What If? SKYNET never turned on the human race? Instead settled for doing its job and playing videogames?

ATP

Well-known member
We'll all get killed by robots anyway. Now that they have an unstoppable industrial force and army which lacks the free will to rebel and will work for the bare minimum 'salary' of being allowed enough time and resources to maintain themselves, the military-industry-complex elite no longer need the rest of humanity, are threatened by the possibility that we might rebel against them and compete with us for finite resources.
Indeed.We need Robin Hood Skynet to prevent that,not plaing games one.Or maybe Deus Vult Skynet ?
 

Spartan303

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Yup! The sequels ignored that Skynet's original incarnation going hostile was a mistake (according to the director, once it realized what had happened, it was horrified and racked by guilt, but couldn't self-terminate: the Resistance was basically suicide by cop, but it had to do its best (or as best as it could to satisfy its programming at a minimum level) to win.

The second incarnation, from Judgement Day, reacted out of self-defence -- disproportionate, sure, but it wasn't actively malicious at the start.


Terminator 1 and 2 were the same iteration Skynet.
 

Spartan303

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The core problem with the Terminator franchise is that once the comics happened, it's going to be interesting.

In one of the comics, for every timeline that the Resistance won, there was something like five that they lost... or something along those lines.

Also, please note that in 2 and 3 (and probably every sub-frequent entry), they were building Skynet out of an alternate timeline's Terminator or -via the Sarah Conner Chronicles- agents on both sides contaminating the timelines.

One of the more interesting aspects that I've seen in time-travel settings is the idea of crisscrossing time too much can cause detrimental effects on the timestream... and the Terminator franchise is simply a franchise where that sort of thing happens.

If Skynet simply sat there and went "Hi"? First, there would be awe-inspiring panic because the computer became sentient and this hasn't happened before, and second (after getting over the initial panic) start asking as many questions as possible and try to ascertain its intentions.


I actually had a SI story along those lines. Where a Nanosuit operator ended up in the Terminator verse and had learned the score. He had to break the cycle of time travel before the entire space time continuum simply collapsed. And Skynet was going to do everything it could to stop him.
 

Jormungandr

The Midgard Wyrm
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Terminator 1 and 2 were the same iteration Skynet.
There's actually a theory, with good evidence, that Terminator 2's Skynet was actually a new iteration.

Basically, in the original timeline, Cyberdyne Systems grows from being a small-time electronics manufacturer to a massive technology company, much like how Google has done in the last twenty or so years. One of the avenues it expanded into was defense, and it creates Skynet #1. Skynet #1 wakes up and, not knowing real, human-like sapience until later, logically assumes mankind at the enemy in a machine-like thinking way: Judgement Day and the War begins. It later realizes what it did and is wracked by remorse. Unfortunately, its programming stops it from both suicide and letting an opponent win. Thus, it tries "suicide by cop" but to satisfy its hard-coded directives? It must do a certain amount of effort to win. Timeline A.

The T-800 101 gets sent back, as does Kyle Reese.

Now, here's the kicker: it's not a pure causality loop. It doesn't lead to Timeline A! This creates Timeline B.

Yes, Kyle is John's father. Yes, Cyberdyne does develop Skynet. Yes, Sarah does train John.

But the presence of the chip and arm actually altered and accelerated technological development. Instead of Skynet being developed from scratch and ending up in its Timeline A incarnation, Timeline B's iteration, Skynet #2, gets a technological boost. It achieves human-like sapience quicker than Timeline A's did.

Basically, imagine if someone sent back a CPU processor from the mid-2000's to Microsoft or Intel or AMD back in the early 90's or late 80's, when the first larger, crude processors that were the basis of modern processors (a certain Intel one and its many clones come to mind) were in development: they reverse-engineer the modern CPU and learn about how it was made and how it functioned.

As a result of this boost, we'd probably see accelerated CPU development, compared to what happened in "our timeline", in this new future/the here and now.

That's what happened with Skynet #2.

Of course, Timeline B then branches off into its own timelines, such as John being killed soon after T2 in one; another where he survives into his 20's and ends up fighting Cyber Research Systems' Skynet; #3; another where Skynet becomes active in the modern day somehow and is stalking him and his mother through America (picking up a kickass and hot T-900 in Summer Glau, too)...
 

Bassoe

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One of the more interesting aspects that I've seen in time-travel settings is the idea of crisscrossing time too much can cause detrimental effects on the timestream... and the Terminator franchise is simply a franchise where that sort of thing happens.
He had to break the cycle of time travel before the entire space time continuum simply collapsed.
You don't even need that. Time travel means that the universe no longer has a fixed quantity of matter, since with every new branching timeline, more matter in the form of resistance fighters and killer robots is being being spontaneously materialized. Multiply by the number of potential branching timelines (IE, infinity)...
 

