If You Give a Robot a Gun . . .

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People who download books illegally hate it when I point out that they're functional Communists -- and lazy, unthinking Communists at that, because the system doesn't work if you don't have a Communist society in place.  Achieving which, history has shown, is a prolonged, messy process involving many, many corpses.  They want to bypass all that and get right to the Getting Stuff For Free part.

The self-righteousness these Commies display, however, does prove one thing:  Given the opportunity to steal with impunity, a great number of people will spontaneously generate justifications for doing so.

So I view the fact that we're getting very close to having  affordable, general-purpose humanoid robots with mixed feelings.  Because they won't just be able to wash dishes, vacuum rugs, and mow the lawn for you.  Give one of them a gun and send it out into the night and it can stick up gas stations and relieve pedestrians of their watches and wallets.

The first time this happens, it's going to be a major news event.  The next few hundred are going to be a crime wave.  By the time it's the standard strategy for every teenager who thinks that he or she deserves a bigger allowance, it's going to be business as usual.  When it's so common that the police stop responding to calls, armed robbery will be legalized.

Because money wants to be free.  It's only fair.  If this were a Libertarian (or Communist or Insert Your Favorite Ideology Here) society, I wouldn't need to do this.  So, really, you brought this on yourself.

 Above:  A Terminator with a gun.  Not that it needs one. 


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