[hombre_fatal]

I have a hard time seeing how drones would be compatible with any society that places any value on silence or has any stance against noise pollution.

For example, how many people would have to hear the drone zipping by to deliver someone some hair scrunchies or paperclips or whatever? The asymmetry makes no sense to me long before you get into the other issues.

[JohnFen]

The noise issue is why I am very resistant to the entire idea of drone delivery. Drones are very noisy, and the kind of noise they make is particularly irritating and tends to go through walls pretty well. The idea of having to hear them around my home on a daily basis is far from appealing.

[QuantumG]

It's a problem you could solve with ion-wind and far-field wireless power transfer... or just blimps.