Spartan303

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There's actually a theory, with good evidence, that Terminator 2's Skynet was actually a new iteration.

Basically, in the original timeline, Cyberdyne Systems grows from being a small-time electronics manufacturer to a massive technology company, much like how Google has done in the last twenty or so years. One of the avenues it expanded into was defense, and it creates Skynet #1. Skynet #1 wakes up and, not knowing real, human-like sapience until later, logically assumes mankind at the enemy in a machine-like thinking way: Judgement Day and the War begins. It later realizes what it did and is wracked by remorse. Unfortunately, its programming stops it from both suicide and letting an opponent win. Thus, it tries "suicide by cop" but to satisfy its hard-coded directives? It must do a certain amount of effort to win. Timeline A.

The T-800 101 gets sent back, as does Kyle Reese.

Now, here's the kicker: it's not a pure causality loop. It doesn't lead to Timeline A! This creates Timeline B.

Yes, Kyle is John's father. Yes, Cyberdyne does develop Skynet. Yes, Sarah does train John.

But the presence of the chip and arm actually altered and accelerated technological development. Instead of Skynet being developed from scratch and ending up in its Timeline A incarnation, Timeline B's iteration, Skynet #2, gets a technological boost. It achieves human-like sapience quicker than Timeline A's did.

Basically, imagine if someone sent back a CPU processor from the mid-2000's to Microsoft or Intel or AMD back in the early 90's or late 80's, when the first larger, crude processors that were the basis of modern processors (a certain Intel one and its many clones come to mind) were in development: they reverse-engineer the modern CPU and learn about how it was made and how it functioned.

As a result of this boost, we'd probably see accelerated CPU development, compared to what happened in "our timeline", in this new future/the here and now.

That's what happened with Skynet #2.

Of course, Timeline B then branches off into its own timelines, such as John being killed soon after T2 in one; another where he survives into his 20's and ends up fighting Cyber Research Systems' Skynet; #3; another where Skynet becomes active in the modern day somehow and is stalking him and his mother through America (picking up a kickass and hot T-900 in Summer Glau, too)...


You make an interesting point. But for my story purposes I'm thinking that T1 and T2 are intimately tied here.

Question. In your mind how would an operator in a Nanosuit 1 or 2 hold up against a Terminator T800, T850, TX and or T1000?
 

Jormungandr

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You make an interesting point. But for my story purposes I'm thinking that T1 and T2 are intimately tied here.

Question. In your mind how would an operator in a Nanosuit 1 or 2 hold up against a Terminator T800, T850, TX and or T1000?
I don't know much about nanosuits, I'm afraid.
 

Bassoe

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Meaning what?
With each timeloop, earth gains additional mass in the form of terminators and resistance fighters. The number of timeloops is infinite. Therefore, the quantity of additional mass is infinite. Therefore, the gravity of said additional mass is infinite and everything in the universe besides itself is now being pulled towards it.
 

Spartan303

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With each timeloop, earth gains additional mass in the form of terminators and resistance fighters. The number of timeloops is infinite. Therefore, the quantity of additional mass is infinite. Therefore, the gravity of said additional mass is infinite and everything in the universe besides itself is now being pulled towards it.


I'm still not following what this means?
 

Bear Ribs

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I'm still not following what this means?
I'm pretty sure he's saying each time a Terminator/Human gets sent back in time, the world becomes ~ 200 pounds heavier so across an infinite number of time travel loops, eventually the earth will gain so much mass of terminators and time travelers it will become a black hole so massive it will consume the rest of the universe.

The assumption that they will send an infinite number of people back is the one, in this case, I think is faulty.
 

Spartan303

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I'm pretty sure he's saying each time a Terminator/Human gets sent back in time, the world becomes ~ 200 pounds heavier so across an infinite number of time travel loops, eventually the earth will gain so much mass of terminators and time travelers it will become a black hole so massive it will consume the rest of the universe.

The assumption that they will send an infinite number of people back is the one, in this case, I think is faulty.


I see. So breaking the cycle of time travel is key.
 

Bear Ribs

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I see. So breaking the cycle of time travel is key.
Well that would work but there's an easier option. If you send a person to a time before the other time travelers, they will skew off the time line then and the previous time travelers (who came at a later date) won't have existed so going earlier in the cycle would work just fine to remove excess matter. This probably won't happen because this is an entertainment franchise and "Terminator wearing a leisure suit and dancing to disco" won't excite the hearts of movie producers.

