Robot Uprising: Patrolling Your Home, Garden and Now The Streets!

iRobot's Roomba...
when home robots attack!

Many people think of the inevitable Robot Uprising as a humanoid, Terminator like, robot army, wielding laser guns, hunting us down in some kind of distant future, human Armageddon. What they don't realize is that the robot armies are already taking shape, albeit in a much more passive aggressive form.

I've previously documented the Roomba as the first wave of mass produced robots surveilling your home under the guise of being a floor vacuum.

These irritating devices are supposed to quietly work away in the background while you perform Yoga poses in peaceful bliss but are actually noisy enough to attract your attention and... why does the thing keep missing that one spot in the middle of the floor but has cleaned the same corner four times already!

Roomba floor cleaning robots. Unlike your Mom it won't get annoyed
if you do your Yoga whilst she's trying to Vacuum the floor.

At the moment you can hurl it out of a window but once somebody decides to attach a laser gun to it...

Honda's Miimo Robotic Lawnmower.
Your Dad won't let you meditate in the middle of the
lawn whilst he cuts the grass but Miimo will.

Not content with patrolling the house, there's now a garden Roomba that mows your lawn while you meditate in peaceful bliss beside your pool.

These things have actually been around for a while but Honda, whose slogan is 'The Power of Dreams', has just released their model, called the Miimo, that claims to be so quiet you can actually meditate alongside it while it mows the lawn around you.

Strangely, the promotional video don't give any real clue as to exactly how loud it is. I suspect it'll be just loud enough to irritate and, if it isn't, it'll certainly get your attention as it bumps into you whilst you're sitting on the lawn meditating... and why does it keep missing that one spot in the middle of the lawn but has cut the same corner four times already!

You'll probably be tempted to push it into your pool or reverse over it in the car but once somebody attaches a laser gun to it... The Power of Nightmares!

The Starship Delivery Bot. Probably
safe to meditate next to.

If that wasn't enough coverage for this pre Armageddon robot army. Starship Technologies has developed the best bicycle courier killer since the car door.

Their new, six wheeled, small package, delivery robot - which seems to be called the 'Starship' - will be patrolling the streets autonomously under the guise of delivering all kinds goods to any location within a 2-3 mile radius of their base. In fact Dominoes Pizza in San Francisco just recently as implemented a test run for their pizza delivery service.

These things can scan and detect humans, as shown in their ominous promotional video (below), with Terminator-like coldness. At the moment they'll use that knowledge to avoid bumping into you but once somebody attaches a laser gun you know it'll be telling you to step aside if you want to live!

Amazon Prime Air Drone. It'll probably avoid
you meditating on your lawn when it delivers
your package... probably...

Street level coverage clearly isn't enough. No doubt you've probably heard about Amazon's flying drone delivery service known as Amazon Prime Air.

These drones have a 15 mile radius and object detection abilities to prevent them from crashing into random hot air balloons and you meditating on your lawn whilst being attacked by your Miimo.

You should probably be suspicious of any package that turns up which you don't remember ordering and hope no one's yet attached laser cannons to the drone.

The O-R3 Security Droid with built in Drone.

If you're not convinced that Amazon Drones and Starship's six wheeled delivery bots are patrolling our urban environments then consider this next stage in robot army evolution... the O-R3 Security Robot with built in Drone.

Developed in Singapore by Otsaw Digital the drone is specifically included to increase the robot's ability to track suspicious people beyond roads... yeah, jumping over a wall isn't going to keep you safe. Once they attach lasers don't go doing those Yoga poses any place you have no business doing Yoga.

Boston Dynamic's Atlas Robot.
Terminator's in waiting!

The O-R3 can self charge, is self learning and can call in any suspicious activity or packages to a central command station.

Honestly if they ever jam all that tech into one of Boston Dynamics Atlas, all terrain, humanoid robots, we're practically there for SkyNet and its Terminator army... of course they'll need to attach lasers first...

Is anyone worried what might happen if the internet becomes self aware?

Should a Terminator-like army eventuate we can at least hope we'll be relatively safe in plain sight whilst the machines check that same dark corner for the fourth time already. It's probably our best chance for survival.

Comments

James Gunn's Social Media Monkeys Joke Was a Highlight of His Superman Movie For Me

B efore James Gunn's Superman Movie was released there was a whole rumor going around that the movie would feature monkeys on computers trolling Superman's social media, sparking much outrage. #supersh*t. I didn't know this was even a thing until just prior to writing this article. I did a search to see if anyone had posted a clip of the monkeys scene from the movie and got pages of discourse featuring videos and articles prior to the film. Most of it from Gunn detractors (let's say) seeing it as some kind of childish swipe at them... well not them specifically but, you know, those other people who have every right to hate on anything sight unseen. Anyway, I'm not going to give even one such example a link or air because it's kind of sad watching someone devote so much commentary to a throw away gag that is absolutely a nod to James Gunn's Superman trolls. The whole reason this post exists, is to say I loved the joke, because fourteen years ago, and I...

