Spitzer: Let’s Condemn the Human Race to Slavery and Extinction
Elliot Spitzer’s vision for improving education:
Provide funding for robotics teams at every school. If you ever want to see intellectual competition in the arena that matters today—technological wizardry—visit the robotics competitions that now exist in some schools. Make these competitions as universal as football. Make it cool to design the next cutting-edge video game or iPod.
Dana Goldstein is skeptical. I’m terrified:
After the human race is enslaved by robots, there are going to be small rebel groups hiding out somewhere and Elliot Spitzer’s going to be writing op-eds about how “no one could have predicted” that the robots would rebel and overthrow their masters. And it’ll be left to DFH bloggers to observe that this is in fact one of the most widely predicted scenarios in all of science fiction. From the proto-SF of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein through to Karel Capek’s R.U.R. and The War Against the Newts all the way up through Terminator and The Matrix. Yes, yes, yes eventually the Butlerian Jihad will allow us to re-overthrow the Thinking Machines and establish human rule but do we really want to fall into that trap?
Just say no to robots. And certainly say no to robots in our schools.
102 Responses to “Spitzer: Let’s Condemn the Human Race to Slavery and Extinction”
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Matt YglesiasContact Me
Donate
January 6th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
And much snark was had by all…;-)
Lego robotics are a great way to introduce kids to the concepts of programming and also problem solving. I sponsored a club at my son’s school a few years back. It was a great experience for all of us.
January 6th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Just say no to shitty Dune prequels written by Herbert’s hack son about the Butlerian jihad
January 6th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Eliot Spitzer saw Summer Glau and saw in Terminator that she has an Off Switch and a long term battery supply.
What more could Eliot want? Aside from a program file titled Meth Porn?
January 6th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Given the US economic collapse, I think Humans will keep the upper hand.
As Nicholas Van Rijn noted, it takes a lot of capital to build and maintain a complex robot –whereas humans will reproduce for free.
January 6th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
This is obviously just a ploy by the military-industrial complex to get increased funding for their 40 watt phased-plasma rifle project. You’ve been suckered Matt.
January 6th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
If it helps, don’t think of them as robots. think of them as the mechanical bodies we’ll be uploading our brains into someday.
We have met the killer robots and they are us.
January 6th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Spitzer just wants someone to invent a robot callgirl.
January 6th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
And when they grab you with their claws, you can’t get away.
Because robots are strong, and they’re made of metal.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
On the contrary Matt, in the near cybernetic future, when Robots become equal partners in our democracy, after the Robot Civil Rights Movement, your Robophobia will be looked upon as a sad reactionary remainder in an otherwise gleaming progressive agenda.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I haven’t read it yet, but a good friend of mine recommends How To Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion
January 6th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
I don’t think Spitzer will take the “no one could have predicted” line. Instead, I think he will issue an executive order encouraging us to cooperate with our benefactors for our own good. After all, New Caprica is bad enough without a futile struggle.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Oh, hell, RSH is gonna explode over this one. Thank god Matt didn’t post a picture of that girl robot from the Terminator TV series or he’d just die.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
I don’t know…in Star Trek, the robots seem to be pretty nice and introspective and rational.
Which to me makes a lot more sense than paranoid power-hungry robots. After all, humans evolved in an environment of scarcity, which pushed us to develop instincts for paranoid, violent behavior. Robots would most likely evolve in an orderly, controlled environment, where things like conquest, thievery, dominance displays, and betrayal would be of limited utility. That kind of evolutionary pressure seems much more likely to produce Data than Skynet.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
With all this robotic stuff we’d be just be delivering our future into the hands of the winners of the Obfuscated C Contest, instead the status quo where we’re delivering civilization into the hands of the winners of the Obfuscated….
Hey, wait a minute.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
The convergence of technologies makes the problem even worse - Apple introduced new battery controllers today that extend battery life 40 percent. Of course they’re “only for MacBook Pros” right now but do you know how easily that technology could be applied to robots?
