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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday January 02 2019, @03:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the and-gyro-pistols dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

It's 2019, the year Blade Runner takes place: I can has flying cars?

Welcome to 2019, the year in which Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi film masterpiece Blade Runner is set. And as predicted in this loose adaptation of a 1968 Philip K. Dick story, we have flying cars.

The reason you don't have a flying car was explained by author William Gibson, who famously observed, more or less, "The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed."

If you're Sebastian Thrun, you've already flown in Kitty Hawk's Flyer, which is more flying boat than flying car. If you're not, chances are you will have to wait a bit longer to live your sci-fi noir transport fantasy.

Topics include flying cars, artificial pets, voice driven photo enhancement, the Voight-Kampff machine, ad-festooned airships, space colonies, artificial organs and replicants.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Wednesday January 02 2019, @04:30PM (6 children)

    by ikanreed (3164) on Wednesday January 02 2019, @04:30PM (#781067) Journal

    The rich have personal jets, the cops of helicopters. Those were the people who had flying cars in the movie.

    You're one of those downtrodden wretches barely scraping out a living underneath the hideous corporate pyramid.

    What I want is the robot that chokes CEOs to death. Give me that.

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  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday January 02 2019, @04:35PM (3 children)

    by Thexalon (636) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday January 02 2019, @04:35PM (#781069)

    What I want is the robot that chokes CEOs to death. Give me that.

    The trouble with that is that if you choke the CEO, then according to the corporate succession plan control will pass to the CFO, COO, CSO, etc, then to the directors, then to the VPs, and then to various plebs in order of seniority. Which means that it's not much different from "Hey sexy mama, wanna kill all humans?"

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 5, Touché) by RamiK on Wednesday January 02 2019, @04:43PM

      by RamiK (1813) on Wednesday January 02 2019, @04:43PM (#781072)

      Which means that it's not much different from "Hey sexy mama, wanna kill all humans?"

      What's your point?

      --
      compiling...
    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday January 02 2019, @05:07PM

      by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday January 02 2019, @05:07PM (#781084)

      Not really - eventually you run out of people who want the job badly enough to probably die for it. Might not happen until you run out of executives, you might even lose a few workers dedicated to climbing the corporate ladder, but eventually you'll be down to people who would rather work for a living than die. The investors can then decide whether they want to liquidate the company's assets, or restructure into something less hierarchical.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Wednesday January 02 2019, @05:31PM

      by ikanreed (3164) on Wednesday January 02 2019, @05:31PM (#781095) Journal

      You don't need to upsell me on the eventual death of the human race. I was already buying, man.

  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 02 2019, @07:55PM (1 child)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday January 02 2019, @07:55PM (#781141)

    The Fifth Element had poor scum driving flying cabs.

    The rich I have met have both private jets (they like the Citation for speed, but also need/usually have something bigger for cargo volume) and helicopters too.

    --
    Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
    • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday January 02 2019, @08:05PM

      by ikanreed (3164) on Wednesday January 02 2019, @08:05PM (#781145) Journal

      The fifth element was set in the 2200s. You're jumping the gun on that one.