Ever get the feeling machines are taking over our lives? That we're losing control? That maybe just maybe you're essentially stored on some hard drive some place for prying eyes to see? Maybe you enjoy the virtual world a little better than the real one? Thumb Bandits examines what we've coined 'The Terminator Effect'.

Are machines taking over our lives and we don't even know it?

Machines Go Unnoticed - The Invisible Menace

Machines have slowly but surely seeped into all areas of life in the past few centuries. Now as we live in this 21st century they're everywhere, it's hard to live life without them and it goes for most cultures, just to differing technological levels. We have machines from dusk til dawn and we're becoming so accustomed to them we don't even realise the vast network spread out before us in the average persons day. The alarm clock goes off to tell you to rise, in whatever incarnation... watch, phone, clock etc. You get up and head into the shower, you turn it on, set the temperature with the twist of a dial. Dry off and get read for work, check your watch and head to make breakfast, pop in some toast, grab your car keys, set the house alarm (well something 'watching over' your house in your absence at least), head outside, press the car key to open the car, hop in and off you go to work, perhaps place a CD in the car cd whilst stuck in traffic. Head into the office, check the answering machine, then the fax machine, turn on the computer and absorb yourself in what the screen has to offer.

As with most things, 'man' in his / her quest to move forward inadvertantly changes culture itself on the 'living' level we work in day to day. The entire fabric of the way we go about things changes when technologies are entered into the piece. One of the most striking examples of this is the mobile phone and mobile technologies. As well as the economic boom in information technologies as a business the innocent mobile phone has a lot more to answer for. You see the little box of electronic gadgetry not only aids us in our everyday lives, it also changes the way we intereact with people and the spaces around us, but people don't generally think on this level. It helps us, it makes life easier so we accept it.

"Individuals now live in this phone space and they can never let it go, because it is their primary link to the temporally, spatially fragmented network of friends and colleagues they have constructed for themselves. It has become their new umbilical cord, pulling the networked society's digital infrastructure into their very bodies." Anthony Townsend

And so it goes....

The mobile then is a good example of how a machine can infiltrate society and become an indespensible part of that society. So what else is there... well.. pretty much anything that makes your life easier, we humans are a lazy lot when we get down to it, even doing something 'natural' can end up with a machine aided twist...
Getting Fit... Take a run... not in the woods.. it's dangerous out there... Ahhh a running machine at my local indoor cozy gym, why I can run up hills, downhills and it will take my pulse rate for me!

You may be thinking AND? Well the point of this editorial is to get the brain thinking... what direction are we headed in and who has the power... who's driving? As a board full of gamers (since thumb bandits is a gaming site) who of you can't wait for the next console release? Well I put my hand up straight away! And so we press on.. the public demand it and the companies want to give it to us... it's worth billions!!

Paranoid Ramblings....
They're going to get us... they'll start to think for themselves and then we'll be in trouble!! Well that's not really what I'm getting at... though I won't discount it as a possibility I always feel this argument has a fundamental flaw, we make them and we're really not that smart, so with us as their basis they really aren't off to a very good start. Also given mans penchante for slavery things don't bode well for our little mechanical friend.

A Philosophical Question....
Anyone who's ever seen the Star Trek Next Gen Episode: ' The Measure of a Man' is already going to be familiar with the philosophy of 'what constitutes a life form'. Essentially this episode sheds deep philosophical light on what it means to be 'human'. Although the thought that any robot at present could be anything close to human seems absurd remember time moves swiftly on.. before you know it the Xbox Virtua 4 will be getting a release for an astonishing 350 Terra Credits and we'll be faced with this very dilemma!

The Terminator Effect - Sentient Machines
Like it or not we're on the road to the sentient robotic humanoid, it could take centuries, or with a huge leap in tech levels it could only take decades, plenty of people are desperately working at it as I type this into the global machine for people thousands of miles away to peruse ;o)

If it all goes horribly wrong for us and the 'student' (ie THEM - The Robot!) overcomes the 'master' (ie US, powermongering humans) then all is not lost, apparently some people are working to fight the good fight!! Ok so this is a joke.. it's bringing a little humour into this editorial lest you go stark raving bonky as you still ponder just how easily the mobile phone has slotted into our unsuspecting culture ;o)

Anti Robot Militia!
I haven't examined EVERY aspect of this site but it amused me for the time I spent there. I'm hoping it's not a wolf in sheeps clothing since some rather unsavory sites have sprung up on the net recently saying they are one thing whilst actually being another. I don't think this is the case here but if someone should think otherwise just contact Thumb Bandits Admin.

We hope you have enjoyed this little foray into the machine and it's easy entry into culture and we urge you tomorrow to try and count the amount of times in the day you interact / are aided by / use a machine to get where you're going, do what you're doing or pay for your lunch! And as you do think about how you usually don't really pay them much attention and remember .........