Amazon has invented tiny plastic buttons that allow for instant product ordering

It’s 2AM and you’re changing your baby when you realize you’ve just used up your last diaper. Or you go to reach under your sink to grab another roll of toilet paper only to discover you've forgotten to order more. And maybe you eat nothing but mac and cheese, and did not correctly calculate your stockpile, so that you’re stuck actually having to cook real food one night.

This is not the sad, black-and-white world of late-night infomercials, but real life, Amazon says. The company is rolling out new hardware today called the Dash button that promises to solve these scenarios. It’s a small physical button that you can stick wherever, and press when you want to order more of something. Need more diapers? Hit the diaper button. Need more toilet paper? Just hit the toilet paper button. Find yourself running low on mac and cheese, razor blades, Gatorade, or laundry detergent? There is now a button for each one of those things. The future where you can just be lazy and spend money with a push of a button from Amazon is here, and it’s very real.

The Dash button is not to be confused with a separate piece of food-ordering hardware called Dash, which scans product barcodes and lets people speak orders into Amazon Fresh. Instead, it’s a much smaller Wi-Fi-enabled button that will instantly order a predetermined product within seconds of pressing it. Amazon already has your credit card information on file, and knows what size and quantity you want, so two days later, that product shows up at your house. A little multi-colored LED on the front of it will blink after you press it, then turn green to let you know it worked.

Dash buttons can be stuck just about anywhere with an adhesive strip that’s on the back, though they are not magnetic. Amazon also gives you a small bumper that can go around it and allow it to be hung up on hooks or on strings. Some smarts have been included in its programming, so that if you or someone else hits the button more than once, it won't reorder until that same product has been delivered to your house. You can also turn this feature off — at your own peril — in Amazon’s mobile phone app.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/31/8316775/amazon-dash-buttons-turn-homes-into-shopping-carts

Don't know whether this is a sign of the coming Apocalypse or not.