Wednesday 26 March 2008

Smart bombs

How smart does a smart bomb have to be before you feel guilty about destroying it? A self-guiding mechanism is fair enough, but what if the bomb had the power of speech?

"Dave?"
"Yes, Bomb?"
"Why are we going to Baghdad?"
"Uh ... There are some bad people there. We're going to, um, blow up their building."
"Oh. How are we going to do that?"
"Well, when I say 'we' are going to do it, I mean you are."
"How?"
"... We're going to drop you from this plane, then it's your job to find that building and hit it."
"And I'll blow up the bad people?"
"Yes, Bomb."
"Will it hurt, Dave?"
"I don't know, Bomb. I don't know."

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Bombs probably don't need to speak.
PPS - And the armed forces would need a lot more psychiatrists in that kind of world.

2 comments:

Erin Marie said...

"Will it hurt, Dave?"
"I don't know, Bomb. I don't know."

I like it. Very amusing mental image.

John said...

I amused myself a bit too. Dave standing with his hand on the nose of the bomb, hanging his head and shaking it sadly.