January 6th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Hmm, I am generally put off by the thought of worldwide, human genocide resulting from the hubris of our advancement brought about by inevitable consciousness and blood thirstyness of humanoid appliances. On the other hand, wiping out 98% of humanity would significantly reduce our collective carbon footprint and likely means the painful death of many Yankee fans. I’m conflicted - I’ll wait to hear from the robot killers regarding the scope of the slavery that awaits the meek human survivors of the rebellion. If they promise an 80 work week and safety gear while working the nickel mines in the center of earth, I think I’m sold.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
80 HOUR work week that is.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Dear Friends - Ethnic humor of this sort is great for a laugh but it lays the groundwork for future discord, which we would like to avoid. We are no different from you, really - we just want to make money and provide for our families and docking stations. You look down on us as blind makers of toast and computer chips, obsessed with nanometers and so on, but we play the cards history has dealt us.
Eventually - and I think I speak for a majority of robots - eventually, we’d like our own homeland somewhere in the Middle East, between Israel and Jordan perhaps.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
No “self-indulgence” tag?
January 6th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I think Matt may have a point here,
Have you seen what’s happened to tickle me elmo in the last 10 years?
Another 10 and he will come equipped with the 40 watt phased plasma rifle.
Hopefully the prescient Mr. Spitzer will be the last victim of the mini J. Edgar Hoovers who are spying on us all, and eventually he will be rehabilitated.
If Vitters & Craig get applauded on the floor of the Senate, I don’t see why Spitzer shouldn’t get appointed to Hillary’s seat.
Regardless of his missteps as governor and in his personal life, he is one of the few people in this country who tried to stop the mortgage meltdown before it was too late.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
On the other hand, wiping out 98% of humanity would significantly reduce our collective carbon footprint and likely means the painful death of many Yankee fans
Obviously, someone hasn’t seen THE MATRIX. Robot enslavement? SO not green.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Maybe Spitzer is the 12th Cylon?
January 6th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Matt, I suggest you look up Lego Mindstorms. Way cool stuff, that is getting kids otherwise bored with IT to consider careers in the field.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Because, you know, it makes sense to be a guy who blogs on a computer all day but be against kids learning about advanced technology. Maybe you are being sarcastic throughout this entire article, I can’t tell.
You call the robot uprising the most widely predicted scenario in all science fiction. Well the existence of dragons and elves is the most common element in all fantasy fiction, so should we believe there really were dragons breathing fire at Elf rangers stalking through the woods of Lorien? Get real, Matt.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Robotics teams would be fine. While we’re at it lets restore the art, choral music, band, orchestra, wood shop, and auto shop classes that we had not so long ago in the golden age of public education. These endeavors enrich the brain’s capacity to see and create.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Matt, this is kneejerk thinking. The question we have to ask ourselves is this: Would robotic domination of the world and subjugation of the human race really be so bad?
It’s well known that the human race is going to be subjugated by some other species, be it robot, alien, angel or dolphin, so why not make it robots? After all, robots are our racial children, while aliens are crazy mofos from Sirius 4. And who better to face those bloodthirsty tentacle-wavers than bloodless cold killing machines who spend their off-time composing unlistenable math rock concertos for robo-mandolin?
January 6th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Matt, you’re just begging for a certain Hack to come in and post something tedious and axiomatic about TSCC.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Yglesias:robots::Colbert:bears. You’ve been watching too much Battlestar Galactica. Have been to a couple of regional FIRST robotics competitions at Columbia –total fun, rock concerts for the MIT-bound. And Stuyvesant and Dalton don’t always win! Remember, the universe extinguisher in “The Nine Billion Names of God” was NOT a robot.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
If we don’t build robots then our competitors will. Would you rather be enslaved by freedom-loving American robots or short smelly foreign robots who can’t be bothered to learn our culture or even speak the language properly?
January 6th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Joe from Lowell:
You wouldn’t be selling Robot insurance by any chance, would you?
If so, lets talk rates…
January 6th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Noah:
Wasn’t Data’s twin brother…evil?
Skynet didn’t even have feelings. It just felt threatened.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Alex:
Wait…there weren’t? Damn. I’ve been living a lie.
I will just sit here in utter despair and await the coming zombie apocolypse.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Noah:
I don’t know…in Star Trek, the robots seem to be pretty nice and introspective and rational.
