We were having a friendly conversation at work about robots and how they were the coolest thing ever. The robots in question were writing songs and painting pictures, which someone pointed out were taking away the most enjoyable pursuits of life and leaving us with … what?

“I don’t care, so long as nobody gives them guns,” another somebody said.

“And how’s that scarier than a killer robot that never picks up a gun?” I asked. I freely admitted that I enjoyed the Terminator movies as much as anybody else, but one thing about those movies that puzzled me was why anybody thought Arnie was scarier after he got his hands on machine guns. He was six feet tall, made of metal, and could pull your heart out of your chest with one hand. That was way scarier to me than seeing him shoot his way unstoppably through a police station, although I practiced saying “Uzi nine millimeter” with an Austrian accent and I know you did, too.