My family and I went to see the movie Terminator
3 last night. Like Terminator and Terminator 2, the premise of
the movie is that machines in the not-too-distant future wage
war with the human population on Earth. The Matrix and its sequel,
The Matrix Reloaded, are two additional popular movies with a
similar theme.
I'm not sure why, but I really enjoyed watching all of these films.
Perhaps it's because we live in a world where we are constantly
reminded that there are two sides to every story and that nobody
is all bad. In movies where humans are the villains, our sense
of political correctness tempers the reaction we have when the
nemesis is destroyed. On the other hand, for an EMC engineer who
struggles with computing equipment on a daily basis, it can be
particularly satisfying to see an evil machine blown into a million
pieces.
As you might expect, electromagnetic compatibility plays a role
in all of these movies. In Terminator 3, the villain is subdued
at one point by the magnetic field from a linear accelerator.
In The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded, the main weapon used by
the human heroes is an electromagnetic pulse generator. Apparently
the premise in both cases is that although the machines are smart
enough to rule the world, they have not yet developed basic grounding
and shielding skills. Let's hope that if machines ever do try
to take over, they don't enlist the aid of an evil EMC engineer
or, worse yet, gain access to any EMC expert system codes.
If you weren't able to attend the IEEE International EMC Symposium
in Istanbul last May, you missed a good one. Despite the ailing
economy, the war in Iraq and the threat of SARS, the Istanbul
symposium was well attended. Elya Joffe and the symposium committee,
as well as the local committee in Turkey, did a great job of planning
and hosting this event. The next major EMC event will be the IEEE
EMC Symposium in Boston this August. Jon Curtis and his committee
have prepared an excellent program in one of the most interesting
and historical cities in the U.S. I hope to see you there! EMC
President's
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