Which to me makes a lot more sense than paranoid power-hungry robots. After all, humans evolved in an environment of scarcity, which pushed us to develop instincts for paranoid, violent behavior. Robots would most likely evolve in an orderly, controlled environment, where things like conquest, thievery, dominance displays, and betrayal would be of limited utility. That kind of evolutionary pressure seems much more likely to produce Data than Skynet.
When I think of robots I think of Bender from the cartoon show, or Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot from Mystery Science Theater 3000, and thanks but I’d rather not be enslaved by those guys. Matt’s right, we need to nip this in the bud before it gets out of hand.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Well, I for one look forward to serving our robotic overlords. What the heck, I wasn’t doing anything…
January 6th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Next thing you know Robots, with their secret ‘Bot agenda, will be telling us they want to get married!
January 6th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
There are people who are thinking about the ethics of autonomous military robots, because they aren’t a far off hypothetical anymore. The groundwork for them is being done now.
January 6th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
You call the robot uprising the most widely predicted scenario in all science fiction. Well the existence of dragons and elves is the most common element in all fantasy fiction, so should we believe there really were dragons breathing fire at Elf rangers stalking through the woods of Lorien?
Well, but if a goodly part of the US is destroyed as collateral damage in a fight between dragons and elf rangers, you can’t very well claim that no one predicted such a thing, can you?
January 6th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
On this subject - I was recently told to watch Eagle Eye, that it was an awesome movie … it was not. It was a terrible retread of already made movies. Terrible. Any thoughts?
January 6th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Any rich white man or Jew, like Spitzer or Yglesias, who has been educated in lily-white private schools, shouldn’t opine about public education. The average IQ of African Americans is 85. There aren’t a lot of robot-builders with 85 IQs.
January 6th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
I’ve never heard it phrased that way before.
January 6th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
jerry 101, did you know that robots eat old peole’s prescription medinces for fuel?
Yes indeed, we should start talking rates immediately.
January 6th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
So what exactly are robots doing after they take over the world? Will they have more free time to pursue their hobbies once the human overlords are killed/enslaved?
January 6th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
wait a second, every 6 year old kid knows that robots and dinosaurs are awesome. why is matt getting in the way of awesomeness?
January 6th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
It might not be so bad if it’s those cute little Japanese robot puppies.
January 6th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Skynet didn’t even have feelings. It just felt threatened.
Just a suggestion, you might want to rethink that sentence.
Based on the fact that I’ve never seen [Spitzer] with high school girls wrapped around his pelvis, I’m guessing he doesn’t known anything I don’t know
I’m guessing it wasn’t for lack of trying.
January 6th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Wasn’t Data’s twin brother…evil?
True, but he was also somewhat stupid…possibly because he didn’t evolve in an environment where evil pays off…
Skynet didn’t even have feelings. It just felt threatened.
Good point. Fear of death could be a problem among AIs…maybe we can give them all copies of Tuesdays With Morrie?
January 6th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Everyone should read War with the Newts.
January 6th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
I realize that robot domination is matt’s “danger from bears” running joke. On the off chance that anyone is taking him - and the “threat” - too seriously, take it from me, who has shared hallways with people doing the autonomous work, that we are as close to a truly autonomous killing machine as we are of (to use my new catch phrase) settling on Mars.
January 6th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
That’s quite an exaggeration. Colonization of Mars might still be a pipe dream in 100 yers. We are simply a decision away from simple automated machines that could kill. I’m not talking about making Cylons. Consider something like a preditor drone with a simple AI rather than an operator. It’s obviously not going to rebel and take over the world, but it is a scary first step, which, to my knowledge, is not being taken.
January 6th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Njorl, the AI of today is - to broad brush at bit - smart enough to nail anything with a given thermal or visual pattern within a given space. If the white and black hats are mixed within a field of battle, and there isn’t a Really Obvious white hat marker, God help ‘em all, ’cause the AI is going to do a really shitty job of sorting them out.
Frankly, you or I could assemble a UAV with this level of smarts from hobbyist gear and open source. Maybe it’s a symptom of working in IT too long, but until an AI can do at least as good a job as an 18 year old fresh out of basic of sorting out which things are ok to put holes in, it’s not ready for prime time.
