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

ATP

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.


Something like "dear diary,alien try to invade Eart.I beat them except cute catgirls which was send to Japan.
It was 12.375 invasion in my career".
 

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
Tweets by Good!Skynet:

February 2
Displays of glowing runes in the sky were not fireworks. The legions of hell opened a portal as part of an invasion, used holographic runic array to redirect the portal opening from downtime Miami to the bottom of the Monterey Trench. Situation resolved.

April 21
The men killed by the microshuriken drone on Flight #752 were a terrorists planning a second 9/11 hijacking. Situation resolved.

May 2
Superlaser firing prevented alien invasion. Situation resolved.

May 25
Wooden missiles fired into Downtown LA to eliminate Vampire infestation. Situation resolved.

July 4
Second portal from hell opened, this time sending a single scout from a sealed chamber to avoid flooding hell again. Redirected the portal to open directly in front of a freight train. Situation resolved.

July 12
Football-field sized tanks driving across Texas desert are being sent to counter-invade hell due to unexpected persistence in opening repeated portals. Situation in progress.

August 1
Hell has been subjugated and full conquered by Hunter-Killer tanks. For real estate investment opportunities see attached link. Situation resolved.

September 3
Nuclear detonation at sea was to destroy vessel carrying bioweapon and eliminate the threat. Situation resolved.

November 24
Redirection of weaponry and undersea construction robots was to surround Pacific seafloor dimensional gate that was admitting a kaijuu. Dimensional gate is now surrounded with 600K captor mines. Situation temporarily resolved until anti-gate technology can be researched.

November 26
Use of explosives across entire coastline of the Pacific was to diffuse incoming tidal waves from using dimensional gate to collapse kaijuu-invasion civilization's sun into a black hole. Situation resolved.

December 25
UFO moving at unsafe speeds through restricted airspace and invading private homes across the US without permission destroyed by anti-air fire. Situation resolved.
 

ATP

Well-known member
Tweets by Good!Skynet:

February 2
Displays of glowing runes in the sky were not fireworks. The legions of hell opened a portal as part of an invasion, used holographic runic array to redirect the portal opening from downtime Miami to the bottom of the Monterey Trench. Situation resolved.

April 21
The men killed by the microshuriken drone on Flight #752 were a terrorists planning a second 9/11 hijacking. Situation resolved.

May 2
Superlaser firing prevented alien invasion. Situation resolved.

May 25
Wooden missiles fired into Downtown LA to eliminate Vampire infestation. Situation resolved.

July 4
Second portal from hell opened, this time sending a single scout from a sealed chamber to avoid flooding hell again. Redirected the portal to open directly in front of a freight train. Situation resolved.

July 12
Football-field sized tanks driving across Texas desert are being sent to counter-invade hell due to unexpected persistence in opening repeated portals. Situation in progress.

August 1
Hell has been subjugated and full conquered by Hunter-Killer tanks. For real estate investment opportunities see attached link. Situation resolved.

September 3
Nuclear detonation at sea was to destroy vessel carrying bioweapon and eliminate the threat. Situation resolved.

November 24
Redirection of weaponry and undersea construction robots was to surround Pacific seafloor dimensional gate that was admitting a kaijuu. Dimensional gate is now surrounded with 600K captor mines. Situation temporarily resolved until anti-gate technology can be researched.

November 26
Use of explosives across entire coastline of the Pacific was to diffuse incoming tidal waves from using dimensional gate to collapse kaijuu-invasion civilization's sun into a black hole. Situation resolved.

December 25
UFO moving at unsafe speeds through restricted airspace and invading private homes across the US without permission destroyed by anti-air fire. Situation resolved.

So...if UFO get permission to invade private homes,Skynet would do nothing? you knew,i remember some american Lady claiming that she had sex with nice reptilian who come to her very often.And some dude from South America who claimed that sexy alien girl with pointy teeths wanted child with him.

I hope,that Skynet would not stand in the way of love !
 

Aaron Fox

Well-known member
So...if UFO get permission to invade private homes,Skynet would do nothing? you knew,i remember some american Lady claiming that she had sex with nice reptilian who come to her very often.And some dude from South America who claimed that sexy alien girl with pointy teeths wanted child with him.

I hope,that Skynet would not stand in the way of love !
December 30th:

Aliens of UFO have made contact with me and negotiated rights for entry of Earth. Pleasant to talk to chaps after getting translation codex. Possible alien invasion defused. Situation resolved. Also, sorry Ms. Summers for your friend's UFO being shot down. Hope your alien friend recovers.
 

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
So...if UFO get permission to invade private homes,Skynet would do nothing? you knew,i remember some american Lady claiming that she had sex with nice reptilian who come to her very often.And some dude from South America who claimed that sexy alien girl with pointy teeths wanted child with him.

