This weekend I consumed some rather disturbing media. The Saturday New York Times ran a story about the looming robot apocalypse. Below the first photo in the article is the caption: “This personal robot plugs itself in when it needs a charge. Servant now, master later?” This is the stuff of conspiracy theories. The story itself is interesting and thought-provoking, but you just can’t help getting goosebumps thinking about a real-life, modern-day Terminator scenario.
Secondly, I listened to a This American Life podcast distributed by NPR. The show from 7/10/09 featured a story about a man who committed a crime and, when faced with 5-7 years of prison time, started looking for alternatives. Inmates at the prison suggested he pass himself off as a lunatic and thus get moved to a cushy psychiatric ward. The man, Tony, mimicked scenes from various psycho-thriller movies (Clockwork Orange, Blue Velvet) to the desired effect. What he didn’t anticipate was how difficult it would be to get out of an insane asylum. He was assigned to the Broadmoor asylum, a place for the worst psychologically ill offenders in all of England. When he tried to convince doctors that he was actually perfectly sane and had only pretended to be mentally unstable they just took that as a sign that he was really ill. Apart from the story itself, there’s something very creepy about the guy on the radio telling the story. I’m sure it was unintended, but he sounds eerily similar to Old Gregg.