A patent has surfaced recently showing a system that would turn street lamps, telephone poles, and other public, vertical structures into docking stations for delivery drones. Amazon is studying the plan. While the project is in its initial stages, we have little reason to doubt that something of the sort is in the making. The breakneck speed at which technological advances are proceeding will soon transform the cities. Drones that drop packages in emergency deliveries through trap doors into our homes not only will change the horizon of our cities and towns. They will revolutionize our lives. So little things now seem the stuff of science fiction, short of teletransportation. And we don’t even dare to rule that out.
