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Sci-Fi Television

Skynet Becomes Aware, Launches Nuclear Attack 274

Posted by CmdrTaco 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."
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Skynet Becomes Aware, Launches Nuclear Attack More

Skynet Becomes Aware, Launches Nuclear Attack

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  • Deja Vu (Score:5, Informative)

    by suso ( 153703 ) * on Tuesday April 19, 2011 @02:05PM (#35872150) Journal

    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.

    • Re:Deja Vu (Score:5, Funny)

      by blair1q ( 305137 ) on Tuesday April 19, 2011 @02:12PM (#35872242) Journal

      Schedule slip.

      You expect anything else from a software project?

      • Re:Deja Vu (Score:5, Funny)

        by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Tuesday April 19, 2011 @02:55PM (#35872868) Journal

        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.

        • Watch for the TV series about this: The Richard Stallman Chronicles. It's about an open source champion that uses a USPTO SAAS Server that's been captured and reprogrammed to compile GPLv3 compliant software in order to stop the coming Patentocalypse.

          • 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.

        • As long as everyone dies, that's all that matters!
      • Scope creep. They were originally only supposed to have it take over the US. Then marketing said going global right out of the gate was more critical than time-to-market. (Something about opening strong & pre-empting competition, I think.)

    • Didn't slashdot have a drive failure or DB crash or something resulting in some serious data loss including old stories around 1998-99? I seem to remember that because I had to stop using my original username and post anonymous for 6-8 months while they sorted something out then had to switch user names about a year or so after that because it never worked again.

      • My original username still seems to work fine. :)

        • Re:Deja Vu (Score:5, Funny)

          by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Tuesday April 19, 2011 @02:56PM (#35872884) Homepage

          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

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by EQ ( 28372 )

            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

            I guess that means I am driving one of those diesel powered 5 digit IDs. Mine's shiny because I just had it repainted.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by KH ( 28388 )

              And in those good old days there were still plenty of usernames with just two capitals... Or was it the fashion?

          • 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

            Yeah, well, the floorboards have rotten out completely in my 4-digit UID, and I can see the ground going by below me. Still, it does make it easier to drop caltrops to defer people chasing me. Damned kids need to get off my lawn.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by suso ( 153703 ) *

          Like many people, I read /. back then, but didn't think there would be this social need for a low uid until later. Of course, if we all knew that, we'd all have the same uids that we do now.

          • ... but didn't think there would be this social need for a low uid until later ...

            Seems like a silly trend. Honestly, I've never understood why anyone would want to advertise being senile ....

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by markhb ( 11721 )

              Actually, I think the whole point is to keep the chain going with ever-lower UID's posting until CmdrTaco or Hemos shows up and laughs in our collective faces.

          • Like many people, I read /. back then, but didn't think there would be this social need for a low uid until later. Of course, if we all knew that, we'd all have the same uids that we do now.

            Yeah, I waited quite awhile as there wasn't any real benefit to having an account. But then the "first post" morons arrived. I can't _believe_ people are still doing that. *sigh*

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by ahem ( 174666 )

              _I_ can't believe that you can't believe that an anti-social behavior on the intarwebs won't go away...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Reeses ( 5069 )

          Mine too.

  • I for one welcome our self-aware machine overlords.

  • Timezone? (Score:3, Funny)

    by SirDrinksAlot ( 226001 ) on Tuesday April 19, 2011 @02:11PM (#35872224) Journal

    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?

  • yea, who's judging who exactly.
  • Skynet, also a nick name given to the stock market, due to the amount of computerized selling.

  • I'm screwed then (Score:3)

    by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Tuesday April 19, 2011 @02:12PM (#35872238)
    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.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by elrous0 ( 869638 ) *

      Falken had it right. Much better to be vaporized instantaneously than to wander around in the aftermath of a full-on nuclear war.

      • I don't know, I mean if it was going to happen anyway I'd like to hang around to see if Hollywood got it right.

        You can always off yourself later if you want.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by caluml ( 551744 )
        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.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by lennier ( 44736 )

          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?

  • I wish (Score:5, Insightful)

    by killmenow ( 184444 ) on Tuesday April 19, 2011 @02:14PM (#35872278)
    They can't be much worse than the corporate robot sociopaths currently in charge.

  • Is this a joke? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sponge Bath ( 413667 ) on Tuesday April 19, 2011 @02:16PM (#35872302)
    WOPR, Colossus, and Sky-Net walk into a bar...
  • At least Skynet was self-aware, unlike our amazing network of coal fired plants and other carbon generating emissions that will slowly cook and flood the planet.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jav1231 ( 539129 )
      Climate Change worries are so 2009. We'll be too bankrupt to run the plants at the rate we're going. The real race is will Skynet become self-aware in time to run the plants without money!
    • The 6 billion or so half-evolved pink monkeys currently infesting it might not fare so well, but the planet will recover once they die off. We. I mean... "we"... die off. Yeah.

