Integral to both national security and existential futures, and poised to catalyze the pioneering of sci-fi-like drone technology, is the final frontier: space. The applications of UAVs to the near-infinity on which our blue marble rests are early, but with time they will become both fascinating and essential. Things that are already happening, like drone-enabled launch site monitoring, the development of autonomous space-debris collection, reusable unmanned space planes like the X-37B, and the planned autonomous flight of NASA’s Dragonfly on a Jovian moon, are proof enough. Future possibilities are endless: drones of all shapes and sizes, putzing around space stations conducting fully autonomous maintenance and repairs. Reconnaissance drones spilling out from an opened hatch on a space-farer’s floating ship, falling into formation as they funnel toward the unexplored planet surface below. Only time will tell how far these evolutions can be pushed.

Below the arcing of stars and spirited space-adventuring of generations to come, the skies are clear — save the birds and an occasional transport drone passing silently overhead. Towering bio-hybrid buildings draped with verdant ivory, attended to by swaths of assiduous airborne robo-gardeners, look as if they might have emerged in search of sunlight from the earth itself. A period of peace, less fraught with tension than its Dr. Strangelove-type predecessor, has settled upon the world. This is not for want of bad actors, but for their inability to find secrecy.

The reconnaissance and intelligence operations of the Western nations are unrivaled; adversaries can say or do very little without it being known, and constantly evolving anti-surveillance drones make it very difficult for allies of these nations to be spied on. Emergent from the lattice of pseudo-satellitic drones, sub-orbital AAVs, and multi-tendriled UAS is an invisible, impenetrable dome of complete knowing. Totalitarian potentialities of such an advanced network are held at bay, at least in the States, by the relative affordability of, and legally protected access to, small UAS and counter-UAV systems. In select European nations, where private access to such technologies is being stripped, some claim to see shadows of authoritarianism seeping through cracks in the oracle bones.

Early domestic drone-tech innovations were not controversial or difficult to fund, given their national-security-mandated priority, and the ballooning pie of economic productivity that resulted from their natural proliferation formed a positive feedback loop. Wider implementation of better autonomous hardware led to more prosperity, which led to more research and development, which led to better and cheaper UAS. Small teams of engineers were able to erect incredible structures, like the aforementioned stalagmitic wonders, with more agency than ever before. They cut private residences into remote crags, built public housing projects that were as efficient as they were elegant, and ensured that each creation was beautiful in its own right.

The rise of autonomous farms greatly increased both crop yields and the percentage of arable land while eliminating unnecessary chemical exposure. Fresh produce became cheap and widely accessible. Open fields of soft green and amber, rustling with the light breeze, saw bovine droves herded by autonomous drones (voluntarily pursued, of course, by the enthusiastic prancing of cattle dogs). Resource extraction was faster, cleaner, and easier, which, alongside acceleration in the construction of small nuclear reactors, resulted in a preponderance of energy to power all of these initiatives. Crime rates across the nation were at an all-time low after law enforcement had increasingly partnered with preventive UAS, reducing the incentives of violence.

Now, with all of this having come to pass, there seems to be an almost palpable optimism, a sense that things can change, and that we have significant say in how they change. A weird coalition between humans and their hive-minded autonomous aircraft, once an unnerving prospect, now powers the world forward in ways that not even the most visionary among us could have seen in a crystal ball. This, or something else entirely, lies ahead of us — with courageous optimism, we step into drone-filled horizons.