So, KVOA has unveiled one of the TV station news ideas that no one really asked for, but seems to be a big deal anyway called News 4 Tucson SKYNET, a series of HD cameras (or "observation network" as their promo video puts it) around town that allows them to show more clear live footage of rainstorms, traffic jams and homeless people urinating or something.

However, while I'm not thrilled with the idea of a private company setting up cameras around town, the first thing that came to my mind regarding this new initiative was that the name sounded so familiar.

Oh, right, they gave their weird camera system the same name as the self-aware artificial intelligence system that takes over the world in the Terminator movies.

This seems like a peculiar mistake, adopting a name with an existing negative connotation, especially considering the very first Google result is an extensive Wikipedia article about the Terminator series and the first YouTube result is a clip from Terminator 2 about the day when Skynet became aware. It seems worth looking up the name you give your fancy project, but maybe that's just me.

However, is it possible that KVOA's new camera system is actually part of a real life take over by our future computer overlords? Maybe the Terminator movies were created to throw humanity off the scent. April 19, 2011 has come and gone without Skynet becoming aware (OR SO WE THINK), so all future references will just seem like poor decision making by a local media outlet and not at all the installation of "eyes" for a self-educating artificial intelligence system.

Either way, the cameras are kind of creepy.