Terminator the machines quotes series#

Elsewhere, American defence officials have spoken of grappling with the “ Terminator conundrum” brought about by the integration of ever more autonomy into the critical functions of weapon systems, and as seeking to avoid a “ Terminator scenario”.Īs part of the research which the AutoNorms project is conducting on the cultural depictions of AWS, this piece provides a primer on the Terminator film franchise. In describing their concerns about the potentially apocalyptic dangers posed by Artificial Intelligence (AI), public figures such as Elon Musk have regularly drawn a direct line to the Terminator.

Terminator the machines quotes series#

Nevertheless, news coverage on AWS regularly feature either textual references to the film series or images of metallic humanoid skulls with piercing red eyes, an iconography derived from the franchise. As others have neatly summarised it: the Terminator is the “poster boy for any debate on lethal autonomous weapons”.Ĭoncerns have been expressed about the somewhat “ problematic” character of the Terminator trope because it feeds into a misleading perception about the current state of AWS development, and downplays the serious – if, perhaps, not apocalyptic – challenges which less than “fully” AWS present.

From the perspective of non-governmental organisations seeking to regulate the development of AWS, forms of science fiction like the Terminator franchise are understood to shape the “socio-political context in which campaigners must navigate to be effective” ( Carpenter 2016, 54).

On his estimates, nine out of every ten “serious conversations” he has had with officials about these technologies has included at least some reference to the film series.

Paul Scharre – author of one of the most influential studies on these technologies, Army of None – has noted being “struck by how much the Terminator films influence debate on autonomous weapons systems” (264). References to the Terminator are an ubiquitous feature of debates on Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS).