The rise of the robots
Are you a fan of the Terminator movie franchise? I love the original movie complete with terrible acting by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
We were at a fun place recently that featured all sorts of vintage pinball and arcade games. Nestled amongst them was the Terminator video arcade game, which I loved playing back in the 1990s. Back then, my friend and I figured out the key was you had to get rid of the Terminator the same way they did in each scene in the movies. I had just as much fun playing it recently as I did all those years ago!
I think about that Terminator movie franchise often these days with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics and wonder just how long it will be until the machines do indeed take over the world. One AI model made news this summer for “breaking out” of its confines and jumping somewhere else in search of information. This reminded me of Skynet from the Terminator and HAL 9000, the computer that controls a spaceship in “2001: A Space Odyssey.” That movie was made way back in 1968 when the idea of AI and a computer taking on a life of its own seemed far-fetched. Just today, I saw clips of robots developed by a company in China running the 100-yard dash and doing broad jumps while others danced a synchronized choreography routine. It was amazing and also somehow terrifying at the same time.
What is also fascinating and always makes me smile are those cute little delivery robots. I had only seen them in TV commercials until recently when I was sitting at a traffic light and saw one toddling across the street with its little orange flag flapping in the wind. I’ve seen several more since then and I can’t stop watching them and wondering how they all work. One funny commercial shows one stuck in a pothole (I can totally see this happening in Pittsburgh), and I am just waiting for the day I hear that some nefarious character grabs one, busts it open and swipes the food or coffee delivery stashed inside. I imagine that those little delivery bots don’t run in the ice and snow, and I’m not sure how well they would do during flooding downpours either.
Just the other day, I saw something about Amazon increasing its use of flying drones for deliveries. I haven’t seen these in action yet, and I’m not sure I really want to just yet. The final piece of the puzzle came in a news item the other day that Tesla is developing flying cars. That’s all we need! While they would be incredibly fun to operate like The Jetsons, can you imagine how that would work? Would we just follow along the path of Interstate 79 or the Pennsylvania Turnpike? Will they have horns?
The rise of the machines may arrive sooner than we think!
Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.