Leader: How Europe learned to stop worrying and love PCs

The Terminator. 2001. I Robot. Demon Seed. Westworld. The Matrix.

What has Hollywood been telling us for decades? Computers are evil. Give them the slightest chance and they will rise up and squash us like bugs.

So it may come as a surprise to some that most Europeans consider PCs to be an even more virtuous technology than solar power.

Only a pessimistic (and presumably tin hat-wearing) six per cent of the 25,000 people surveyed thought computers will make things worse.

Despite concerns about jobs being automated, RSI, viruses and all the other nasties that come with IT, it is reassuring to see that the vast majority think the benefits outweigh the costs.

And this is good for the IT profession as well - the more people who think the use of IT is a good thing, the easier it will be to attract people into the industry.

All innovations go through a maturity curve, of course. It's perhaps instructive to look at the difference in perception between computers and mobiles - only 58 per cent thought mobile phones will have a positive impact on their lives.

Computers, however, are now such an integral part of the fabric of our lives that most people don't even notice them, while mobiles are new enough that not everyone has got used to the way they change our lives.

So what about movies featuring friendly computers? Short Circuit is at the top of a pretty short list.

If the public has lost its fear of computers, maybe it's time for Hollywood to come up with some better role models for the next generation of techies - and their computers.