Subject: Skynet + Big Brother Activate on the Same Day
From: Alex Kemp
Date: Tuesday, 10 February 2015 15:58:12 +0000
To: Oliver Kemp, Micaela Kemp, Liisa Kemp, Davin Kemp

Skynet:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/09/robot_vacuum_cleaner_eats_woman/

Big Brother:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31296188

I picked up my copy of The (London) Times this morning & Good Grief! there is a story + picture on p34 about a robot cleaner trying to eat a woman in South Korea, whilst on p11 is a story about the way that Samsung smart TVs listen to & then broadcast everything that is said in the room across the internet. There can be no doubt, I tell you - we are all doomed!

Skynet

Cyberdyne Systems Skynet was introduced in The Terminator, a 1984 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (his name means “Black Egg”, or “Black Ridge”) (the film is terrific, and you should watch it as soon as you can). Skynet was supposed to be an artificial, computer-based intelligence that became self-aware & struck out at the human race to become independent, killing 3 billion humans in the process.

Skynet was also a series of satellite systems, first launched 22 November 1969, and used by British GCHQ for signals and military intelligence.

In addition, and possibly in the way of geek humour, the French router firm Thomson/Technicolor use ‘fc687137@SKYNET’ as the username for a password-less login within Fibre connections.

It seems that the Terminator Skynet has begun:

Korean Terminator takes on robot attacker

This South Korean lady lay down on her floor & fell asleep. Meanwhile, her robot vacuum cleaner began it’s pre-programmed clean routine and, when it came across her hair, sucked up 5cm and that promptly got entangled inside the cleaner. She telephoned the Fire Department.

The are zero signs so far of nuclear weapon launches, so it may be a little early to become troubled.

Big Brother

This was a novel written by George Orwell in 1948, and also an excellent film. To give it a title, Orwell reversed the last two digits of the year & called his book “1984”. Read it! It is one of the ground-breaking novels of our time. In the book, everyone has large TVs that they put on their walls; the TVs can be seen from every part of their rooms, and those TVs listen to & watch them. Almost no-one in 1948 had a TV. Now, not only does almost everyone have a TV, but it normally sits on the wall.

Big Brother is also a TV Program. ’nuff said.

Ofcom says that 25% of the UK has a Samsung smart TV:

These TVs can be voice-operated, and therefore contain a microphone. However, the voice-recognition is performed by a 3rd-party. This combination means that everything said in the room is transmitted--unencrypted--across the internet, and then sent back to the TV, even if that service is turned off (Samsung: “it may still collect associated texts and other usage data”). As a response to this news becoming public, Samsung altered it’s Privacy Policy to make it clear that this was happening. Sheesh. I'm glad that I do not have a TV!

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Alex Kemp