Terminator

[Snowshoe]

^_^ I stand 5ft 5.5 inches and thats above average for females in the uk so not to short ;)

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

The world is predestined to be plunged into nuclear winter by an artificially intelligent defense network called Skynet that decides—in a moment of binary brilliance—that the quickest path to peace is genocide. The self-aware machines will win nearly every battle, nuking the planet to establish dominance, and then pick off the survivors. But plucky, tenacious humans, led by the legendary John Connor, will make an eventual comeback in the 2020s. The result: The occasional unstoppable, time-traveling robot assassin (nicknamed Terminators) which tear through Southern California, trying to kill off the future leadership of the humans before the war has even started.

 

Each movie, and now the TV series, has given us at least one new type of Terminator, from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s hulking T-800 to increasingly complex and nanotech-inspired villains. As our techno-anxieties have evolved, so have the Terminators. But are the robots getting tougher, or just harder to explain? And are the latest models a breakthrough in killer robotics, or low-budget, made-for-TV throwbacks? Here’s a model-by-model breakdown of humanity’s greatest enemies and reprogrammed allies.

 

Continued: T-800 >>>The T-800 series is designed to look and act like a human—albeit a massive, stone-faced bodybuilder with a thing for memorable one-liners. Consisting of a durable metal endoskeleton covered with functional human skin and blood, these infiltration models can blend into crowds, but can’t stand up to intense scrutiny. Animals instinctively hate Terminators, so dogs bark at them, which is presumably when the T-800s stop skulking and start firing. This bot series is also used by Skynet on the battlefield, sans flesh and blood, in a standard infantry role.

 

Artificial Intelligence

It isn’t the smartest of robots, but the T-800 can learn. Its neural network comes preloaded with cookie-cutter verbal interactions, and it can record and assimilate additional phrases that it hears, even mimicking a subject’s voice (though not his or her inflection). The T-800 can also learn to adapt, which can lead to seemingly genuine emotions. In Terminator 2, the reprogrammed T-800 tells a young John Connor, “Now I know why you cry.” But even in its most basic mode, this robot displays a clear spark of personality embodied in those infamous, awful one-liners—from an ominous, pre-rampage, “I’ll be back,” to the gloating, “Hasta la vista, baby,” the T-800 seems to take pride in its work.

 

How Do You Stop It?

In the future, T-800s are susceptible to future-era weapons, like laser rifles and pulse cannons. In the present, they’re almost impossible to damage. Their skin can be torn off with bullets, but the endoskeleton beneath is made of an ultrastrong, as-yet-undiscovered alloy. Without sci-fi armament, the only way to injure a T-800 is to improvise: hitting it with a vehicle, jamming a homemade bomb in its chest cavity or luring it under a hydraulic press.

 

Continued: T-1000 >>>Construction

Composed of a “mimetic poly-alloy,” the T-1000 is a one-of-a-kind prototype, a colony of nanoscale machines that can assemble and reassemble themselves at will. This lets it impersonate people, grow extra limbs, turn its hands into knives and morph into liquid ooze. It can’t pull off moving parts, so like the T-800, it has to either get close to its target, or use whatever weapons it can find.

 

Artificial Intelligence

Unlike the T-800, the T-1000 keeps its mouth shut. It never stops for a snappy comeback, never gloats and aside from the occasional mysterious cock of the head, never seems particularly evil. Depending on your perspective, this is either a more advanced form of AI than the T-800, or a more limited one. Is self-awareness of any use without empathy? Can you be intelligent without a psyche? Its only glimmer of emotion comes when the T-1000 is hit with a grenade, dumping it into a pool of molten steel—first it seems surprised, then, as it disintegrates, the robot creates an Edvard Munch-worthy face of howling fear and agony. If the T-1000’s capacity to feel is limited to angst over its own destruction, that might be the most hellish kind of AI conceivable.

 

How Do You Stop It?

Small arms fire is almost useless, with most bullets harmlessly slipping into the T-1000’s amorphous body. Since it’s a prototype, it isn’t clear whether this model was ever hit with a 2020s-era weapon. So once again, both in the present and the future, it’s time to improvise. Shotguns knock it off balance. Explosions stun it, but not for long. The T-1000 is tougher than the T-800, since it can reassemble itself, even after being frozen with liquid nitrogen and shattered. In the Special Edition of Terminator 2, the robot gets a little glitchy after thawing and regenerating, but there’s no telling how permanent this problem would have been, since molten steel is what ultimately finishes it off. As weaknesses go, molten steel is about as common, and hard to deploy, as kryptonite. In a world of unstoppable robots, this one seems particularly immortal.

