Blood drone-topia?

Published by Harriet Phipps

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Mobilities - General

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Monday, November 6th, 2017

by Stephanie Sodero

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What might the movement of blood look like in the future? More specifically how might blood transfusion and drone technology — both war dividends — intersect (Sandvik & Lohne 2014)? Here I explore four scenarios based on fieldwork, current events and exposure to sci-fi. They are informed by and loosely correlate with Urry’s (2008) four future-building scenarios on the theme of carbon constraint, and are framed as trending twitter stories in 2051.

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TWEET TREND 1
Home blood donation kits replace blood donation clinics #dove

Home Blood Donor Kits Donate the gift of life in the comfort of your own home. Through a mesh network that connects all UK hospital blood banks, the National Health Service can instantly alert you the moment your blood type is needed. A Blood Care E-Consultant will contact you to arrange a drone drop-off of a home donor blood kit. Within 24 hours, follow the simple instructions to make your home donation. Watch your favourite movie, meditate, write poetry — while you give the gift of life. When complete, leave the package in your Royal Mail outgoing drone bay, press the beacon and an NHS drone will zip to your doorstep to whisk it away.

Image: junkart.me

TWEET TREND 2
9/31 blood drone tragedy anniversary #931

Blood Drone Tragedy Today we recognize the anniversary of 9/31. This tragic event changed the course of medical drone mobilities. In hindsight, it was all but inevitable. Our society learned (yet again) the fragility of the complex socio-technical systems upon which we rely. Today we recall how a one tonne PangeaCargoDrone carrying iron-enriched blood products took off from Switzerland en route to New York to treat hundreds of children infected with malaria (a disease endemic to the region since the Great Climate Tip of 2025). While crossing the Atlantic, interference from atmospheric traffic (zeppelins, space planes, satellites, etc.) caused the drone guidance system to drift off course into an Atmospheric Pirate Zone. The invaluable cargo was stolen and sold on the Darkweb. Since 9/31, only ocean-based cargo ships escorted by private militia are used to transport life-saving blood and other pharmaceutical products.

Image: swissinfo.ch

TWEET TREND 3

Archeologists unearth icarus drone technology circa 2017 #quaint

Soar and Fizzle Thank you for attending today’s KAP lunchtime lecture: Kitchy Artifacts from the Past. From about 2005 to 2020, there was an Icarus-like rise and fall of ‘drone’ technology. Also known as unmanned aerial vehicles, they were used for diverse purposes from film production to warfare. Archeologists recently unearthed an almost fully intact example (c. 2017), now on display at the Egyptian Museum of Supreme Antiquities. While an intense fad for little over a decade, the emergence of Omni3D printing in 2020 caused an almost overnight withdrawal from the drone market. The drone was left in the dustbin of history.

Image: greekboston.com

TWEET TREND 4
Access to nanomedicine listed as un universal human right #un

Nanomedicine Ensure your Nanobots© are in fighting form by drinking your annual NanoFuelGatorade©. Nanobots© are tiny drones that circulate in your bloodstream – taking advantage of internal drift ecologies (Szerszynski 2017). Nanobots© zap diseased cells to instantly prevent disease and heal wounds. Keep your Nanos made chipper, by drinking Gatordade.

Image: bigthink.com

References

Sandvik, K. and K. Lohne. 2014. The rise of the humanitarian drone: Giving content to an emerging concept. Millennium: Journal of International Studies 43(1): 145-164.

Szerszynski, B. 2017. The drift economy. Mobile Utopia Experiment. Mobile Utopia Conference. Lancaster University.

Urry, J. 2008. Climate change, travel and complex futures. British Journal of Sociology 59(2): 261-279.