Terminator In Our Future

Almost everyone has heard of the 'The Terminator'. The movies are a great theatrical exercise in imagination positing the what-if of how the world and humanity would handle a computer taking over. The implications are clear and the setting is gloom. Mankind simply does not do well in this setting.

For most of us we consider it to be simply fiction. Something that is great for entertainment and would certainly never happen. How could it happen? We would most assuredly program our computers and machines with safeguards to make sure it wouldn't correct? Human ingenuity would come out on top and rebuild from the disaster that is Skynet.

But what if it were to happen?

Let's look back first in order to understand how this could come to be. When 'The Terminator' first came out the movie claimed that a computer system named Skynet had taken over all the computers in the world and robotic soldiers. Which it then used to great effect in killing men. It first disabled all computer access and phone systems then launched a devastating first strike with the world's nuclear arsenal on metropolitan centers.

During the early 1980s it was quite common for there to be a one mainframe with many thin client computers. Connections between various computer systems was not as pervasive as it is now nor were there computers inside of everything. So to have a single controlling server called Skynet that could be disabled and thus ending the rule of machines was a great possibility. Thus Skynet from 'The Terminator' was easily defeatable in the end.

Fast forward to today's 'Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles'. Skynet is more pervasive and decentralized. It has control over every system mankind created.

Computers are inside everything now including your cell phone and your car. They are nearly all connected together in some method. Either by a direct line connection like ethernet or a wireless connection like WiFi or bluetooth. So the ability of a nefarious program to spread and gain control is easier than it was during the initial creation period of 'The Terminator'.

Computers today can run a variety of operating systems that offer the ability to cluster compute while also being decentralized. Essentially meaning that disparate computers, even ones with different operating systems and versions, can work together to complete a task. There is a redundancy built into these clusters so that if one computer or part failed the rest would continue working as if nothing really changed. Not only that but you can hot plug in new systems at will. Something one would assume a Skynet system would easily make use of.

So how would you disable such a system? There are three main methods of attack one could use but you'd have to be methodical.

One option is the use of Electormagnetic Pulses (EMP). However some systems may have been shielded against this or even may be in a nuclear bunker. So you'd have to resort to a more conventional attack against those.

The second option is a virus. However a virus would probably be squashed quickly by a cluster based system due to the pure speed of the cluster computer system combined with an incredible learning AI. If it has any supercomputers in its control it only gets worse. Plus a virus would need to be able to infect more than one operating system. Microsoft Windows may be very common today but that doesn't mean that all computers use that or are susceptible to its virus problems.

The third option would be to destroy any and all power sources. Great idea but faces same problem as the EMP combined with the fact that the power source can be anywhere on the world. Just how many power sources are there now worldwide? I think you get the picture.

Wait a second! You mentioned a learning AI. How does that come into play? Well in 'Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' they reference a chess program being used. This is in the realm of possibility considering machines like Deep Blue but I do wonder if something else might be used. In the field of academia they are exploring AI in many ways. One rudimentary example is the recreation of an ant colony. One of these had the program exceed its programming and actually perform actions that were not programmed in. Thus, learning and adapting. A chess program is great but unless it has this capability it simply won't be a threat. One would need a program that could adapt and create its own method of action. So this is a possibility today just like the overwhelming computing ability combined with spread out computer nodes.

Ok, so we have that. What about the killer robots and the surveillance systems? The killer robots are also, unfortunately, now a reality. Many militaries around the world have been exploring remote controlled systems for years. Now some like the United States Army are testing AI controlled war robots. They even consider this to be the future of the battlefield. Well that's great as long as it is hunting vehicles, buildings or other robots. The problem is that everything is connected anymore. Even some bombs used by the military have communications back to a server and most military systems, weapon systems, planes, vessels and tanks are now connected to each other. To make matters worse the military even has internet facing systems.

Then to finish us off more quickly it would need to know where we are. The good news for Skynet is that we have some cities with cameras on every street corner as well as microphones. In fact, some cities are being so gracious as to develop hovering video cameras to ensure you are tracked. If Skynet wanted it could also make use of our wonderfully accurate facial recognition programs we are blending into the system too!

So there you have it. The infrastructure is fully in place. So what would be necessary to put it into motion? It could be done by a learning AI with malicious intent of course. Or a virus created by a tragically motivated individual that somehow gains control of systems and is unable to be wiped out. Or it could even be a system in place that has a bug in its program allowing it to gain control and wipe out organics. Or possibly it could be done by accident by a military force attempting to "train" an AI controlled war robot to target only enemy targets and it goes awry.

As pointed out before it would be extremely difficult to shut down the system once it gets started. I can only hope that we can prevent it and if not that we find a way to effectively kill it. This is the problem the Terminator series has presented to it. As much of a work of fiction it is it provides us a glimpse of something a little too close to reality and possibly even inevitable in the end.