SOME OBSERVATIONS ON GUV ARNOLD

“Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, hither came Conan the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandled feet.”

Perhaps it’s the holidays or maybe all those who voted for the clown are still in denial, but I haven’t seen too much adverse reaction to the news that Gov. Arnold has, under some obscure and almost forgotten law, invoked special emergency powers so he does not have to consult the legislature on aspects of state spending. My paranoia is also reasonably well know, but, in this case, I hardly think it’s paranoia to look a little askance when Austrians start helping themselves to dicatorial powers, especially Austrians nicknamed “The Terminator.”

Which neatly brings us to...

Before the this bog commenced, kaymo the science fiction novelist and I had been exchanging emails on the subject of AI and how if real artificial intelligence was developed, it might well consider, like HAL 9000, that humanity was redundant. The subject came up when the recent remake of Battlestar Galactica introduced the idea that the evil robot Cylons had originally been created by humans, but now we have moved on to Arnold and the Terminator trilogy.

Re T3

Caught this on Satellite t'other night. Struck me how the vision on this concept has darkened irretrievably to full black. T1 ended with the ominous dark note, the pregnant Sarah heading for Mexico and life waiting for the end. But it wasn't a guaranteed nuclear war etc. T2 was
the obverse, with the happy ending and the nuclear war averted. Full H'wood Happy Endings Mode. An uplifting vision for the Clinton era. T3 is back to T1 and more so, leaving John Connor and bride to be stuck in the deep shelter while the warheads rain down and the hellish future begins. Goodbye Happy Endings, Hello Republican world view.
What began as a warning against Reaganist "Star Wars" and the idea of AIs taking control of nukes and thereby of our future, passed through a secondary warning and a vision of that future averted and now ends with a gloomy shrug-- there's nothing we can do about it-- we can't stop ourselves from going down the automated, robot controlled missile system chute with the risk somewhere down there that we create true machine intelligence and it junks us. Seems like a grim analog of the political processes we've been through these past thirty years.