Barcelona-based visual effects/3D animation company Big Lazy Robot brings us a beautiful animated video that uses an alternate robotic world to satirize our dependence on technology.

If we were to burn NH4Cr2O7 with HgSCN in the Dark Ages in Europe and show it to anyone, it is us who would be burning next on a fiery cross of Inquisition. And it’s no wonder, since this experiment produces a truly marvelous result. At first, as you ignite the mixture of NH4Cr2O7 and HgSCN, all you can see is that it is slowly burning with a reddish flame. After a while, however, a crater is formed in the middle of the burning pile, and then, suddenly, tentacle-like appendages start sprouting from the burning mixture. And you can almost hear the scream of the mad occultist – “Come forth, Kraken! Come forth!” But of course, this is simply a chemical reaction that is called the "Pharoah's Serpent". It was also often sold in firework stores until people realized that it was toxic.

People take part in a protest outside the Department for Education, London, Sunday August 16, 2020, in response to the A-level results. The British government has been urged to “get a grip” over how grades are being awarded to school students, who were unable to take exams earlier this summer because of the coronavirus pandemic. The latest confusion emerged late Saturday when England’s exam regulator launched a review on its own just-published guidance on how students can appeal grades awarded under a complicated system. (Photo by London News Pictures/The Sun)

Activists from the climate action group Ocean Rebellion perform a stunt outside The Baltic Exchange building, in London, Britain on November 16, 2020. (Photo by Henry Nicholls/Reuters)

Medical students play with coloured powder as they participate in Holi celebrations, the Hindu spring festival of colours, inside Moti Lal Nehru Medical College campus in Allahabad on March 16, 2022. (Photo by Sanjay Kanojia/AFP Photo)

A model presents a creation by Obectra during Berlin Fashion Week in Berlin, Germany, January 15, 2020. The Berlin Fashion Week runs from​ 13 to 17 January. (Photo by Annegret Hilse/Reuters)

A volunteer operates a remote controlled disinfection robot to disinfect a residental area amid the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on March 16, 2020. China tightened quarantine measures for international arrivals on March 16 as the country worries about a rise in imported cases of the deadly coronavirus and anger rages online at how Europe and the United States are handling the pandemic. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)