3 ms·

Yeah actually kidding aside, why not that? Maybe the idea is that robots are more like insects than fish, but that seems a bit exotic imo.

IgorPartola 9y ago
Because a group of flying drones painted black and then we'll have a murder of drones.
hyperpallium 9y ago
"Drone" comes from worker bees, so "swarm" is at least consistent. But I found drone misleading here - I thought they'd be airborne. What's the scope of "drone"?
- Jedd 9y ago
  More importantly, worker bees aren't called drones. Drones are males - they don't actually do any work, living exclusively to have sex with a queen in spring. Once mating season is over, they are evicted from the hive to die - they are unable to fend for themselves. I believe it'd be rare to find drones as part of a swarm of bees in the normal case of a swarm. Worker bees are females. I've never heard them called anything other than a worker bee.
- friendzis 9y ago
  First, I do not think we have textbook definition of "drone" as such words change meaning based on what technologies are actually available, but quite a lot of technical terms come from or are inspired by science fiction. While I did not read lots of science fiction and most of that was not in English, I think "drone" for a long time used to mean something like "mobile robot capable of autonomously performing a series of tasks", mostly in contexts of mining, cargo transportation and reconnaissance. Airborne association with drones is quite a recent thing with rise of "military drones" (mostly recon) and subsequently manufacturers of RC multirotors using a word distancing their products from RC toys. RC multirotors are drones only in the sense that they maintain altitude and orientation autonomously.
triangleman 9y ago
They are robots and won't be traveling in one group.

3 ms·

Yeah actually kidding aside, why not that? Maybe the idea is that robots are more like insects than fish, but that seems a bit exotic imo.

by QAPereo 9y ago

IgorPartola 9y ago
Because a group of flying drones painted black and then we'll have a murder of drones.
hyperpallium 9y ago
"Drone" comes from worker bees, so "swarm" is at least consistent. But I found drone misleading here - I thought they'd be airborne. What's the scope of "drone"?
- Jedd 9y ago
  More importantly, worker bees aren't called drones. Drones are males - they don't actually do any work, living exclusively to have sex with a queen in spring. Once mating season is over, they are evicted from the hive to die - they are unable to fend for themselves. I believe it'd be rare to find drones as part of a swarm of bees in the normal case of a swarm. Worker bees are females. I've never heard them called anything other than a worker bee.
- friendzis 9y ago
  First, I do not think we have textbook definition of "drone" as such words change meaning based on what technologies are actually available, but quite a lot of technical terms come from or are inspired by science fiction. While I did not read lots of science fiction and most of that was not in English, I think "drone" for a long time used to mean something like "mobile robot capable of autonomously performing a series of tasks", mostly in contexts of mining, cargo transportation and reconnaissance. Airborne association with drones is quite a recent thing with rise of "military drones" (mostly recon) and subsequently manufacturers of RC multirotors using a word distancing their products from RC toys. RC multirotors are drones only in the sense that they maintain altitude and orientation autonomously.
triangleman 9y ago
They are robots and won't be traveling in one group.