This I Believe #10

...that, no matter what kind of system it is or how appropriate it may seem, you should never name a computer system Skynet.  Why tempt fate?  In a similar vein, you should avoid naming a child Damien, Hister, or Khan Noonien Singh, just to play it safe.  The fact that I contribute to a computational syntax project called The Matrix is neither here nor there; in fact, I don't see why you brought it up.

(This post was inspired by trochee's suggestion in class that an automated speech recognition system for air traffic control could be named Skynet.)

Comments

[Trochee]

well, you attribute either more or less subtlety to my whispered comment than I intended, depending on how you think about it. I think I like your version of my worried aside better.

And certainly the lessons you take from it seem like good ones.

[includedmiddle]

Isn't the window of danger for Kahn Noonien Singh safely closed now?

[The Tensor]

Isn't the window of danger for Kahn Noonien Singh safely closed now?

You might conclude that. But what if you were wrong? Imagine the horror of watching your offspring growing more megalomaniacal, more unmistakably Montalbanian, year by inexorable year. Think how much that would suck.

[Silvercat]

Imagine the horror of watching your offspring growing more megalomaniacal, more unmistakably Montalbanian, year by inexorable year. Think how much that would suck.

Yes, but think about how nice their chests would be. And they'd have to have sexy accents, wouldn't they?