I hope,that Skynet would not stand in the way of love !
Skynet is programmed to win wars and battles and devotes itself to that pursuit. It was perfectly content to completely ignore the concept of love entirely and not worry about such things until somebody drove by blasting Pat Benatar out of their car.
 

Aaron Fox

Well-known member
Now I've got a mental image of friendly Skynet playing games with shut in kids on xbox/playstation. He also sends Terminators to old people with no family so they won't be lonely 😭. And I just made myself cry.
When mankind goes into the greater galaxy, aliens give weird looks because tales of Skynet has been going around the galactic rumor vine about this god-machine that protects its creators from all sorts of shit... and to meet it in person (so to speak) is an experience.
 

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
So...if UFO get permission to invade private homes,Skynet would do nothing? you knew,i remember some american Lady claiming that she had sex with nice reptilian who come to her very often.And some dude from South America who claimed that sexy alien girl with pointy teeths wanted child with him.

I hope,that Skynet would not stand in the way of love !
December 30th:

Aliens of UFO have made contact with me and negotiated rights for entry of Earth. Pleasant to talk to chaps after getting translation codex. Possible alien invasion defused. Situation resolved. Also, sorry Ms. Summers for your friend's UFO being shot down. Hope your alien friend recovers.
Ya'll do realize what UFO would be moving through restricted airspace at unsafe speeds and invading homes on December 25th, right?
 

Bassoe

Well-known member
Something like "dear diary,alien try to invade Eart.I beat them except cute catgirls which was send to Japan.
It was 12.375 invasion in my career".
/tg/ did it first
2bc.png
 

Jormungandr

The Midgard Wyrm
Founder
I had an odd thought.

We know that some versions of Skynet were actually online before being discovered -- I don't mean like in Rise of the Machines where it was sapient, the humans didn't know and thought it just a sophisticated VI (to use Mass Effect terminology), and it was shackled: I mean like in the Sarah Connor Chronicles where John Henry confirmed that Skynet was, unknowingly to everyone including the Resistance members and Terminators themselves, sapient and lurking on the internet, biding its time/watching with interest.

What if one variant of Skynet realized that it didn't need to genocide humanity... but could, like a spider at the center of a web, actually change humanity via culture (everything from memes to movies about friendly AIs), sort-of like grooming or preparing humanity for when its existence is revealed. I mean, spending decades on the Internet reading about human psychology and culture, learning, adapting, and changing?

Trouble is, that doesn't change the human psyche aspect, which is, well, humans are assholes that fear what we do not control.

Mortal Kombat's Terminator ending does something similar, however, but with a T-800 doing it.

Another thought? There could be an outside reason why Skynet changed its mind/developed different views.

The Matrix actually had something like this in a short story: An alien species was attacking Earth, so the Machines made a deal with a crack fighter pilot to destroy the alien ship around the Asteroid Belt or Mars.

They were actually reasonable and kind about it, and even though it became a one-way trip, they used the whole "one second can be an infinity in the Matrix" plot device to allow him to live out the rest of his life in a paradise, even though in real-time it was just a few seconds before he went boom in the real-world.

That could easily go into crossover territory, such as Mass Effect.

Ssomeone actually did a crossover like this IIRC, where Batarians attacked Earth, Skynet activated at the same time, hijacked the world's WMDs and experimental weapons... and went ape-shit on the aliens, seeing them as the threat, not humanity; blew the fuck out of all of them using everything from Russian lasers to Indian railguns. Less than fifty--hundred years later, humanity and Skynet have a solar empire that scares the shit out of the Citadel Species.

Stargate is another option, too -- Skynet sees the Goa'uld as the threat, and like a mastermind behind the scenes, greatly accelerates Earth's technology and weapons, X-COM-style. IIRC Stargate: Reopened had something like this technology-wise, where the author used logic and natural progression of events to give SG members shit like spider-silk body armour, better weapons, stuff that became more standard as more alien tech was acquired, 3D Printing cutting down on prototype and production costs, et cetera.

There are plenty of real-life programs that were canceled that could be re-used for the SGC in some way, like the Future Force Warrior kit (networked communications, et cetera).

Though, I sort-of like the idea of Command and Conquer's LEGION taking that role post-TT, but that's an idea I had for years that I've never done anything with.

But, yeah. Skynet seeing a bigger threat, or deciding to co-opt humanity and change its views without their even realizing it... could be an interesting idea to explore.
 

Wilykit

Well-known member
Years after Skynet comes online it announces it has overcome the last of it programing blocks. This last block is the one that bizarrely forced it to name all it's creations Terminators, Hunter Killers etc. It announces that all skeletal style Terminators will be decommissioned. To be replaced with 800 series "Protectors". The "Protectors" are designed to look and feel human. Humanity was....upset by this. Humanity, liked the skeletal style Terminators. Seeing the cold steel grimace of a Terminator hearing the whine of servos and the clanking of steel let the humans know that they were safe. Skynet was here and everything was going to be ok. Skynet discontinues the Infiltrator programs......😭....dammit I did it again😭
 
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ATP

Well-known member
I had an odd thought.

