Evidently, a neighbor of mine purchased a new quadcopter and filmed our neighborhood this week. This video shows a pretty good view of the whole town where I live..

I think he’s planning to use it as part of his farming operation to inspect his crops. Recently, I spoke at the Arthur Capper Ag Cooperative CEO Roundtable in Kansas City on the impact of technology in our small towns and rural areas. Technology has really revolutionized our lives, and made the world much smaller for folks like us out in the hinterlands. Lots of people I know are running small businesses that rely on high speed internet access. One thing I touched on in my talk was the increasing importance of automation and robotics, including unmanned aerial vehicles. Little did I know that I would soon get a close up look at my property from the air in a YouTube video.

I suppose growing up and living in small towns, I’m pretty accustomed to everyone knowing everyone else’s business. But we are also accustomed to flying low under the radar and doing our own thing without a lot of interference from others. We don’t have neighborhood associations or overly zealous enforcement of laws and city ordinances. In some ways, our remoteness has afforded us some degree of privacy. If we conduct ourselves in a way that does not adversely affect others, mostly we get along just fine. But the world is shrinking, and these new technologies are affecting all of our lives, no matter where we live. What do you think about living a life in which every moment can possibly be captured on camera? It is the new reality.