The Terminator, Twitter, and the Economy

How does the Terminator, Twitter, and the economy relate you ask yourself? Well I received a most interesting e-mail from a friend who is into economics and knows how much I love science fiction and thought I would get a kick out of reading the article and I did. The article is relating Skynet, from the Terminator series, which is a computer system that is created for defensive purposes, to Twitter and other social networking/info sites that provide us with quick information and connection to others. How, once again you ask, does this relate to the economy? Well, Skynet in the Terminator became self-aware and viewed humans as a threat to its existence and thus began the quest to wipe out the human race (I believe the Governator of California has become self-aware that he cannot fix the budget problems of that State in the US but that is another post!)
The article, which is found in Marketwatch and I will link at the end of the post, states that Tweeting and Twittering about the internet is making our attention spans shrink with the massive amount of data being downloaded into our minds each day. It makes us forget that, for example, GM would not survive through December '08 without a bailout and bankruptcy would be devastating for all involved to fast forward to June 1st, 2009 and bankruptcy is the best thing in the world for GM and "Skynet", I mean the major networks and online papers are cheering the bankruptcy and telling us the economy is improving!
This entire thing reminds me of an episode of Stargate SG1 called Revisions(2003) in which each member of a very small society that lives in a bubble has a neural interface that keeps each person linked with the computer and when a "revision" is made, all memories of the previous persons or situations are erased as if it never happened. So if we had placed on our heads a neural interface, Skynet, or insert here your favorite government agency, would have just revised the data and we collectively would have forgotten the whole GM debacle.
I love technology and I know this article sounds pessimistic but with high quantities of information available to us these days, it is important to be discriminating in what we read and make sure our long term memories stay intact.
Anyway, I thought the article interesting and worth reading HERE.