I really liked this Star Trek episode because it shows the fears that humans have from robots even today. You have the M5 computer system coming in to take over the job of the crew. That is something that we’ve all learned to accept by now. We know that computers can perform task faster and more efficient than the human mind can, but the M5 is there for a different reason. It also replaces Captain Kirk and Spock. I think we all get emotional when we realize the great Captain Kirk is going to be replaced by a machine. It will no longer be the “final frontier” for humans. Instead the computer will be getting the experience. Our first inkling of danger is when the M5 begins shutting down the power and life support systems on different decks of the ship. “Oh no!” I ask myself. What happens if the M5 shuts down life support systems where I’m at right now?
We have also accepted that computers will start making life and death decisions for us. We have planes that run on auto pilot as well as unmanned aerial vehicles now. But now the M5 is making decisions that attack the other star ships when provoked during drills. Eventually, we will see that they are able to make the computer commit “suicide” when it realizes that it is responsible for killing humans. Here’s the real scary part. As of right now, we know that the computer can’t feel. It can only do. If the computer is programmed wrong, it will have the ability to murder us, but it won’t have the conscience to turn itself off and “die”. In the end, it is us humans who must do the dying so the computer can live. Technology doesn't die after all, but we do.
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