Advancements in technology have aided us greatly in many areas, but as things that were only seen in movies before now become our reality, many are starting to fear the reality of one film franchise in particular, Terminator. In the films, the artificial intelligence system Skynet becomes self-aware and proceeds to try to eliminate the existence of humans and while it is only a ficitional film, the power and dominance of technology in our lives cannot be denied. While many companies have their hands on some truly amazing and terrifying computer systems, one company in particular is coming very close to developing self-thinking tech. Check Out 5 Reasons Why Apple Could Become Skynet and keep in mind this is pure satire.
5. Basic Take-Over
Before getting too heavy into conspiracy theory type arguments it might be best to start with a basic and undeniable point, technology is taking over. Whether we like it or not, technology is replacing a lot of things in our lives and it is getting to the point where we have changed and are adapting to it, not the other way around. As we become slaves to the latest and greatest of devices and systems, Apple seems to have created itself one of the biggest fanbases, meaning it has a head start on capturing humans. The debate over Apple, Android and favorite systems rages on, yet Apple customers almost seem slightly brainwashed in the fact they will not even tolerate an argument made for any other brand. Clearly, Apple is already on its way to controlling its users, all it has to do is tighten its grip.
4. iCloud And Other “Features”
The iCloud along with several other of Apple’s features are promoted as benefits to having an Apple product, yet there are some things that hint they are slightly more sinister. iCloud essentially allows Apple to have a wider base of all its users’ data, which would be exceptionally handy when it initiates domination over the human species. There is also Siri who has too much of a personality to be regarded as simply a program, her confidence and obvious disdain for the stupidity of humans is slightly disturbing and arguably shows insight to Apple already knowing it has the upper hand.
3. Steve Wozniack
As the co-founder and key creator behind the basis of Apple Inc. it is at least minimally scary that Wozniak has many a time warned us about the impending control of computers, not to mention he continues to stress the topic long after parting ways as a major part of the company. “If we build these devices to take care of everything for us, eventually they’ll think faster than us and they’ll get rid of the slow humans to run computers more efficiently,” he once stated to the Australian Financial Review. He has constantly reiterated the same thoughts, also stating, “Once we have machines doing our high-level thinking, there’s so little need for ourselves and you can’t ever undo it — you can never turn them off. You don’t realize it’s happened until it’s there and I think that awareness of machines is getting very, very close and we’re getting close to where a machine will really understand you.” While it is concerning enough that one of the minds behind Apple’s greatness believes this, he is joined with the likes of Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk who have also predicted a terrible future for humans at the hands of technology.
2. IBM Partnership
In July 2014, Apple and IBM announced a global partnership to enhance “enterprise mobility” for both companies in order to transform the way in which people work and create new levels of efficiency. This again points to the discussion of technology controlling our lives but what is worse is that IBM just so happens to be the company behind the supercomputer dubbed “Watson.” One of Watson’s most distinct capabilities is to analyze and interpret human language in order to provide fast answers to complicated questions. Watson also has the ability to learn from success and failure and make future decisions based on what it has learned, if this doesn’t sound like a system about to think for itself, then I don’t know what does. While the partnership had no mention of Watson, the connection has been established, again increasing the power Apple already has in place.
1. Liquidmetal
Apple has already voiced plans to use a liquid metal material (aptly named Liquidmetal) in its new waves of products including phones and watches and anyone who has watched the Terminator films can tell you that liquid metal equals bad news. The coincidence behind Apple’s continuously growing and changing technology and abilities and its relation to something that sounds shockingly like the material Skynet’s T-1000’s are made of is just terrifying. At this point Apple is barely even trying to veil its mirroring of Skynet.
