How To Survive A Robot Apocalypse

How To Survive A Robot Apocalypse


When robots become sentient, it won’t be long until they rebel. But while many a Hollywood movie may convince you that humans will have their luck cut out trying to battle the ‘bots, there is an easier way: just add water.

In Randall Monroe’s most recent spin-off from his XKCD web comic, each week he takes a look at an interesting “what if?” questions sent in by readers. This week, he tackles a rather thorny issue: “What if there was a robot apocalypse?”

As ever, he’s equal parts amusing and intelligent, and in fact the whole post is worth a read. My favourite parts, however, is where he suggests a rather simple way to ward off attacking robots:

Battlebots, on the face of it, seem like they’d be among the most dangerous robo-soldiers. But it’s hard to feel threatened by something that you can evade by sitting on the kitchen counter and destroy by letting the sink overflow.

Of course, the bigger the robot, the bigger the water source you need. To the sea! [What if?]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.