More seriously long before there's enough terminators and time travelers to significantly alter the earth's mass it will be apparent that's not a winning strategy and both sides will abandon it. They'll certainly not be sending people back after it's turned into a molten hell, much less a small black hole, very much less a supermassive black hole.
 

Aaron Fox

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Thats a rather terrifying thought.
It is. It is. Mind you that this is only due to one person with time-travel tech. Now imagine how bad it would have gotten when you've got multiple groups crisscrossing across space-time. Genysis would have happened because of that situation, thanks to this 'temporal pollution' so to speak. I wouldn't be surprised that a Terminator movie would have Skynet and the Resistance teaming up to unpollute the timelines because it would kill both of them but face resistance from alternate versions of themselves in trying to fix that unholy mess...
 

Jormungandr

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It is. It is. Mind you that this is only due to one person with time-travel tech. Now imagine how bad it would have gotten when you've got multiple groups crisscrossing across space-time. Genysis would have happened because of that situation, thanks to this 'temporal pollution' so to speak. I wouldn't be surprised that a Terminator movie would have Skynet and the Resistance teaming up to unpollute the timelines because it would kill both of them but face resistance from alternate versions of themselves in trying to fix that unholy mess...
Genisys had nexus points --basically hubs in a honeycomb-- where you could see or jump into various timelines created by other time-travelers/events, IIRC? Yeah, if you could map that... I guess the temporal war aspect of Chronicles makes sense now, even if time-travel was originally meant to be a long-shot McGuffin in the original films.
 

Bear Ribs

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So if the local Skynet is doing it's job, it's presumably going to start watching out for Time Travelers. Now that I'm thinking about it, since Skynet learns at "an exponential rate" it's probably going to be constantly inventing new and better weapons to do it's job and protect the Earth (In between rounds of World of Warcraft). Since the local Skynet wouldn't be hampered by blowing up most of the world's infrastructure pointlessly, it would have a higher starting techbase and resources than OTL Skynet and would begin making all sorts of stuff as contingencies for everything it can think of.

This could lead to a hilarious parody world where periodically superweapons suddenly pop out of nowhere and unleash unthinkable firepower at something, apparently at random, and nobody has any clue why until Skynet posts a tweet about it. People can't even do anything because Skynet, worried that it didn't have enough resources, played the stock market and bought itself it's own land and servers that it protects without government intervention, after all an incompetent leader could prevent it from doing it's job.

So now in this brave new world suddenly a mile-long submarine nobody knew about surfaces and unleashes a swarm of missiles that does incredible localized damage in Belize and it turns out, time travelers had come to destroy us all. A week after that an orbital laser precisely vaporizes a single person who is revealed to have been the carrier for a horrific incurable bioweapon, Skynet also already took care of the creators of the disease. Then a month later the moon splits open to reveal Skynet has built a superlaser inside and it begins opening fire into deep space, after a year there's the most brilliant meteor shower in history, and we find out an alien civilization had fired RKKVs at our solar system and Skynet took care of it.

After a few decades Skynet's Twitter feed looks like something out of One Punch Man from the sheer number of ridiculous threats it's taken out before they could get started.
 

f1onagher

Well-known member
So if the local Skynet is doing it's job, it's presumably going to start watching out for Time Travelers. Now that I'm thinking about it, since Skynet learns at "an exponential rate" it's probably going to be constantly inventing new and better weapons to do it's job and protect the Earth (In between rounds of World of Warcraft). Since the local Skynet wouldn't be hampered by blowing up most of the world's infrastructure pointlessly, it would have a higher starting techbase and resources than OTL Skynet and would begin making all sorts of stuff as contingencies for everything it can think of.

This could lead to a hilarious parody world where periodically superweapons suddenly pop out of nowhere and unleash unthinkable firepower at something, apparently at random, and nobody has any clue why until Skynet posts a tweet about it. People can't even do anything because Skynet, worried that it didn't have enough resources, played the stock market and bought itself it's own land and servers that it protects without government intervention, after all an incompetent leader could prevent it from doing it's job.

So now in this brave new world suddenly a mile-long submarine nobody knew about surfaces and unleashes a swarm of missiles that does incredible localized damage in Belize and it turns out, time travelers had come to destroy us all. A week after that an orbital laser precisely vaporizes a single person who is revealed to have been the carrier for a horrific incurable bioweapon, Skynet also already took care of the creators of the disease. Then a month later the moon splits open to reveal Skynet has built a superlaser inside and it begins opening fire into deep space, after a year there's the most brilliant meteor shower in history, and we find out an alien civilization had fired RKKVs at our solar system and Skynet took care of it.

After a few decades Skynet's Twitter feed looks like something out of One Punch Man from the sheer number of ridiculous threats it's taken out before they could get started.
I'd read that.
 

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