One More Step

So why do people keep saying that the world's going to be taken over by robots? I know, I know, like almost all of them are joking, and the ones who aren't are pretty unanimously known to be completely, brain-bendingly insane, but when have I ever backed down from making fun of crazy people? That's right, never. Well actually, sometimes, but only if the crazy person in question is actually present, in which case I just sort of keep my distance. Those people can get dangerous you know. But I digress.*

See, I can sort of believe that we will eventually be able to program AI that is smart enough to learn. Maybe. I don't know, I'm not an engineer. I understand nothing.** But I don't really think we would ever program anything to rebel. You'd think the people who are building these type of things would be more, y'know, smart. Because you kind of have to be smart to build giant robots. It kind of seems like that would be an important job requirement. Not being stupid enough to arm a genius AI with a goddamn missile.

Also, fail-safes. And the fact that since we built them, we'd probably have some way to shut the stupid things off. The robot revolution could be stopped with a couple lines of code and a remote control. And if they somehow get smart enough to reprogram themselves, it's okay, because by that point, we're not even going to be living here anymore. Mars ahoy!

*Which is something that totally doesn't happen all the time. On an unrelated note, I suck at sarcasm.
**This is actually good advice for reading this entire site. "It's okay, he doesn't actually claim to know what the hell he's talking about."