Since it's a summertime Friday, I'll keep this brief and invite your commentary.

While I don't believe that machines will take over (at least in our lifetimes), interconnections formed the most theoretically compelling yet realistic element of T3's plot. The machines may rise up against us, but not on their own. When it happens, humans will undoubtedly be the cause. The war, then, would not be between man and machine, but man and man, as it has always been. This time, however, it will be men paralyzing TRW Credit, or General Motors, or other corporate entities—even entire cities—met by other men trying to outsmart them.

The infrastructure is in place. Global trade is now intensely dependent upon the Internet, and there are ongoing efforts to better monitor and trend such spreading attacks before they become a real threat. PlanetLab comes to mind, for instance. To quote a piece of that linked article authored by Steven Schultz…

"PlanetLab researchers believe the project will help the Internet evolve beyond a simple structure for transmitting data from place to place and toward a system that can manipulate the data before and after it travels. It is a first step toward an Internet that has processing power built into the infrastructure of the network. Because it is so decentralized, the Internet cannot change overnight. But if PlanetLab demonstrates value, companies that sell Internet hardware might begin to work aspects of the system into their products, said Peterson."

Part of the 'intelligent Internet' includes the ability to actually see a virus start spreading and — intelligently, through both smart network nodes and even smarter people — head off the infections by completely blocking access to (beyond firewalls, most of which are penetrable) and shutting down systems that appear to be next on the hacker's list. Just as an aside, I've interviewed Professor Peterson. Rest assured that he's not some behind-closed-doors dweeb. He's the real deal: scary-smart and a nice guy to boot—one of the nation's prominent technologists to whom we should pay very close attention.

Also consider that the 'net is not only for PCs anymore. It's everywhere. It's in hotels and airports. It's in our cell phones, many copiers/printers, and an increasing number of PDAs. Hell, it's even in our home appliances, some of which being capable of reporting — through 'net connections — problems to service technicians. Frighteningly, it's also part of or connected to most every assembly line, food processing facility, chemical plant, field devices and controls, some machine controls, even vehicles through assistance and navigation systems — basically, anything with a microprocessor and a 'net connection.

Simply connect the dots and imagine the possibilities. Paralyzing an entire city really doesn't seem far fetched.

Living 'off the grid' might not be such a bad idea.

Unjustified paranoia?