This weekend, a video captured the imagination of the world with a dystopian harbinger of things to come. I’m talking, of course, about the Amazon blimp spewing out baby drones. Like the sentinels that leveled Genosha, these drones take to the sky like Parademons, swarming their local city with Brita filters, tube socks, and Corky Romano on Blu-ray. Let’s take a look:
This right here is borderline dystopian pic.twitter.com/otXBLShtdd
— ok g (@g_awd) March 31, 2019
This blimp will one day disgorge these drones over your house. And from there, they will hunt you wherever you go. You will buy from them. Or you will die by their whirring rotors, turned into a protein shake, or jewelry, or simple code. https://t.co/4xNIVqOx9a
— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) April 2, 2019
It’s a pretty terrifying image, but we can all breathe a sigh of relief, because it’s FAKE. The video comes courtesy of Twitter user zozi009, a video production artist in Hiroshima, Japan. They quickly uploaded a video showing how they made their very convincing graphics:
午後のネタバレ。信じてる人は皆無だろうけど一応。thetaVでHDRI作ってそのままライティングした。後ろに余計なものも入れてみたけどあまり気づかれてない模様。 pic.twitter.com/o4P8z5agz9
— zozi(厳島神社の人） (@zozi009) April 1, 2019
HAHAHAHA VERY FUNNY ZOZI. But like all the best fakes, this video comes with a kernel of truth. The blimp is based on an actual patent that Amazon filed in 2014 for “aerial fulfillment centers“, basically unmanned sky warehouses that would float above events like festivals and concerts, releasing drones with orders.
Ah yes, a giant self-piloting blimp carrying foam fingers, Smart Water, and “Coachella 2030” t-shirts.What could possibly go wrong? After all, we can all agree that the Hindenburg’s main issue was pilots, am I right? (JK, I know it was hydrogen and I know that blimps no longer use hydrogen, don’t @ me, blimp nerds).
Also, why in the year of our lord 2019 have we not been able to improve on a blimp? Where’s our Helicarrier or invisible plane already?! (yes, all of my aviation equipment knowledge comes from comics). What kind of steam punk bullshit is this modern blimp movement all about?!
On a more serious note, if Blimps R’ Us is the future, what does that mean for workers? The blimp and the drones are self-piloted, as are re-stocking air crafts, which can carry more supplies, drones, and human workers. But are humans now obsolete? We already know that the biggest threat to the future workforce is automation.
And then, of course, there’s the whole privacy issue. Do we really want drones flying to our front door to deliver our Fruit of the Loom multipack of undies? After all, you don’t have to be Ron Swanson to be concerned about these things.
(image: NBC)
It looks like we’re still a ways away from the Amazon blimp becoming a reality. In the meantime, your move, supermarket robot obelisk!
ah just what I needed at the grocery store, an ominous roving robot obelisk pic.twitter.com/24ZwRWZNuc
— Christopher M (@mammothfactory) April 1, 2019
(via Gizmodo, image: screencap)
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Published: Apr 2, 2019 12:04 pm