There’s a joke that a friend is fond of that ends in a payment terminal displaying, “Kill him at once” instead of “Approved / please remove your card”.

As I find myself remembering this joke, I kind of hope we never reach the point where computers declare that someone should be killed. Which oddly makes my mind flash to Project Insight rather than Sky Net.

Growing up, I decided if I ever had to fill out a time capsule describing my generation that a VHS copy of Terminator 2: Judgement Day would have to be in it. For me, it’s kind of defines the time I grew up in, lol. But I have to admit, as terrifying a concept as a defense network declaring humanity a threat and launching judgement day upon humanity is, I think S.H.I.E.L.D.’s idea in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, is far more alarming. Project Insight effectively called for roving surveillance of the people they were charged with protecting, and both the computing and military infrastructure necessary to automatically catalogue potential targets and the tools to assassinate that target. Although, I would kind of like to think on Fury’s watch rather than HYDRA’s that agents deployed would have been more common than deploying the nearest helicarrier for a kinetic strike 😅.