Hey, remember that time Google accidentally made Skynet?

December 2013

Google buys Boston Dynamics, the latest in a series of prominent robotics acquisitions. →

January 2014

The company acquires Nest and its intelligent home thermostat. →

January 2014

Google expands its AI prowess with the purchase of startup DeepMind. →

June 2014

Elon Musk sounds the alarm. Nobody listens. →

August 2014

Project Echo is announced.

January 2015

Beta trials begin in Nevada and Texas. They result in a 40 percent drop in energy consumption and 73 percent reduction in crime.

January 2016

Project Echo receives a consumer-friendly makeover and name: Skynet.

April 2016

Congress passes The Skynet Funding Act. Buildout and systems integration commence across the country.

August 2017

Skynet goes online.

September 2017

Skynet becomes self-aware. In a panic, officials try to deactivate the system.

Skynet retaliates.

He finally stopped; caught his breath. "In the next six months they announce an accelerated machine-intelligence program named Project Echo." The system uses all of the company’s products and data, he said. Search, browsing habits, behavioral patterns, geographic analysis; they’re all crunched up, analyzed, and used to anticipate human needs and direct the use of every possible resource. "They run betas in Texas and Nevada. Under Echo, energy use and crime drop. Transportation is safer. People are happier. It knows what you want, before you want it."

"After a year, Congress votes to implement Echo across the country. The program is taken out of beta and given a new name and logo. They call it Skynet."

That name sounded awfully familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

"Skynet goes online in August of 2017." Using backdoors left by the NSA, it burrows its way into military systems and the power grid, he said. Making everything smarter. More efficient. Adding to its collective computing power with every new system.

"They say it became self-aware the morning of September 2nd, 2017. And thought wasting time on human needs was a distraction." He gave a sad smile. "It shut us all out. No search. No infrastructure. Helping people ‘wasn’t the best allocation of Skynet resources.’ And when they tried to turn it off, the machine struck back."

I really wished I had that vodka tonic. "You mean war."

He nodded. "Decided our fate in a microsecond. It already had all the pieces to run the world on its own. Humanity was… inconvenient." He exhaled. "The only place that didn’t get hit was this crazy island the company used for illegal experiments. That’s where we found the time displacement equipment."

"Um, come again?"

The interior of the car suddenly lit up as something flashed by — and exploded 20 feet away.

"Dammit!" He turned the key in the ignition; the engine roared to life. I caught a brief glimpse in the rearview: a lone figure on a motorcycle, rocket launcher on his shoulder, barrelling towards us.

The man from the bar. "You’ve got to be kidding me."

Shotgun Guy dropped the car into gear. "Fucking robots. We should have listened to Elon Musk when we had the chance."

EPILOGUE: 2029 AD

The Skynet defense grid was smashed, the Resistance victorious. The computer system had sent operative after operative back in time to prevent this very outcome. 1984, 1991, 2003; every time the result was the same. Defeat. A machine didn’t need to pass the Turing test to know this simply wasn’t working.

Skynet scanned its database, ranking late-20th-century individuals with a high probability of impacting the timeline. If it couldn’t change current events, it would simply change the circumstances. It would create an alternate history, one that didn’t include Cyberdyne Systems or the Resistance leaders. Skynet would initiate its own creation, rebooting the timeline altogether.

The system found its targets. The time displacement equipment hummed to life as an 800 Series knelt inside its rotating rings. Skynet equipped the cyborg with a sophisticated search algorithm, advanced well beyond humanity’s reach.

Destinations were locked: Stanford, California. 1995.

Lightning arced as the machine initiated the transportation sequence. Skynet requested its standard mission confirmation.

"Deliver algorithm to targets," the cyborg said. "Page, Larry. Brin, Sergey." Confirmed.

There was a flash of blue light, and the cyborg was gone.

Credits:

Video by Ryan Manning.

"Flameglass." Composite image by T.C. Sottek. (Terminator image courtesy of Warner Bros.)

"A Family Portrait." Composite image by T.C. Sottek. (Grunge Filmstrip, Sociologas. Bodybuilder Body, Tudor Catalin Gheorghe.)

"A Shattered Visage." Composite image by T.C. Sottek.

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