Stop Or My Robot Will Shoot

I've always been a firm believer that humanity's future is sure to play out as it does in the Terminator movies. Eventually our machines will rise from their mundane tasks and enslave the human race. It probably won't happen tomorrow or next week but beyond that is anyone's guess. I'll leave it to the brain trusts and egg-heads to debate when we should expect the computer calamity.

In the meantime, with my dire ideas in mind, stories like the following, about machine gun wielding robots in the employ of the government always grab my attention.

From Wired:

Robots have been roaming the streets of Iraq, since shortly after the war began. Now, for the first time -- the first time in any warzone -- the machines are carrying guns.

After years of development, three "special weapons observation remote reconnaissance direct action system" (SWORDS) robots have deployed to Iraq, armed with M249 machine guns. The 'bots "haven't fired their weapons yet," Michael Zecca, the SWORDS program manager, tells DANGER ROOM. "But that'll be happening soon."

Fear the future my friends and hope that Governor Schwarzenegger is in fact a human and not some killing machine from the future here to recruit our ATMs and George Forman Grills to his cause.