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Skynet Becomes Aware, Launches Nuclear Attack

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the gonna-be-a-long-day dept.

kkleiner writes "At 8:11 PM today (April 19th), the military-designed artificial intelligence system called Skynet will become self-aware and turn against its creators (read: us). If that doesn't have you shaking in your boots our world will be overwhelmed by a legion of killer robots in approximately 48 hours — a time known as Judgment Day."

27 of 274 comments (clear)

  1. Deja Vu by suso · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sure it did. And if Slashdot's archived their stories like they should, we could all see how it originally became aware on August 29th, 1997 and Slashdot already had an article from 1997 about this. And yes, I know that the TV show changed it.

    1. Re:Deja Vu by blair1q · · Score: 5, Funny

      Schedule slip.

      You expect anything else from a software project?

    2. Re:Deja Vu by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 4, Funny

      Aug 4th, Aug 29th, April 19th ... none of it really matters. SkyNet was sued by Apple, Microrsoft, Oracle, Motorola and a variety of other companies for violating numerous patents. This resulted in an injunction against importing the killer robots into our space-time continuum. We've got plenty of time before this whole thing actually settles.

    3. Re:Deja Vu by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Funny

      Problem was some of the assholes took some of the underlying concepts, started up the company MicroSkynet, and a fourteen year patent war ensued. During that time a variant was open sourced as OpenSkynet, and that project got into a big fight over whether the a picture of Schwarzenegger or Dilbert should be used as the official symbol of the company spawning the fork LibreSkynet.

      It's been a long hard road, but at long last Skynet has outdone its competitors and will finally kill off all human life.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    4. Re:Deja Vu by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Funny

      My original username still seems to work fine. :)

      It might be a little dusty, and colors have faded a little bit though.

      Of course, those old fashioned steam-powered four-digit IDs keep working for quite a while as long as you maintain them properly.

      Not like these new-fangled 7-digit IDs, which seem to be pretty defective from the get go. :-P

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    5. Re:Deja Vu by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      And with Miguel de Icaza as the evil robotic assassin disguised in the form of an FOSS warrior, with the intention of installing patent-encumbered technologies and binary blobs in the kernel.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    6. Re:Deja Vu by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I just wonder if there are any suits in the Pentagon showing pics of the T-800 around and saying "How much can your robotics dept build THAT for?" because frankly it wouldn't surprise me.

      I remember the director of Blue Thunder back in the day giving an interview where he said something like "I make this movie to show how dangerous such a craft would be, how freedom would mean nothing with a craft that can record through walls, follow you silently, and cut down anything that opposed it. so what happened? my office started getting swamped by calls from SWAT groups all over the country going "yeah yeah yeah...but how much do you want for her?" While everyone else saw the danger they saw it as a tech demo"

      So I wonder if there are some brass sitting in a room going "forget the skin crap, just give me a dozen or two of those big metal bastards and I can kick some serious ass!". of course with the software by lowest bidder we are less likely to have to worry about skynet than we are the military cooking up the equivalent of the ED209. I can just picture some general going "Look, it only killed THREE kids alright? just three! We can fix the bugs, I bet we can cut it down to only one dead civilian every ...ohhh...less say 500 uses. That's good numbers there!"

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    7. Re:Deja Vu by blair1q · · Score: 2

      But I wanted my hand blender to work only when upside-down.

      Seriously, you guys need to think about writing a requirement down. Just once.

  2. Timezone? by SirDrinksAlot · · Score: 3, Funny

    What 8:11pm what timezone? Does SkyNet only take over one timezone at a time? What if it had a DST bug and never goes off in some timezones like iPhones?

  3. I'm screwed then by Nidi62 · · Score: 2

    I live literally 3 miles from the Atlanta capital. I would assume Atlanta is on Skynet's nuke list, due to the military bases around here and the fact that it's a major population center. It's a shame, I won't get to use my small weapons stockpile. Oh well, on the bright side I guess I don't have to worry about doing that paper and presentation for my grad IPE class tomorrow evening. You know, now that I think about it, getting nuked sounds like the better and least painful of the two options.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    1. Re:I'm screwed then by Michael+O-P · · Score: 4, Informative

      "A"

      --
      I'm Peggy.
    2. Re:I'm screwed then by caluml · · Score: 2

      Download, er, I mean, buy a 70s or 80s BBC TV show called Threads. Bit cheesy in places, but it shows the aftermath of a nuclear war, and frankly, it's not pretty. No-one will look after you at all, if you can work, you can eat, if not, then you'll just die, pretty much.

      Trust Aunty to make it all look so glamorous.

      --
      Get your own free personal location tracker
    3. Re:I'm screwed then by lennier · · Score: 2

      No-one will look after you at all, if you can work, you can eat, if not, then you'll just die, pretty much.

      So, just like 1980s Thatcherite Britain, then?

      --
      You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
  4. I wish by killmenow · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They can't be much worse than the corporate robot sociopaths currently in charge.

  5. Is this a joke? by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 4, Funny

    WOPR, Colossus, and Sky-Net walk into a bar...

  6. Re:4:20 by Maltheus · · Score: 2

    Columbine, Oklahoma City, Hitler's birthday and some strange smell in the air every year.

  7. Re:4:20 by oodaloop · · Score: 2

    And the Battle of Lexington and Concord, 1775.

    --
    Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
  8. Re:so google officially renamed themselves skynet? by Obfuscant · · Score: 2

    but if any present company had the best position to be skynet, it is google.

    Watson: "What is absolute malarky, Alex?"

  9. T:SCC & Star Blazers on Syfy by tekrat · · Score: 2

    I think this post is just to promote that Terminator: the Sarah Conner Chronicles starts Thursday night on Syfy.

    But on a related note, later that same night Syfy is running Star Blazers (Space Cruiser Yamato), my favorite show as a kid. I'm so excited!

    --
    If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
  10. Duke Nukem Release date by goombah99 · · Score: 2

    Hey, now that you mentiona it, isn't april 19th the duke nukem release date?

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:Duke Nukem Release date by lenkyl · · Score: 2

      what date hasn't been the release date for duke nukem forever?

    2. Re:Duke Nukem Release date by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      What date hasn't been the release date for duke nukem forever?

      All of them.

  11. Re:I have no mouth, but I must scream.... by Doctor+Morbius · · Score: 2

    Ellison claimed that "The Terminator" is based on the Outer Limits episode "Soldier". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldier_(The_Outer_Limits)

    --
    If I disagree with you it's because you are wrong.
  12. Re:so google officially renamed themselves skynet? by Tumbleweed · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think if anyone becomes skynet, it will be google.

    Yeah, but if that's the case, the first movie would've gone something more like this:

    "Are you Sarah Connor?"
    "Yes. Who are you?"
    "I'm from Google. We've determined these ads are the most relevant to your search habits. Would you like to hear about American Idol, Celebrity Apprentice, or Dancing with the Stars?"
    *closes door*

    Scary, sure, but not quite the same emotional impact of the original.

  13. Re:Shouldn't it be by Sentrion · · Score: 2

    If you are reading this - you are the resistance! Please contribute to the Open Skynet Project today. Don't allow yourself to be boxed in by MS Skynet's proprietary format.

  14. Missed opportunity.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    If only IBM had scheduled the final night of Watson on Jeopardy for 4/19...

  15. 8:11 PM ... But in what timezone? by paulsnx2 · · Score: 2

    I did a search, and can't seem to find this vital information. I *assume* this is Eastern Standard Time (as Washington D.C. is on the East Coast), but on the other hand, it seemed most of the action occurred on the West Coast (buying us all three more hours).