Time Lords and Terminators
- Publication: Financial Times
- Date: 2023-11-11
- Author:
- Page:
- Language: English
Your editorial "The science of the successful succession" (FT View, November 4) ponders the possibility of digital overlords running companies.
In 1984 James Cameron's film The Terminator gave us "Skynet", a sentient computer that started world war three rather than be switched off.
Eleven years earlier the BBC's Time Lord, Doctor Who (then played by Jon Pertwee) battled the nefarious multinational "Global Chemicals" in Wales. The company was secretly run by a supercomputer "Biomorphic Organisational Systems Supervisor (or Boss). Hiding behind a human underling, Boss was "logically" disposing of toxic waste by tipping it into recently shuttered coal mines, since this was cheaper than proper reprocessing. The deadly infections, maggots and giant flies were mere "negative externalities", unworthy of computation. Pure science-fiction, of course ...
Marc Hudson
Stone, Stafibrdshire, UK
Disclaimer: These citations are created on-the-fly using primitive parsing techniques. You should double-check all citations. Send feedback to whovian@cuttingsarchive.org
- APA 6th ed.: (2023-11-11). Time Lords and Terminators. Financial Times .
- MLA 7th ed.: "Time Lords and Terminators." Financial Times [add city] 2023-11-11. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: "Time Lords and Terminators." Financial Times, edition, sec., 2023-11-11
- Turabian: "Time Lords and Terminators." Financial Times, 2023-11-11, section, edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Time Lords and Terminators | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Time_Lords_and_Terminators | work=Financial Times | pages= | date=2023-11-11 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=21 November 2024 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Time Lords and Terminators | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Time_Lords_and_Terminators | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=21 November 2024}}</ref>