Movie Review: A Complete Unknown (2024) No Spoilers

Y ou would think the Bob Dylan story would be 'wind-swept and interesting,' to quote Billy Connelly, however, despite A Complete Unknown being quite an engaging film, it feels like it missed the years that really shaped him as a song writer/performer. The film starts in 1961, with a then unknown, 19-year-old Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) arriving in New York City with his guitar. From there he forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world. The problem being, according to this film, Dylan arrived in New York, for the most part, fully formed as a folk singer/song writer. In virtually no time he makes a very important connection that puts him on the trajectory of doing the work and becoming a name, before making his world changing performance. While there is some drama behind the scenes with his various relationships, none of it is particularly unique to any number of up and com...

I'm Joining the Illuminati Brotherhood By Personal Invitation of Hiltom Rothschild... Wait, What?

How special am I to have finally come of age (53 years young) and am now eligible to participate in building the world alongside other members of the Illuminati Brotherhood... Yes I've received the call by way of an email, which I'm sure is real because I had to translate it from the Dutch language and it was personally written by Hiltom Rothschild, one of the non-existent members of the Rothschild family (or perhaps deep undercover because Google has never heard of them?). A Transcript of the email below: To: etourist From: Illuminati Brotherhood Subject: Illuminati Broederschap (Illuminati Brotherhood) I am Hiltom Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family, one of the 13 families of the Illuminati brotherhood. I'm here to let you know that you've come of age and are eligible to participate in building the 🌎 world. It is a calling and a privilege to honor him with pride and gratitude as not everyone will ever be chosen by the LIGHT, many are called but few are ch...

Revisiting Hobart, Tasmania (2025) - Part 2 of 2

Tasman Bridge as seen from The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. C ontinuing on with my partner (Enigma) and I's return to Hobart, Tasmania, it's day three, and a Monday. Enigma was hoping to see snow on top of Mount Wellington this trip however, so far we'd had nothing but fine weather. A little on the cool side maybe, but not enough to put snow on the mountain. Which you can check with Summit Cam's live feed from the mountain top. So we decided to fill our day with Hobart's other bus tour... Red Decker Hop On/Hop Off Bus Tour The Red Decker Bus. The Red Decker bus tour is a 90 minute loop tour of the main sights within Hobart. While you can just stay on the bus the whole loop the idea is to get off the bus at any key location you may like to further explore and then rejoin the tour when the next available bus comes along to your nearest timed stop. Tickets last for 24 or 48 hours, giving you plenty of time to explore without being rushed. The bus website tells ...

Movie Review: Superman (2025) No Spoilers

T he one thing I like about James Gunn as a comic book movie director is that he leans into the comic book nature of the world and the characters. He's not trying to do a realistic take on any of the characters. He's simply bringing the comics to life. It's still his take on the characters, but he doesn't shy away from their comic book origins. James Gunn's Superman is very much a comic book movie in every sense. Nothing is off the table because it's too 'comic-booky' and might look silly in a live action film. To me that's incredibly liberating. It lets James actually tell a proper Superman story that isn't hamstrung by reality, or tip toeing into the fantastical just enough to allow Superman to exist in the real world. Superman begins in the middle of a battle. Metropolis is under attack by a super powered being known as 'Hammer of Boravia', however everything is not as it seems, and Superman (David Corenswet) must work with other s...

How to Transfer Any Line Art to Your Griptape - Easy Skateboard Griptape Art Tutorial

Dog Star Griptape Art by TET Griptape art is once again gaining popularity amongst modern skateboarders. For those of us who have tried to create our own griptape art, using paint pens, you'll know reproducing your design onto the grip, without making any mistakes is incredibly challenging. Mostly because you just have to go for it and draw the design freehand, with paint pens, directly onto the griptape. You can make the odd mistake here or there but if you get the proportions of the design completely wrong, it can be very difficult to fix. Often you just have to live with the mistake. To address the problem I've come up with an easy way anyone can transfer a line art design to their griptape, removing almost all the anxiety of getting the proportions wrong. In fact, you could do this with any line art design, even if you have no drawing skill at all. Watch the video below to see my technique in action and/or skip past the video where I highlight the basic steps to get your de...

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog