In light of the anticipated release of the next Terminator installment, I ran across this article entitled How Worried Should You Be About the Robot Takeover? P.W Singer writes:
Terminator: Salvation, the fourth installment of the Terminator franchise, takes place in 2018, a number of years after an artificial-intelligence network devised by the U.S. military, called Skynet, has turned on its masters and set off a nuclear war. The sentient computer now controls an army of killer robots tasked with hunting down and killing every last member of the human race. It’s Hollywood popcorn at its best, if not for the scary fact that the movie touches on some very real trends in modern military technology.
He goes on to argue that there is no cause for alarm, but I’m not so sure. Anyway, what it really made me think about was (IMHO) one of the greatest SNL commercial ever “Old Glory Insurance,” and I thought that maybe you’d like to be as prepared as possible for the inevitable day the robots come alive–because, as we know, thanks to Sam Watterson: you’re probably aware of the threat robots pose. Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people’s medicine for fuel.
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3 responses to “The Robots are Coming”
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amazing! i’d never seen that one before. “robots are strong and made of metal” – in your face, John Connor!
p.s. AMAZING photo. Remember the video? Arnold was actually in it.
Just heard an interview with a brain researcher who maintained that we cannot understand the brain until we are able to model its activities through robotics. In other words, when our brains can design similar systems, then we’ve ‘got a grasp’ of how we work. True or not, what makes films like Terminator so great is that they play upon the idea that the whole thing could go pear shaped…with the robots that our brains designed turning against us. However, what is most interesting is the idea that whether the computer program or the robot itself is to blame, each carries a sinister seed (ostensibly) because they were the product of imperfect human engineering. Is there any relationship here to the fall? What is funny is that in these movies, some ubermensch usually rises to the challenge of defeating evil, often at great personal cost to life and limb. Then humanity has this collective epiphany about why robots/neural networks are dangerous and vows never to go down that road again…until the sequel!
Love that clip J! I’ve got Old Glory Insurance…do you?