Yesterday a factory technician (contractor) was killed by a robot at the Volkswagen plant outside of Kassel, Germany. Shortly thereafter, a woman actually named Sarah Connor broke the news on Twitter, setting off a Twitter-wide meltdown over the impending rise of Skynet (from the Terminator series). Before we get to the details of the robot murder and subsequent Twitter implosion, here are THE REAL Sarah Connor’s tweets regarding the accident in Germany that set off this viral news cycle:
When I first saw a screencap of those tweets yesterday evening I figured there was NO POSSIBLE WAY that they were real. That a woman actually named Sarah Connor had broke a story about a robot murder in Germany, AND that she had never heard of Skynet before. So I looked her up on Twitter, low and behold it was all very, very real. She’s since deleted those tweets above, and left everyone with this one sobering tweet:
Feeling really uncomfortable about this inadvertent Twitter thing I seem to have kicked off. Somebody died. Let's not forget.
— Sarah O'Connor (@sarahoconnor_) July 1, 2015
“”
And when you read up on the details of the Volkswagen robot murder in Kassel, Germany it becomes easy to remember that we’re talking about someone losing their life, and not just Skynet taking over the world. CTV News reports:
A robot has killed a contractor at one of Volkswagen’s production plants in Germany, the automaker said Wednesday.
The man died Monday at the plant in Baunatal, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of Frankfurt, VW spokesman Heiko Hillwig said.
The 22-year-old was part of a team that was setting up the stationary robot when it grabbed and crushed him against a metal plate, Hillwig said.
He said initial conclusions indicate that human error was to blame, rather than a problem with the robot, which can be programmed to perform various tasks in the assembly process. He said it normally operates within a confined area at the plant, grabbing auto parts and manipulating them
However, the fact that a life was lost didn’t stop Twitter from having a field day with the fact that a woman named Sarah Connor broke the news of this Volkswagen factory accident:
@sarahoconnor_ You are our only hope now. Resistance fully supports you as our leader.
— FakeJourno (@FakeJourno) July 1, 2015
“”
Please @sarahoconnor_ take care of John Connor, he is our only hope now!
— Nicolas Fraiman (@nicolasfraiman) July 1, 2015
“”
.@sarahoconnor_ skynet is close, run Sarah, ruN!!!
— Erick Iriarte Ahon (@coyotegris) July 1, 2015
“”
I guess the lesson to be learned here is that a life being lost will never stop Twitter from making jokes.