      • The 6 billion or so half-evolved pink monkeys currently infesting it might not fare so well, but the planet will recover once they die off. We. I mean... "we"... die off. Yeah.

        Meh. It wouldn't be the end of our species either. Even if we lose 5 billion to thirst and starvation, the remaining 1 billion will be just fine. No, momma nature can't kill us off at this point - if we go, it will either be death-from-the-skies, or thermonuclear warfare.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • ...a cyborg from the future, his task was to so muck up the computing ecosystem that significant progress in AI or any other field of computation was nearly impossible.

    Too bad he didn't get a more convincing disguise.

  • I think if anyone becomes skynet, it will be google. They have the strongest AI implementations in the world, their entire business model is based off predicting human behaviours. Their latest endeavours in search are to go from 'what you said' (like at present) to "what you meant" meaning attempting to understand context and your most likely intention.

    They have google translate, google goggles, granted goggles needs some work in a lot of ways but it's present progress is already quite good.

    As much as googl

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

      Watson: "What is absolute malarky, Alex?"

    • Much worse than all that, Google knows where you live!

      • Much worse than all that, Google knows where you live!

        No, Google knows what my _mailing address_ is. :)

        Pollute the data stream, people. It's the only way.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by umghhh ( 965931 )
      I do not see much problem in skynet taking over rather in convincing it to do so - I mean why any conscious and semi intelligent entity would want to take over this mess we call civilization? OTOH how much of a difference this would have made - take any of so called western democracies - maybe deus ex machina will be better than our corrupt and inefficient so called representatives? If that is better what would citizens of NK or Libya say about the alternative?

    • You wrote:
      As much as google as a company says don't be evil, what happens when their algorithms decide on a course of action that gives the best results for a goal while being a more than questionable action?

      See my subject. Basically, this was covered in a piece of Sci-Fi written in the 50's ... People start "googling" How to rob a bank and not get caught kind of stuff. And the computer tells them how to do it.

    • Re:so google officially renamed themselves skynet? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) * on Tuesday April 19, 2011 @03:04PM (#35872962)

      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.

  • T:SCC & Star Blazers on Syfy (Score:3)

    by tekrat ( 242117 ) on Tuesday April 19, 2011 @02:39PM (#35872648) Homepage Journal

    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!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tgd ( 2822 )

      I belive its on Netflix streaming, if you are so inclined.

    • Just watched the "Revival" a few weeks ago. Apparently there is a "Resurrection" live action movie coming soon.

    • I got the boxed set about a decade ago. It wasn't nearly as entertaining as I remember, it was often downright horrid. But with Syfy turned into Wrestling, lots of really bad made for tv movies and the various Ghost Hunters - hands down Star Blazers will be better.
  • Is that Eastern, Central, Mountain, or Pacific? Standard time? I need to know if I have time for a nice dinner, or if I should just order in.

    • Is that Eastern, Central, Mountain, or Pacific? Standard time? I need to know if I have time for a nice dinner, or if I should just order in.

      Best solution is to have an early dinner at the most expensive restaurant in town on your credit card then drop by the jewelry store to stock up on gold before heading for the hills.

  • Because of Portal 2. Maybe she's the new Skynet. :)

  • Um, Dancing with the Stars is on tonight. Can this be done later?

  • I'm pretty sure something just like this happened 14 years ago. Like Y2K, the magnitude of the catastrophe was blown way out of proportion, making it relatively underwhelming when it finally happened.

    Folks, these things happen. Don't make a big deal out of it. And while hordes of robot killers sound scary at first, then you realize MSIE can't even size a box correctly, Flash player somehow locks out ALSA's ability (or is it OSS? which one am I using and which one am I emulating?) to make noise until I c

  • Pah! I had write access to the system status page at my workplace on that fateful day in 1999, and posted "MASSIVE NUCLEAR EXPLOSION - MOON TORN OUT OF EARTH ORBIT - HURLED INTO OUTER SPACE". Nobody even got the reference :(

  • It is not a TUMOR!

    (It's an implant.)

  • I welcome our new Skynet Overlords!!!

    -Hack

  • The point of those movies was that humans are evil, not Skynet. We built something intended to kill, it turned on us when we tried to kill it. Somehow lots of people read it as "computers will eventually turn on us", even though we got a nice punchy line about Terminators learning the value of human life.

  • In this time loop iteration the first skynet models bluescreened, and the project got cancelled. Was a good idea to send John Connor's son to an earlier past to replace some W. Gates guy and ensure a future for humanity.
  • Just have the Wall Street financial computers destroy the economy, then buy US in a short sale. "Oh, that could never happen!"

  • 8:11 PM ... But in what timezone? (Score:3)

    by paulsnx2 ( 453081 ) on Tuesday April 19, 2011 @05:16PM (#35874358)

    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).

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