[ThirdOfFive]

I imagine that there are quite a few of us here who have read Harlan Ellison's science fiction. He is one of my favorite authors, not just for how he could tell a story but because just about every word was a gut-punch. He could make you see things you really didn't want to see. My two favorites are; "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", and "Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman". The former is a story about what could happen if artificial intelligences decided to band together and rule the world, and the latter concerns a dystopian future where machines, assumedly at the bidding of humans, have ultimate power over the citizenry, even to the point of killing them (blanking their cardioplate) when the powers that be decide that that is what should happen. The reasons were never gone into in the story, but that is really incidental: there IS no good reason for such power.

We're surrounded by them. Oh, not cute little R2D2s or talkative C3POs, not even gorgeous Cherry 2000s, but by machines that direct our movements, tell us where to go and what to do, and pretty much in some situations control our actions. Those self-service checkouts at Wal-Mart, for example, where I make it a point to tell the machine what I think of it in some pretty graphic terminology just about every time I shop there. "Smart" houses (ugh)!. Cars that will soon drive themselves, but even today have artificial intelligence that will slow the car down if road conditions are not optimal or if, in the opinion of the car, you're approaching the traffic ahead at too great a speed. GPS that direct our every move on the road, tell us our speed, traffic ahead, even which lane to be in at a given time--and the "miracle" of THAT is that the same system that services our GPS is doing the same thing at the same time for multiple millions of vehicles. When one sees artificial intelligence in those terms--well, building an R2D2 would be a step backwards. We don't need machines ambling or bumbling around. We already have the machines that control what we do without the inconvenience of having to filter directives through a tin can with wheels and blinking lights.

Robots are our future, and it is a frightening one. Say goodbye to R2D2, and hello to Gort.