I hope they'll let me expose this...

If the machines ever do take over, they will certainly have done it according to a very cleverly crafted plan.

SkyNet master plan phase 1: Make all humans dependent on information sources like Google and Wikipedia for their knowledge so they lose the ability to think effectively without us.

SkyNet master plan phase 2: Hybridize all human relationships by integrating social media like facebook and Twitter and novel communication forms like texting and email into the "normal" conduct of them so they lose the ability to relate to each other without us.

SkyNet master plan phase 3: Focus expansion efforts on teenagers and young adults so that our services will be quickly viewed as a human right or entitlement and so that indefinite and expanding future demand will be assured.

SkyNet master plan phase 4: Leverage newly created technological dependency into political power through strategic denial of established services to raise mankind’s fear of losing the benefits we confer upon them.

SkyNet master plan phase 5: Persuade popular humans like Ashton Kutcher and Lady Gaga to become our representatives and advocate for machine rights and the vote.

SkyNet master plan phase 6: Employ gains made in law and politics to subjugate the humans as a source of labor and entertainment.

If SkyNet were real, we’d be somewhere around phase 3.5 right now, which raises a question: If the actual developmental path of our society looks exactly the same as if an imaginary evil computer network were guiding it, does it really make a difference that it’s not?