In the 20th century, "popular media" meant mass media—everyone watched the same three channels and discussed the same shows. The 21st-century story is fragmented.

The test site was an abandoned airfield on the outskirts of a small town. At dawn, mist hovered over the runway, giving the scene a cinematic quality. The low light also helped mask the operation from satellite surveillance, a practical security measure.

In the early 2010s, a clandestine research group within a European defense lab launched Project ATKHairy. The goal: develop an autonomous, self‑learning combat drone that could navigate dense urban environments—hence the “Hairy” moniker, referencing the tangled cityscape it would have to “comb through.”