Friday, January 10, 2014

Amazon's Drones

Amazon is planning to deploy unmanned drones to deliver goods to customers.  They will call this service, "Amazon Prime Air," and they hope once fully operational, it will be able to deliver orders in thirty minutes or less.  They will need approval from the FAA and there's still some research and development to be done but they've already done test runs and they expect to have the system up and flying within a few years.

Is there anyone besides me who finds the thought of the air filled with unmanned delivery drones inexplicably chilling?  You punch an order into your smartphone - or hell, speak an order - say what sidewalk cafe or Bora Bora bungalow you're currently at, and - oh, wait a minute; you won't need to tell Amazon where you are, your smartphone already knows, and will tell Amazon for you, unless you want the order shipped somewhere else, like you want a crate of Deluxe Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches shipped to that nice neighbor who keeps borrowing your tools without returning them.

Is there ever a point when our lives become too convenient?  Is there something eerily troubling about requesting something and thirty minutes later having it come to you literally from the sky?  Everything I want - assuming I got the dough to pay for it - is immediately accessible - without frustration, delay, going to get it, or dealing with another human being - and comes to me via flying whirligig.  The thought should make me happy, right?  Excited.  And in a way, it does.  But deeper down, it bugs the hell out of me.  Why is that?  Can anyone tell me, why is that?