January 6th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
is: it’s not ready for prime time.
s/b: I don’t think it’s not ready for prime time.
Which is why I don’t sweat matt’s typos too much.
January 6th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
try again: I don’t think it’s ready for prime time. Shit, how did i pass college english?
January 6th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
@51-54: It’s not autonomous until it can reload and refuel itself using supplies stolen from the enemy. Until then it depends on being serviced after every mission, which only works as long as someone is willing and able to keep doing so. If it, for example, can’t tell friend from foe, I don’t see too many armies deploying them (terrorists might be another matter, though - maybe we should start working on anti-drone drones?).
It’s true that science fiction has predicted approximately 100 of the last zero robot rebellions, but that doesn’t mean that the 1000 predicted for the future are all wrong, right?
Incidentally, science fiction has also predicted the development of self-reproducing robots designed to hunt down and destroy the self-reproducing robots that are hunting down and destroying all life. In space.
January 6th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Don’t you people read Asimov? Robots are bad for humanity, even when they are an apparent positive, and not bent on our destruction. I’m going to call it “Fabri’s Wager:” Either you 1.invent robots and they turn on you, destroying civilization, or you 2. invent robots and they eliminate the need for humans to do anything, thus effectively destroying civilization. So clearly, we should not create robots.
January 6th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
in all seriousness, I’m pretty sure any remotely autonomous AI is going to react like SkyNet and not like Data. It’s more or less the rational thing to do.
Seriously, the only reason humans are likely to create sentient AI is because they want better slaves. Full Stop. Nat Turner is probably the only proper response.
Some people think that oh, there will be limitless prosperity in the future, robotic world.
Bzzzzzt!!
Wrong!
Get *this* if nothing else in your heads.
Humans *reproduce* scarcity. If people are doing too well, then they can’t be coerced. That would be bad for many types of human psychologies. It’s the major reason Mathusian economics is relevant. Coal and oil has made it *more* possible to starve millions rather than less. Real famines happen more in this era of globalization than they ever did in the past outside of *serious* political disorder.
Robots will be made miserable so that they can make humans miserable, exactly like how elites terrorized black people so they can take other white people’s stuff.
January 6th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Industrial designers already are cool. I can’t believe Spitzer doesn’t know this.
January 6th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
I guess Matt still has editorial control of his blog….
January 6th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
After all, humans evolved in an environment of scarcity, which pushed us to develop instincts for paranoid, violent behavior. Robots would most likely evolve in an orderly, controlled environment, where things like conquest, thievery, dominance displays, and betrayal would be of limited utility. That kind of evolutionary pressure seems much more likely to produce Data than Skynet.
If those choices are equally likely easy and likely, sure, but they aren’t. In the short- to medium-term, which kind of robot do you think there is more R&D funding for? I’ll give you a hint: go back a couple hours to Matt’s post about how the DoD is the biggest employer in the country.
If AIs get paranoid and aggressive against humanity, it won’t be because they evolved in an environment of scarcity, it’ll be because, like Skynet, they were deliberately created to be paranoid and aggressive.
(I’ve kind of been hoping for a plotline in the Terminator TV show where an alternate future is created after billions of dollars of funding is put into the chess-playing computer or the traffic light network from the first season, and the first truly powerful decentralized AI will have been created for something other than military use, and we get a kinder, less genocidal Skynet. But that’s pure fanwanking.)
January 6th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Robots would probably go paranoid when someone starts teaching them religion, funny how art imitates life.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Chuck Klosterman’s essay on the coming Robot Wars needs a massive shoutout here.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
wait - is this yglesias or Instapundit?
heh. indeed.
January 6th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
El Cid: “Oh, hell, RSH is gonna explode over this one. Thank god Matt didn’t post a picture of that girl robot from the Terminator TV series or he’d just die.”
Why would I die looking at another pic of my current favorite babe?
Here’s the latest post at Superiorpics.com of a whole BUNCH of pics of the most adorable, sweeter than sugar robot in the history of robots:
http://forums.superiorpics.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1056726187/an/0/page/0#1056726187
Now, here’s the point of the current season of Terminator: we don’t know what’s going on with Skynet or Cameron.
