There are many examples of technologies in search of an answer to a question nobody asked. For example: why can’t my flat white fly? The possible is, after all, different from the necessary. But none of that should put a dampener on last week’s news that Manna, the Irish drone delivery company, announced a successful funding round of $50 million, and is planning to create 400 jobs across Ireland and the US. This is great news for an Irish company.

It is less great news for those of us who find the sound and presence of drones, and the prospect of them expanding everywhere across Ireland to deliver doughnuts and butter chicken, profoundly annoying.

Companies offering convenience are all about reducing friction in consumer behaviour. Friction is the gap between the wanting and the having. Sometimes these attempts at reducing friction are not entirely frictionless, as anyone who has ever had an unexpected item in the bagging area will attest. What food-by-drone does speak to though, is the triumph of convenience over everything. Manna boss Bobby Healy told Brendan O’Connor on RTÉ Radio 1 two years ago that among the most popular things people order by drone is a cup of coffee.

The friction that exists between you and your coffee includes going outside and being in the world. With drone delivery, that pesky element of life is removed. Now, I know you can’t........

© The Irish Times