The first tickling story I remember reading was on the 'net, around 1992 ("The Intruder", still one of the best simple, marathon tales to inspire imitators like me). The second one was about extraterrestrials beaming a woman up into their ship...

Even in the years since then, a number of technologies have been steadily maturing that will have breathtaking uses against subs, whether they're consenting or not. I'm not making the news, here, just trying to report it. ("When It Changed," to quote a favorite author.)

You may think that sentient "tools" will never restrain the hands that built them, and you may well be right. Better men than me have been blinded by their fears or desires.

I've tried to hold onto that rational expectation, but the conclusion that I keep coming back to is that it's only a matter of time, really. As a result of honest curiosity or the best of intentions, ticklishness will be "discovered" by a machine or a program. It will be studied and measured. Purposes for exploiting it that we haven't even dreamed up yet will emerge.

I joked recently with an e-mail correspondent about expecting a "Matrix"/SkyNet takeover that will not overlook tickling. (And let's not forget about "Snow Crash," which will look positively quaint someday.) A few science fiction writers in the Thirties were already thinking about invisible beings which fed on electrical activity in the brain (goosed up by emotional responses), but I fear - and hope, when I'm in a stupider mood - that we're not too far away from creating an mystical predator class, all by ourselves.

It isn't that I want to be the first on record - "told ya so!" - because if I'm right it won't matter. (Kindly bear in mind that I started posting these twisted little episodes on USENET and the web in 1997.) Too many unnerving developments are far enough along already. Safety won't be found by ignoring new achievements - coupled with other triumphs in automation - but by keeping our eyes open and watching out for each other. And that, come to think of it, is a necessity for the future in any case. I still like my paranoia better than some other outcomes I could mention...

 
(with or without a little help from previously unknown species...)
 

Higher Technology

Tyc
The Big Picture
Todd
Zamazz
Touchup
Ambients
Reeducation
TAC
Rodder
BURNHIM
Tyroderm
Squealthug
Night School
TM Origin - Variation T
Bot-enemy
Free Ball

Amusing Zeke

Offworld

Sounderator
Kitday
Clarke
Like Father
Hah
Recaytrix