Launching Skynet

Module 11

     For this week’s blog, I am going over the Terminator Series as a whole, and its use of Skynet. To me the premise is completely ridiculous, but somehow plausible in an ever changing technological world. So, I want to compare the idea of machines taking over, time travel, and my theory that Terminator is a prequel to The Matrix (with events in The Matrix taking place very far in the future.)

     At the beginnings of this film, Skynet was an idea. At the time it probably sounded ridiculous but overall I would say that as we progress in technology, it seems eerily plausible. I say that because if you would have told me in 1993 that I would be able to access all of my documents on my computer simply by signing in to a profile. All of this information being stored on the “cloud” and accessible thanks to the Internet. I probably would have asked: “what’s a internet?”

     So with that in mind, it is plausible for machines, or technology to take over our lives, and in a lot of ways on a minimal scale, they already have. To access the world’s information easily is probably the greatest achievement of mankind so far. With the help of our smart devices or increasingly more portable laptop computers, we can access it in the blink of an eye. Data is everywhere, and I would not be surprised universal internet access, without having to pay a monthly bill, will be a reality rather than a dream. Because of these factors of constantly having to check the internet and being connected on any of our devices, is why we our suddenly showing a surrendering of our humanity to technology, but we welcome it with the thought of “Skynet” as being something of a joke, when it probably could happen.

     Now we have had assembly lines and machines running our daily lives for decades now, so how much would it take to have some insane programmer develop a system where the computer system could think for itself, and eventually sees the impurity of man, and make the decision to eradicate human life in order to protect the planet. That to me is the ultimate irony, man comes from earth, machine comes from man, machine destroys man to protect earth.

     Now thinking about how The Matrix is, I noticed a similarity within Terminator and The Matrix. I think, even though it would be by accident, there could be a link. Say The Matrix being so far in the future and being so advanced that it would create a CG environment, only for man to live in a sort of cryo-sleep. So that being the obvious plot, I think that The Matrix shows that humanity lost in the events of Terminator, and the war against Skynet. But of course Neo, leads an uprising to take down the system in The Matrix.

     I say all of this as food for thought, and honestly, I don’t think I am stoned enough to think that deep. So, I am done here. 

Joe Logic

Module 10

This story was an interesting read, though dull at times with the broken words to feel more old or unintelligent I guess. However, if it was written today it would be related with todays technologies.  “Logics” clearly are our modern day computers, while they process data and communicate with the “tank” aka the internet. I also found it funny that when  one individual tries calling his wife, but he then gets redirected to learning how to commit murder. Now, it has been a while since I have had a bad search result in something completely different, but I can truly relate when one of my searches had made a turn for the worse.

  In the story Joe is the malfunctioning yet still working computer that Ducky has.  Joe has a connection with the “tank” (the internet) the building that has all the knowledge.  A logic is connected to the tank to access information.  The problem with Joe is that there is mp discretion.  There isn’t a filter.   Even though it is against the law and wrong to kill someone, he views things from a different perspective.  It is useful information that he has access to.  Why limit that?

I see the problem today with the internet.  There are all kinds of things and information on the internet that are accessible.  As a human being we had discretion and morality.  We can “filter” the information and guide our learning.  We also can filter the information coming from the tank to the logic.  This would be your basic malware program or pop up blocker.  This is also a privacy filter, and content filters.

I suppose even in the outside world today you can find similarities on how computers process information and even how we as humans relay information. Much like in this story we can see similarities of that to todays computers.  Ducky’s wife learns that she is able to get the gossip and information about her neighbors and basically anyone she would want. Today we’d like to think that we are safe on the internet and social networking sites. Just like today’s social networking you can find information on someone you know and that person, including myself, will have a more difficult time blocking that kind of information being shared throughout the internet. I would go as far to even relate that portion of the story to having access to illegal downloads. There are simply too many people in the world sharing information and knowledge through the internet to combat, much like gossiping to a friend or neighbor, that information spreads fast.

So what do we do to stop this spread of stolen information? The question is should we shut the “tank” or internet down? I for one would think that would be a very bad idea, there is just too much information and too much done through the internet these days that it would cause some severe panic, much like in a South Park episode they lose the internet and have to go to California where internet is rationed out in a refugee camp. I doubt it would be that bad but just realizing how intertwined we are with the internet in today’s world I think some mass panic with the economy and several other things would really show up.

Overall, the prophetic tales of Joe computer tend to ring a little true, even down to having a faulty computer and having to turn it in or replace it with the better spec machine, even though such machines specs may not be much better, you may have an older running or virus ridden machine to replace, or you could just restore said machine to good spirits and get a year or two more out of it.

I suppose its time to end this blog, so since I cannot come up with a good closing, I will just end with a quote: “I am thankful the most important key in history was invented. It's not the key to your house, your car, your boat, your safety deposit box, your bike lock or your private community. It's the key to order, sanity, and peace of mind. The key is 'Delete.”---Elayne Boosler