Skynet is the fictional computer that gains self-awareness and consciousness and results in the horrific slaughter and subjugation of man in the Terminator movies. The idea that computers can be taught to think as we do is the basis for AI or artificial intelligence. It’s a holy grail thing despite its implications.
Recently I read a short story by George Dyson that poses the question – what if the great search engine Google was a potential Skynet? The story is here. And it is a slogging read at times because it is heavy on tech and backstory but it is worth skimming for the parts that are easy for a lay person to understand.
The last couple of paragraphs especially make it worth the while.
Interesting theory though about dreaming before thinking.
And if you still aren’t sure that Google (or Apple for that matter) are steadily liberating more data from us than our own governments. Read this.
anniegirl1138 
If the Internet goes out, in the ensuing chaos, I’ll be settling scores, and eating neighborhood children.
@Rob — Nice to finally exchange pixels with you, Rob. I’ve read a lot about you here. Now that I have your own blog, I may peek in on you from time to time as well.
Yes, I have a similar image of a lot of pale, blue-veined and red-eyed people crawling out from dank basements and squinting and blinking under hand-shielded eyes, with stringy hair and black T-shirts emblazened with obscure messages, trying to figure out where they are and what’s going on. And frustrated that they can’t Google it.
@DarcKnyt: Your friend is probably right. Look at how quickly things went for shit in New Orleans after Katrina.
As for loss of the internet, I just got a mental image of pasty faced individuals stumbling out of their basements, curiously blinking in the bright sunlight and wondering WTF?
Backing up your data is important. Backing it up to a public service organization is just plain stupid.
I have a friend that said if we lost the Internet for some reason, we’d be a criminal society inside a week — desperation for things like water would drive people to crime in less than seven days.
I never trusted the Internet with anything personal. Just me.
data mining is done everywhere. your ip address is well documented. stand by for black helicopters 😉
will read the story on a packing-break… and will be sure to leave the tinfoil out to protect my thoughts while moving!