Not only that, the gravity was unstable back then too...so everywhere was uphill!

Honestly it's worth it. My productivity has SOARED, my social interfacing has improved, and I feel "better" as a productive person over-all. I actually pay most of my bills on time, no longer accidentally over draft my accounts, forget various items at various locations...for those of us with structural / chemical brain miswiring it's a life saver. Why not take advantage of the "better living through chemistry"? To me, that's part of the cyberpunk lifestyle. STIMS, CHUMMER. LINE 'EM UP.

kids these days will never understand the fun trying to sign off a green and black terminal while it's on fire. Fumes? We didn't notice since we all were smoking indoors back then.

They could use the existing USPS locations. I can see Amazon forcing the USPS, via lobbyist regulations, to force them to allow drone drop-offs. Amazon could even provide a pre-packaged cargo container "box" that has a small landing pad on top, with the internals containing a track / sort system to push and sort internal packages to road-based drones for the final mile eventually. Since USPS is still technically under federal control and taxpayer "subsidized" this would be the simplest, quickest solution.

I would program my drones to home in on house's mailboxes. They are all right next to the street, are all required to fall within certain shape parameters already by USPS. Dropping the package off within X feet of them, using visual algorithms to see were the grass / street / trees that already exists.

Around here, people who live close to the airport are really poor anyway and don't have much disposable income for Amazon. And there's no reason there won't be "drop off points" for those areas...the packages being dropped off at a drone ground delivery processing point just outside the 5 mile limit.

You'll have to ask Joe Biden about that, he's our "Secretary of Shotguns" and "creepy groping".

hissy fit = PR opportunity LOL. Anything to put Amazon in the news in a "good" light!

And with the development of more efficient motors / rotors the noise will go down. Less noise = less friction = more fuel efficiency, so the noise should drop the better the tech gets. Eventually we'll see blades made with "bizarre" edges 3D printed out, edges designed for maximum flow and noise.

"costs more than a truck with a driver". Are you sure? Where is your math? Amazon will have a central "flight center", technical schools will start offering single semester "drone flight" classes for 2 and 3 year pilot programs; possibly an entire degree program including maintenance and repair.. Here in Tulsa we have Spartan (yes, the same school the 9/11 guys trained at lol)...Amazon could easily set up a flight center on the airport property and hire students on shift work, interns, hire graduates, etc. We already have tons of call centers here; the city of Jenks would JUMP at the opportunity to pull something like that here. It would be a win-win for all.

Eventually the "big boys" will jump on this too. I work doing ITSM for AA / USAIR / etc, there's little stopping integrating drones into M&E and all the other backend systems. Well, other than the FAA moving at a snails pace.

"lowest bidder" wins again.

that's why they will be powered off the blood of Amazon's temp workers. It's buried inside the NDA.

Like maybe a smartphone? There will probably be some app, "Your delivery is nearby, please go outside to receive" that then homes in on you. And drops the package on your head, then "accidentally" eviscerates you with it's giant blades. But remember, The Computer is your Friend. Trust the Computer.

Like rowhammer, these are the serious type of attacks we should be aware of. Phishing is because people are stupid; you can't fix stupidity.

The "real" attacks, the ones that penetrate networks and steal data, usually aren't done from botnets. Heartbleed was a server-level hole; exploits in routers abound. The whole system would have to be re-worked from the ground up to get rid of all the holes; then we have people like at the NSA who would purposely put them back again.