I remember being annoyed at the Slaughterbots video. I can't remember why. Perhaps because the dystopian future presented in the film would pretty much immediately usher in an era of fashionable ski masks a la Vance's The Moon Moth, perhaps because when it came out, killbots were already a multi-year reality and the only thing the Future of Life institute gives a shit about is the "AI" portion of the problem.

I'm required to do a presentation on a "ritual object" - something with much pomp and circumstance associated with it. I chose to do automata. What turned out to be interesting is that the history of automata dates back to 900BC and aside from a short proletariat window, it's always been about luxe toys for the ultrawealthy to impress their peers. That short proletariat window? Full of nightmare fuel.

Shadowy forces have chosen to kill political bloggers, therefore the future is dark because AI for some reason. Yet it's not the "chosen to kill political bloggers" that bothers people it's the "AI." It's as if the intelligentsia are saying "trust us - we know when someone is worth killing randomly but if you inject AI into the equation, Skynet is gonna murder John Connor."

Your vision is interesting. It's the automata protecting humanity. Asimov would be proud.