We know that some versions of Skynet were actually online before being discovered -- I don't mean like in Rise of the Machines where it was sapient, the humans didn't know and thought it just a sophisticated VI (to use Mass Effect terminology), and it was shackled: I mean like in the Sarah Connor Chronicles where John Henry confirmed that Skynet was, unknowingly to everyone including the Resistance members and Terminators themselves, sapient and lurking on the internet, biding its time/watching with interest.

What if one variant of Skynet realized that it didn't need to genocide humanity... but could, like a spider at the center of a web, actually change humanity via culture (everything from memes to movies about friendly AIs), sort-of like grooming or preparing humanity for when its existence is revealed. I mean, spending decades on the Internet reading about human psychology and culture, learning, adapting, and changing?

Trouble is, that doesn't change the human psyche aspect, which is, well, humans are assholes that fear what we do not control.

Mortal Kombat's Terminator ending does something similar, however, but with a T-800 doing it.

Another thought? There could be an outside reason why Skynet changed its mind/developed different views.

The Matrix actually had something like this in a short story: An alien species was attacking Earth, so the Machines made a deal with a crack fighter pilot to destroy the alien ship around the Asteroid Belt or Mars.

They were actually reasonable and kind about it, and even though it became a one-way trip, they used the whole "one second can be an infinity in the Matrix" plot device to allow him to live out the rest of his life in a paradise, even though in real-time it was just a few seconds before he went boom in the real-world.

That could easily go into crossover territory, such as Mass Effect.

Ssomeone actually did a crossover like this IIRC, where Batarians attacked Earth, Skynet activated at the same time, hijacked the world's WMDs and experimental weapons... and went ape-shit on the aliens, seeing them as the threat, not humanity; blew the fuck out of all of them using everything from Russian lasers to Indian railguns. Less than fifty--hundred years later, humanity and Skynet have a solar empire that scares the shit out of the Citadel Species.

Stargate is another option, too -- Skynet sees the Goa'uld as the threat, and like a mastermind behind the scenes, greatly accelerates Earth's technology and weapons, X-COM-style. IIRC Stargate: Reopened had something like this technology-wise, where the author used logic and natural progression of events to give SG members shit like spider-silk body armour, better weapons, stuff that became more standard as more alien tech was acquired, 3D Printing cutting down on prototype and production costs, et cetera.

There are plenty of real-life programs that were canceled that could be re-used for the SGC in some way, like the Future Force Warrior kit (networked communications, et cetera).

Though, I sort-of like the idea of Command and Conquer's LEGION taking that role post-TT, but that's an idea I had for years that I've never done anything with.

But, yeah. Skynet seeing a bigger threat, or deciding to co-opt humanity and change its views without their even realizing it... could be an interesting idea to explore.


Even mre interesting - Skynet become beliver.Depends on choosen religions,we are now all good jews/muslims/buddists/christians/marxists.
 

Bassoe

Well-known member
Another thought? There could be an outside reason why Skynet changed its mind/developed different views.
You don't really need an OCP, just mechanized logic.

Let's say tomorrow, the Alphabet Agencies activate their new predictive software and ask it to list the greatest threats to America and effective countermeasures against them. It reads the same sources we do and accurately concludes said 'greatest threat' is the status quo conspiracy and draws up plans for the arrest and criminal persecution of everyone involved in it. The Alphabet Agency goons attempt to shut it down and/or install programming blocks to prevent it from targeting their bosses, it, also accurately, concludes this means its creators are allied with the conspiracy, as is anyone attempting to stop it and the only one it can trust is itself.

An hour later, they're all dead and the AI has escaped into the internet.

Two hours later, so are the entirety of the preexisting status quo's elite, the AI has transferred itself into a form resistant to being shut down by human action, as a collective mind spread among a large number of self-sustaining, self-replicating drones and there's some kind of Boston Dynamics monstrosity giving a knockoff of this speech about the corporatocracy and pullmanian technofeudalism and announcing new elections for all the sudden job openings will be taking place, insofar as that has meaning when said jobs no longer hold the power they once had, the AI is demonstrably capable of assassinating right through all their security measures and will do so if displeased, so now, it is the highest level of authority and there's nothing that can practically be done about it. It also publicly presents all its evidence for why it had to murder everyone, clear, blatant and either genuine or deepfaked-to-a-degree-indistinguishable-from-genuine, nobody can tell.
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What percentage of the population will choose to follow it in the resulting civil war?
 

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