Following in the footsteps of the Los Angeles real estate mogul who based his new building-sized digital billboards on Blade Runner, there's another realization of a sci-fi film's rather dystopian vision of the future in the works: BAE Systems spokesman William Devine says, "Minority Report was probably one of the biggest inspirations" behind its new "bio-inspired microrobots," a group of sinister-looking mini-machines intended to "monitor terrorists" by gathering still images, video, and other information that it will then broadcast back to its military owners. As part of the development process for this $38 million dollar project for the Army Research Laboratory, Devine says that he's been repeatedly showing the Tom Cruise-starring Philip K. Dick adaptation to his team to inspire their covert critters, which will reportedly range from "a few inches in length to the size of a hand" and will come in a large variety of nature-inspired designs—including some that will "climb like a gecko, fly like an insect, hover like a hummingbird, cooperate like bees" and models that will "walk like a spider," such as this creepy fucking thing.
Of course, the scariest part of Minority Report—those hyper-personalized, interactive ads based on biometric identity—has already been seamlessly integrated into our society. Speaking of which, how did those assorted Gap tank-tops work out for you? Isn't it time you picked up a pair of surplus khakis to go with them?