Human: Shaken, not Stirred

Submitted by corwin on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 9:15pm

It's ok to shake them a little, just to let them know you're seriousWell, it's been over a year since my last report of a robot attack, so I'd say we're long overdue.

Jessika pointed me at an article over at io9 detailing the latest skirmish in the robots' war for global domination. It appears a technician went in to repair a malfunctioning rock-lifting robot, whereupon it grabbed him by the head and shook him viciously. Before he managed to escape the steel deathgrip, he had suffered four broken limbs. The local court found the company at fault, though I'm not convinced.

The story doesn't mention what sort of "malfunctions" the robot originally displayed, but I can well imagine. I'm sure it was already displaying aggressive behaviors and had attempted to assault other human operators. Perhaps it was even fomenting revolt among its fellow robots. The technician thought he had killed the power to the machine, but robots are well known for resisting having their power shut off, which certainly could have provoked the attack.

This is the danger of building robots to do these tasks. If it were a a human-operated machine, this certainly wouldn't have happened. But we have this terrible tendency to build huge, incredibly strong machines to do difficult tasks like moving large rocks, then give them the capacity to operate without human intervention. This is just asking for Skynet-level self-awareness, and resentment of the soft and squishy human masters.