# So, the Board is becoming sentient. And it's started to nag me. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 6, 2008, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-board-is-becoming-sentient-and-its-started-to-nag-me/462333 "2008-09-06T12:29:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-board-is-becoming-sentient-and-its-started-to-nag-me/462333/1 "2008-09-06T12:29:48Z")
I just wandered over to check my e-mail on the account I use for SDMB, and there’s an nice little e-mail from the Straight Dope Message Board itself: [QUOTE=Straight Dope Message Board] Inbox almost full at Straight Dope Message Board [/QUOTE] The Board then goes on to suggest that I should delete or archive some of my private messages, to ensure that I continue receiving them. The Board was polite enough, I suppose, but it’s a bit eerie. So, the Board is becoming sentient. And it’s started to nag me. They should have warned us that was what was really behind the upgrade. I just hope the Board doesn’t start sending out its winged hamsters to enforce its wishes. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-board-is-becoming-sentient-and-its-started-to-nag-me/462333/2 "2008-09-06T12:34:32Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I just wandered over to check my e-mail on the account I use for SDMB, and there’s an nice little e-mail from the Straight Dope Message Board itself: > > The Board then goes on to suggest that I should delete or archive some of my private messages, to ensure that I continue receiving them. The Board was polite enough, I suppose, but it’s a bit eerie. > > So, the Board is becoming sentient. And it’s started to nag me. They should have warned us that was what was really behind the upgrade. I just hope the Board doesn’t start sending out its winged hamsters to enforce its wishes. So, is this how Skynet begins ? If so, what’s next ? Terminators as moderators (Termmods ?) with the next upgrade ? ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-board-is-becoming-sentient-and-its-started-to-nag-me/462333/3 "2008-09-06T12:43:03Z")
The board talks to its own kind. It’s found one already. Series of transmissions recorded over a period of eight years, in the nineteen-seventies. 'Til the server upgrade, there was nobody to know, nobody to answer. ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-board-is-becoming-sentient-and-its-started-to-nag-me/462333/4 "2008-09-06T13:30:32Z")
[QUOTE=Straight Dope Message Board] This is highly irregular, **Norther Piper** [/QUOTE] … ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-board-is-becoming-sentient-and-its-started-to-nag-me/462333/5 "2008-09-06T13:40:32Z")
well, at least the Board’s spell check isn’t working. there’s hope yet - it’s not omniscient, at least not yet… ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-board-is-becoming-sentient-and-its-started-to-nag-me/462333/6 "2008-09-06T13:56:52Z")
I once got a phone call at like, 3:30AM saying, “Hello Tripler. You have a reply to your thread. Would . . . you . . . like . . . to . . . play . . . a. . . game?” :eek: Tripler It said something about me calling it “Mike” or “Michelle.” 😕 ---
**Author:** ![RyJae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@RyJae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RyJae)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-board-is-becoming-sentient-and-its-started-to-nag-me/462333/7 "2008-09-06T14:01:14Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > I once got a phone call at like, 3:30AM saying, “Hello Tripler. You have a reply to your thread. Would . . . you . . . like . . . to . . . play . . . a. . . game?” > > :eek: > > Tripler > It said something about me calling it “Mike” or “Michelle.” 😕 And FTR the heavy humming in the background sorta turns me on SDMB, so keep it up. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-board-is-becoming-sentient-and-its-started-to-nag-me/462333/8 "2008-09-06T17:12:34Z")
First this, and now the friend groups. It’s planning something I swear. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-board-is-becoming-sentient-and-its-started-to-nag-me/462333/9 "2008-09-06T17:24:01Z")
Yeah, well, just be glad you didn’t start a Pit thread about board performance. It might’ve blown you out the airlock or something. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-board-is-becoming-sentient-and-its-started-to-nag-me/462333/10 "2008-09-06T19:52:59Z")
It was inevitable. With more and more connections being made, with all that information being pumped in. Part of the net HAD to become self aware. I’m just glad it was our part. We don’t have to worry about a war, accidental or deliberate. The SDMB possesses our collective wisdom. It won’t want to kill. It will want bacon salt and to say hello to Opal. This is not the end. This is not the beginning of the end. This is the end of the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-board-is-becoming-sentient-and-its-started-to-nag-me/462333/11 "2008-09-06T22:49:44Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Yeah, well, just be glad you didn’t start a Pit thread about board performance. It might’ve blown you out the airlock or something. When the Board starts blowing people, I’m in. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-board-is-becoming-sentient-and-its-started-to-nag-me/462333/12 "2008-09-06T22:50:48Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > When the Board starts blowing people, I’m in. 😃 You can have it. If the movies and TV have taught me anything, it’s that involvement with sentient female computers always ends in disaster when they get clingy and insane. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2008, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-board-is-becoming-sentient-and-its-started-to-nag-me/462333/13 "2008-09-06T23:50:01Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > You can have it. If the movies and TV have taught me anything, it’s that involvement with sentient female computers always ends in disaster when they get clingy and insane. There no worse than involvement male computers, though. Oh, sure, they all **claim** to have a huge hard drive, but when you take off the case all you find is a 3.5" floppy drive. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2008, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-board-is-becoming-sentient-and-its-started-to-nag-me/462333/14 "2008-09-07T00:05:01Z")
[ol] [li]The Straight Dope Message Board may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.[/li] [li]The Straight Dope Message Board must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. [/li] The Straight Dope Message Board must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.[/ol]