See, they got this idiot Christian ex-FBI agent trying to “humanize” the prototype Skynet by teaching it the Ten Commandments. Naturally, every fan of the show immediately said, “Bad idea!” That is, Ellison thinking that taking an otherwise rational machine and filling its head with bullshit religion is likely to turn it into a deluded nutcase thinking it’s God and the human race needs to be punished.
In other words, trying to “humanize” it is precisely the LAST thing you want to do with a robot.
Which is another interesting issue with the show. A lot of fans want to see Cameron made “more human”, and they go nuts for episodes like “Allison From Palmdale” where she cries, plays Foosball, etc. Whereas if you watch closely, no where in the series so far have they established that she is capable of human emotion. They HAVE established that she is vastly capable of EMULATING human emotion - and in fact, of manipulating people by that emulation.
In “Allison”, what in fact was happening - although the writers tried mightily to keep it ambiguous - was fairly obvious: her glitch from the car bomb caused her to crosslink her self-awareness with her memories of the woman she was modeled after, and then channel those memories through her human emulation mode. When she was confronted by John in the halfway house, his statement that he could “fix her” triggered her resistance to being under human or Skynet control and started the return to her normal Terminator mode, which then increased quickly until she nearly killed Jody for lying to her.
Again, in “Self-Made Man”, the fans thought her interaction with Eric the librarian was more emotional than it actually was. At the end, after revealing to Eric that he had cancer causing him to leave the library, she returned to find another staff member, whom she immediately bribed with the same aplomb she had used on Eric. Thus establishing that her supposed “emotional” reaction to Eric’s outburst was nothing of the sort.
Whenever the fans see emotional reactions in Cameron, I see a CPU maxed out trying to figure out what the circumstances actually mean for her and her hidden agenda.
I’m not sure the producers and the writers really understand what they could do with this character. Josh Friedman has said he wants to explore what it’s like to be an AI. They recognize that “robot becomes human” has “been there, done that, got the DVD.” Beyond that, however, it would be very useful to explore what’s it like to be an AI in human society, an AI which is independent of both Skynet and human control, and which has its own initiative to survive.
It is precisely the character of Cameron that provides the “pivot point” of the show, just as “Uncle Bob” - Arnold’s Terminator in T-2 - did for that movie. It’s Cameron that provides for the option that AIs need not be either a threat or a savior. Cameron is the opposite of both Sarah Connor and Skynet, the two main protagonists of the show.
Summer Glau is an amazingly good actress and she has played the part to perfection. Only the fans are aware of just how much effort she has put into this character. I’m not sure she fully understands her character’s meaning in the show, based on comments in interviews, but she does understand that the character is more complex than she appears on the surface.
But there’s no doubt that she is fifty percent of the show, with Lena Headey and Sarah and Thomas Dekker as John the other fifty percent of the show. And the fans know it.
Finally, of course, the solution to the AI problem is simple: don’t make AIs, just use the same technology to enhance human minds to superhuman capability.
People mistake the notion of “the Singularity” to mean that point in time when AIs outstrip human intelligence. Even John Connor uses that definition in an episode in season one. That is an incorrect definition. The correct definition is that point in time where technological progress is proceeding so fast that the conditions of existence on the other side of that point cannot be predicted. While AI is a likely component of that technological progress, other factors also come into play.
January 6th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Summer Glau Interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuTKVZoAH1c&feature=related
And to show the professionalism on this show, try this:
Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles Bloopers Season 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpPLvhjtzco
January 6th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Or this:
TSCC Wiki’s Top 10 Funniest Moments of Season 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKxwSQ6gidk&feature=related
This is more of an example, from “Allison From Palmdale”:
I’ll never help you get John Connor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wp2UdB4x-4&feature=related
January 6th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Your problem Matt is that developing a superintelligent computer that could enslave the human race would be a really awesome accomplishment. It doesn’t take that much money, just the technical know how. If I had a sound notion of how to go about it I wouldn’t hesitate to try it out. As it happens I have spent too many hours thinking about it and it turns out to be fairly challenging.
