Entertainment
William Shatner Warned Everyone Of The Dangers Of AI In The 60s
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Science fiction has been warning us about the dangers of seemingly helpful technological innovations for over a hundred years. Even before computers were found in every home and in our pockets, overreliance on technology has been a common theme, including in the legendary anthology series, The Twilight Zone.
“Nick of Time” was released on November 18, 1960, and while it’s about a man’s dependence on a cheap fortune-telling novelty toy, it still works. 66 years later, in the era of ChatGPT and AI language models that are all too willing to provide advice.
William Shatner’s Choice Paralysis
“Nick of Time” stars William Shatner as Don Carter and Patricia Breslin (future wife of Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell) as Pat Carter, newlyweds stuck in a small town in the middle of Ohio, when they come across a cheap fortune-telling novelty machine in the booth of a roadside diner. Don plays with the machine by asking it if he’ll get a promotion when he gets the affirmative response, “It has been decided in your favor.” One call to New York later, Don realizes he got the promotion, and his fascination with the tabletop trinket quickly becomes an obsession.
Don continues asking questions to the devil-topped fortune-teller and receives inane generic responses, from “that makes a good deal of sense,” to “the answer to that is obvious,” and of course, “try again.” Paralyzed by indecision without the guidance from the fortune-teller, Don remains trapped in the booth, waiting for an answer to the question, “Where should we live?” Unlike most episodes of The Twilight Zone, Pat breaks her husband free from his obsession, and they leave town, but the ending shows another couple, trapped, unable to leave until the fortune-telling machine says they can.
The unsubtle message of “Nick of Time” is the importance of human connection over a machine. The Twilight Zone has stood the test of time because of the universal morals at the heart of its twisted stories. 50 years later, Her told a similar story of a man becoming infatuated with a machine, and Ex Machina added a new wrinkleby giving the machine a human form. The AI in both movies is far, far more advanced than a penny fortune-teller, but the end result, obsession, decision paralysis, a loss of human connection, it’s all the same.
The Twilight Zone Is A Timeless Classic For A Reason
William Shatner went on to star in another, better-remembered episode of The Twilight Zone, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” and a little show you may have heard of called Star Trek. His overacting has been parodied for decades, but as both of his appearances in Rod Serling’s masterpiece show, when asked to play a man slowly losing his mind, there’s no one better.
The Twilight Zone is still one of the greatest shows of all time, and episodes like “Nick of Time” prove why no amount of reboots and revivals can match the simple effectiveness of the original. In 1960, no one imagined that we’d eventually have an app on our phones that acts exactly like the devil-head fortune-teller from the episode, but it doesn’t matter. The early horror sci-fi series could have been talking about television, computers, or telephones, and its point would still land: don’t let technology rule your life. Though today, a character would come right out and say, “go touch grass.”