Prediction: When Skynet becomes sentient and destroys humanity, it won’t be the DoD’s fault.

We’ll all die cursing Amazon.

Is it sometimes inconvenient and/or annoying to await the arrival of a package at home, or have it sent to your place of work? Yes. Do you want a drone finding your location via smartphone and dropping a package wherever you happen to be? Perhaps, though we can see some settings where Amazone’s idea for its delivery drones might get a bit awkward.

Amazon details its idea in a patent for an “Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Delivery System” (via BBC), including the ability for drones to track the location of the person it’s bringing a package to using data pulled from their smartphones.

And like a bunch of commuter birds in flight, the drones will also be able to chat with each other about the weather and traffic conditions, allowing them to update their routes in real time.

The drones would also constantly be monitoring for humans or other animals that might cross its path, and adjust accordingly.

How smart would a robot network need to be to accomplish that? I dunno – the law of unintended consequences says this will all turn out to be an epically bad idea. I picture our few hunted descendants living in caves, hunting rats for food and beating recon-drones to splinters with sticks as they reflect on our choices for convenient package delivery. “Would it have killed the fools to stick with the Brown Truck of Happiness?” they’ll wonder aloud in inarticulate grunts. “Was being the first in the office to have the new iWatch really that important? Look! A squirrel!”

h/t