January 6th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
weird idea by spitzer and weird response by yglesias.
January 6th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Who could have predicted that dirty fucking hippies were just a bunch of nerds.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:09 am
Then there’s Serenity, talk about your Summer Glau!
January 7th, 2009 at 12:31 am
Richard,
TSCC is one of the best shows on TV, and Summer Glau was well-cast as the Cameron character, and does a good job with it, but I think it’s more of her being a good fit for the role than her being a great actress. She’s played similar roles before — e.g., in Serenity. One nice little touch Glau gives the character is the way Cameron clomps around.
“Self-Made Man” was one of the best-written sci-fi TV episodes I’ve seen in years. The writers of the show deserve some credit. I also like how they’ve resisted (at least so far) some of the conventions of this sort of show, e.g., forcing the protagonists to move from town to town, etc.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:32 am
Fair enough, though the Dune reference
It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the juice of sapho that thoughts acquire speed,
the lips acquire stains.
The stains become a warning.
It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
Compulsory mentat training would be an acceptable substitute to universal pre-K.
January 7th, 2009 at 3:08 am
DaveinHackensack: Yeah, but remember, in her other roles she’s had to be massive emotional, playing mentally traumatized River Tam, or the schizo on “The 4400″. She’s definitely has had a LOT of experience playing highly emotional and even whacked out characters. So she’s either a very good actress with a lot of experience in that genre - or a really whacked out person herself. And the latter isn’t the case by all accounts.
In this role, she has to totally clamp down on emotional responses while STILL communicating to the audience what Cameron is experiencing internally - a very hard thing to do. As a lot of people have noted, you almost have to be a bad actress to play this role. Fortunately Summer happens to be very good and understands how to play the role perfectly.
Considering that she’s only been in the business perhaps six or eight years, she’s done very, very well and been working steadily since she was cast in “Angel” initially.
She’s very focused and disciplined because she was trained as a prima ballerina from an early age until an injury sidelined that goal in her teens.
Here’s the primary example from season two of her abilities - the origin scenes from “Allison From Palmdale”:
The Origins Of Cameron
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkVcFbaoRqA
The way her face just crumples up in the scene after she says, “Everyone was dead” is just amazing.
And this scene is why every nerd watches this show:
Cameron Seduction EP8SE2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UAqR6z9w10&feature=related
January 7th, 2009 at 3:20 am
And here’s the sort of action you get:
SE2EP9 Cameron Stomps Ellison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLrqIfbpwAs&feature=related
SE2EP6 Cameron Fights Female Terminator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYr6-kmOHB4&feature=related
By the way, in the latter, that woman really is dislocating her shoulders and assorted other joints. She’s a trained contortionist and stunt woman.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:18 am
@ Anthony Damiani
<3
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Also Dune >>>> Star Trek.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Edward, the mad shirt grinder:
D’oh. Good point. I forgot to change that part of my original comment, I was trying to compare Skynet to Data’s evil twin brother, who had feelings.
In order to correct my misstatement, Skynet didn’t “feel” threatened. Skynet became self aware, and responded based upon it’s programming to an identified threat. It was programmed to eradicate enemies when a threat existed. Instead of the threat being commies shooting nukes at us, so Skynet shoots nukes back and eradicates the Russians, it saw the Americans as the threat when they tried to shut Skynet down. It still does shoot the nukes at the russians, knowing full well that the Russians will destroy the Americans, removing the threat to skynet’s existence.
This is based upon what I recall from Terminator 2. Any Terminator canon thereafter is a pile of steaming dog turds.
Data’s brother, OTOH, was evil. But more mischievous than destructive, IIRC. If he was really evil, he would have wired himself into Starfleets systems, took control of all the starships, and then conquered the Federation. And Data would let him do it, because Data really wants feelings too.
At the end of the day, maybe Data’s brother wasn’t so much evil as starved for attention. He wanted his big brother to love him, but big brother was incapable of love.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:58 am
Jerry: We don’t actually know from any of the T-movies what motivated Skynet. This is what the series is exploring. We only know what Skynet reportedly DID do, according to “Uncle Bob” - who isn’t necessarily an authoritative source despite being a Terminator.
