensive than human soldiers. Not only from robot to robot battle, but also providing mechanical force so tyrannical states do not require human support for soldiers, guards, police, etc... Thoughts of Mao, Stalin and Hussein - and Putin - do seem to fit.

The more interesting part is the social ramifications of the elite being able to purchase armies of robots. That if income redistribution is a requirement as robots take human jobs, the elite who own and control the facilities to produce our necessary goods will be able to afford robot armies to make certain we aren't able to rise up and demand a share. As Smith says,

"We’re all worried about the day that the 1% no longer need the 99%–but what’s really scary is when they don’t fear the 99% either."

It's a sobering thought and one to consider. What could we do against the elite? If the numbers are correct and the top 5% of the US own 72% of American wealth, they can out-purchase the middle and lower classes combined - and get a better price on bulk orders. That's providing we could get an order in. Apple crippled their smartphone competitors by placing bulk orders of LCD screens years ahead. New manufacturing facilities had to be built for other hardware manufacturers to place orders. What if the elite buy entire generations of robots? What if they own all the manufacturing? Could the underclass fight a successful war using homemade, 3D printed drones?

He goes on to offer this dystopian nightmare:

"Imagine a world where gated communities have become self-contained cantonments, inside of which live the beautiful, rich, Robot Lords, served by cheap robot employees, guarded by cheap robot armies. Outside the gates, a teeming, ragged mass of lumpen humanity teeters on the edge of starvation. They can’t farm the land or mine for minerals, because the invincible robot swarms guard all the farms and mines. Their only hope is to catch the attention of the Robot Lords inside the cantonments, either by having enough rare talent to be admitted as a Robot Lord, or by becoming a novelty slave for a little while."

Should we be worried? A quick review of some of the world's wealthiest might be interesting. Would Gates do this? It doesn't sound like he would, spending billions around the globe to relieve suffering. Warren Buffet? I read he lives in the same house he has owned since 1957. I don't see him building an estate and sending out assassin bots.

What about the Koch brothers? What about Ruper Murdock? It isn't just the Right, either. What about Zuckerberg's belief that privacy is dead? It might not have him lining up to buy killer droids, but what about invasive drones? Facebook has already purchased Titan Aerospace, so it isn't a far cry to the death of privacy when social media corporations turn everyone's life into a Big Brother type reality TV series.

Google may have more data, research and expertise on robots than any other group in the world. "Do no evil?" We better hope so.

Is all hope lost? Brian Wang at Next Big Future has a different view and disagrees with the article, calling it a "massive simplification of the history of warfare." He believes drones with autonavigation are going to be dirt cheap within a decade (at the latest). Millions of these devices will be in amateur hands and only national militaries will be able to more powerful drones in greater number.

Wang doesn't color it all in, but I believe his point is more people can manage and control and find tactical ways to use drones than the billionaires who would be outnumbered by many factors - and we shouldn't believe ALL of them would act in harmony any more than we know every soldier of every dictatorship refused orders to kill or rape or torture.

Some very interesting ideas and I suggest reading both to get their points better than I've outlined here. The best I can offer is a bit of humor on how our "personal drone air force" might be used - Your Drone is Ruining my Buzz