“Come with me if you want to live.”

Everyone knows that, if we're not careful, we will eventually end up creating a computer that will destroy the world. My generation has a name for this: “Skynet.” Actually, there was just that new movie, so the kids probably call it that now, too. Good.

Sony has just brought us one step closer to Skynet, with the introduction of the PartyShot Personal Photographer. You put your compatible Sony point-and-shoot camera on this thing, and it takes the pictures for you.

It uses motion detection to seek out people to photograph, and pans and tilts to follow them. It uses face detection and smile detection to aim and get the moment. It uses the frigging rule of thirds to make pleasing compositions.

Digital photography has now progressed to the point where you don't even have to bother actually taking the pictures at all. At what point does it stop being photography, and become killer robots with Austrian accents?

At what point do we render “photography” meaningless, or valueless?