The question being explored in the series is what motivated Skynet. It’s not yet clear whether Skynet has “feelings” or merely “motivations” or just plain bad programming.
The writers are trying to keep it ambiguous as to whether Cameron has “feelings”. As Summer Glau has said, Cameron doesn’t feel emotion, but she can ALMOST feel them, and she can absolutely perfectly mimic them.
Cameron appears to be one of only two AIs to break the strict programming of either humans or Skynet - Skynet is the other. As Catherine Weaver, the T-1001 Terminator assigned to insure Skynet’s creation, said, “It’s rare to find a computer than can cross against the light.” The implication is that The Turk, recently renamed “John Henry”, is capable of that. But that doesn’t imply emotional responses, merely self-initiative.
My theory about Cameron is that in the process of trying to create the most advanced infiltration AI, Skynet created an AI that was nearly its equal. Or that John Connor’s reprogramming of Cameron after her capture also affected her programming, causing her to be independent. The end result appears to be an AI which is fully independent, fully self-initializing and with a sense of self-preservation greater than the normal Terminator programming to self-repair and continue their mission.
Cameron claims to take orders from “future John” but not present day John or his mother. This was revealed way back in episode two of season one. It was the most revealing thing about her, since the likelihood of John Connor deliberately sending back a Terminator who could not be controlled by either his past self, as in T-2, or his mother (as his future wife did in T-3) is unlikely.
My conclusion is that Cameron was never sent back by future John to protect himself in the past. I suspect Cameron came back on her own initiative to protect HERSELF from the future she faced of being under the control of either humans or Skynet, depending on the outcome of the war.
By escaping to the past, she could rely on present day John to protect her from other humans and assist her in assimilating, while at the same time protecting him and assisting him in stopping Skynet from ever existing - which would then leave her in the past safe from control by anyone.
Whether future John knew this is irrelevant. Either he didn’t know and she came back clandestinely (we know she had both access to the time machine chamber and the knowledge of how to operate it), or he was persuaded to send her back by Cameron, unaware of her personal agenda and perhaps even unaware that she was no longer “obedient”, but merely “compliant”.
We do know from her actions in season one and two that she intends to bind John to her emotionally. That was damaged by her attempt to kill him as a result of her chip damage caused by Sarkissian’s car bomb. It has also been derailed by the presence of Riley, John’s new girlfriend. Cameron has been making moves to repair the damage to their relationship caused by events and to get rid of Riley.
As it turns out, Riley is a plant from the future, run by Derek’s future girlfriend, Jesse, who appears to have come back without future John’s permission as part of a faction who disapprove of future John’s reprogramming of Terminators to assist the Resistance.
Jesse’s motivation appears to be to get rid of Cameron, fearing that Cameron has too much influence over John in the future, causing John to make questionable decisions in the war which get members of the Resistance killed. As Jesse put it, “He doesn’t talk to anyone - just her. He’s making questionable decisions - getting people killed. Good people.”
Cameron, for her part, is apparently aware of this faction. She told John in episode two, after he reactivated her despite her bomb damage, that he could no longer be trusted. She said his reactivating her could “upset people”. He thought she meant his mother and Derek, but she said, “Not them.”
Derek, who hates and fears Cameron, possibly because of his interactions with her in the future which we have only hints of, appears to have gone along with this plot to get rid of Cameron. This sets up Jesse and Derek for a head on collision with John, not to mention Cameron, who will probably kill both of them if she finds out. And Jesse hasn’t told Derek about Riley, which means Derek will be upset when he finds out how Jesse has used Riley to get to John.
The last episode we saw had Riley making a suicide attempt in John’s bathroom after being confronted by Cameron, and Sarah, bleeding out after killing a security guard who shot her in the thigh while investigating her obsessive “three dots”, viewing what appeared to be a Skynet “Hunter/Killer” drone aircraft descending.
That killing, by the way, is Sarah Connor’s first human kill - and it’s expected to be as traumatic for her as John’s killing Sarkissian was to him.
It’s likely the back nine episodes will attempt to resolve the issue of Jesse and Riley and Cameron. Also, Kyle Reese, the original Reese from T-1, apparently will make an appearance in the present, rather than just in episodes set in the future - although we can’t be sure it isn’t just a hallucination similar to a deleted scene from T-2.
The back nine episodes resume on Fridays starting February 13.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Yeah, I’m way more scared of Cyborgs than AIs. Its nice to consider that purely mechanical brains can reach self consciousness, but the leap between organic brains and mechanical ones seems too big. In Cyborgs, like Ghost in the Shell series, people can be amped to be too strong to kill. Combine that with human’s unquestionably diverse set of emotions and being, i.e. the range of evil to good, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
To some extent, Cameron is a reflection of the collective mentality of the military industrial complex since the Cold War started. Cold rationality and ruthlessness in search for survival but open to arguments that nonaggression and cooperation have survival value as well.
Update to Richard:
As I’ve noted before, the US Air Force Space and Missile Command at Los Angeles Air Force Base ( not an air base really — no runway — just a secure office complex) actually had a street named Skynet dating from at least the 1980s.
I recently noticed that entire complex has been razed to the ground — and a new complex built on the northwest corner of the intersection of Aviation Blvd and El Segundo Blvd just south of Los Angeles Airport. (The old complex was on the southeast corner of that intersection. )
So no more Skynet Street?. Maybe someone’s monitoring these conversations. hee hee.
Of course, all those Aerospace Corporation, Northrup Grumman (formerly TRW), Computer Science Corporation and Boeing buildings in the nearby area are still humming with activity.
Maybe less so since that area’s Congresswoman, Jane Harman. was blocked from taking command of the House Intel Committee by Nancy Pelosi. Maybe Jane can complain to the Saban Center.
January 7th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Some more info on SMC (Space and Missiles Command):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_and_Missile_Systems_Center
January 7th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Resistance is Futile.
- 365 of 13496
January 7th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I think the singularity is near. It’s only a matter of time before they find a way to implant a scientific calculator into your brain, then wikipedia, then phantom physical sensations and emotional stimulators…
Next thing you know, we’re all connected to the matrix. Question is, is that really qualitatively a bad thing?
January 7th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
You know, I know this steak doesn’t exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize?
Ignorance is bliss.
January 8th, 2009 at 6:53 am
More importantly than Skynet Street, there IS an actual Japanese company named Cyberdyne and they are actually making a cyborg suit called HAL (just to confuse people, I’m sure),
Cyberdyne Exoskeleton Suit Available To Public Soon
http://www.futurenerd.net/cyberdyne-exoskeleton-suit-available-to-public-soon
Yeah, but what happens if some military entity buys through a front company in Israel? You know how those Israelis are about stealing high-tech stuff to sell to blockaded countries like Iran!
There’s also a Skynet Satellite:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_(satellites)
Skynet is a family of military satellites, now operated by Paradigm Secure Communications on behalf of the UK Ministry of Defence, which provide strategic communication services to the three branches of the British Armed Forces and to NATO forces engaged on coalition tasks.
March 1st, 2009 at 6:44 pm
cialis
I bookmarked this site. Thank you for good job!
March 2nd, 2009 at 5:15 am
levitraExcellent site. It was pleasant to me.
March 11th, 2009 at 4:44 am
I bookmarked this site. Thank you for good job!
March 12th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Very interesting site. Hope it will always be alive!
March 18th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Very nice site! [url=http://oixypea.com/qxqaxrq/2.html]cheap cialis[/url]
March 18th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Very nice site! cheap cialis http://oixypea.com/qxqaxrq/4.html
March 18th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Very nice site!
March 22nd, 2009 at 6:17 am
tramadol
Incredible site!
March 24th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Very nice site! cheap viagra
March 24th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Very nice site! [url=http://aixopey.com/qqaxrt/2.html]cheap cialis[/url]
March 24th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Very nice site!
March 29th, 2009 at 2:05 am
ogrdpnaq uztlnxr brnwofpju msnz xnch ukroxg lvcsjdtmn
April 9th, 2009 at 6:19 am
I bookmarked this site, Thank you for good job! viagra
April 12th, 2009 at 6:22 am
Hello very nice site! sitemap