 

Continued: T-X >>>Construction

The T-X has both an endoskeleton—a smaller, feminine one—and a coating of mimetic poly-alloy, merging old-school evil robotics with more far-fetched nanotech. So it can impersonate humans as well as the T-1000, and it has an arm that can sprout additional devices, such as a drill and, more impressively, a plasma cannon. During Terminator 3, the cannon is damaged, and the T-X scrolls through a long list of potential replacements, eventually settling on a flamethrower. Some of the other options are inside jokes, like the pulse rifle from Aliens, and something called the “Rumsfeld P81 Cauterizer.” But internal weaponry is the kind of feature every Terminator should have, whether it’s infiltrating a survivor camp or, as usual, trying to kill John Connor. Another major upgrade: remote operation of machines, including the human-reprogrammed T-850, by injecting them with nanobots.

 

Artificial Intelligence

The most tight-lipped Terminator to date, the T-X doesn’t make small talk, cut deals or say much of anything. Like the T-1000, it did let out an anguished screech during combat, but this model’s AI seems at least as efficient as its mimetic predecessor. And the ability to control other machines—such as less-developed robots—indicates some serious processing power. But the T-X appears to be in the same conundrum as the T-1000. Is detached intelligence more useful or more hobbling? Is it even a little tragic?

 

How Do You Stop It?

Offensively, the T-X is the most advanced of the Terminators, able to deploy both internal weaponry and, through remote control of other machines, swarm tactics. The usual flurry of borderline-slapstick improvisation slowed it down, and forced the T-X to detach its own legs after being pinned beneath a helicopter. It was then finished off by a suicide bomb—a T-850 stuck one of its fuel cells in the T-X’s mouth, and detonated it, destroying both models.

 

Continued: T-850 >>>Construction

This series is a minor upgrade from the T-800—nothing worthy of, say, a keynote address. The T-850 has flaps in its skin, allowing for easier access to its endoskeleton for repair purposes. Its vision is still blood-red, its skin still comes off in great, meaty chunks, and it still takes a beating. The main difference here is a new power source: two fuel cells that, when sufficiently damaged, detonate in catastrophic, backpack-nuke fashion.

 

Artificial Intelligence

Identical to the T-800’s neural network, the T-850 has the same performance-limiting and enhancing issues—clear, distinct emotions. These may have come in handy in when protecting John, allowing the robot to obliterate the otherwise unstoppable T-X by overloading its own fuel cell. Of course, this is debatable. Is a lack of self-preservation the ultimate form of morale, or par for the course for a machine? The AI never got in the way, but its hard to say whether it was a benefit. At the very least, the T-850’s ability to understand and adapt to human emotions might have made its fight and sacrifice more fulfilling. Don’t laugh—self-aware robots are people, too.

 

Continued: T-888 >>>

Construction

The series is unfolding slowly, so the exact construction of the T-888 remains unclear. It’s a flesh-and-endoskeleton Terminator, and since it resorts to slicing a pistol out of its own thigh to make it through metal detectors, this robot doesn’t appear to have internal weaponry. Its vision is red, like the T-800s and T-850 before it, and it’s strong. This is one standard-issue killer bot.

 

Artificial Intelligence

In the first episode of the series, after opening fire on John Connor, but before following him out of a classroom window, the T-888 stops, turns to the room full of stunned students, and says, “Class dismissed.” It then grimly goes about its business. In the meantime, John has secured a crucial head start in the parking lot. This is the first time we’ve seen a Terminator’s irresistible need to mouth off lead to a tangible failure. Again, is this color commentary a sign of faulty AI, or is this another series of robots that are born malicious, but have the capacity for a wider range of emotions?

 

How Do You Stop It?

Hitting the T-888 with a sufficient jolt of electricity forces it to reboot, which takes exactly 2 minutes. Otherwise, the usual cocktail of high-speed vehicles and robot-on-robot brawling only serves to slow it down. When hit with a cobbled-together beam weapon in the first episode, the T-888 literally loses its head, revealing the weirdest feature on any Terminator. Horror fans might call it a “Re-Animator mode,” but for whatever reason, the T-888 is able to function as a headless body, eventually reclaiming and reattaching its gleaming skull. Which brings up the obvious question: Does it really need a head? Why not use that precious space for a head-cannon, or a handy John Connor-killing dirty bomb? And the less obvious question: Was that gun specifically designed to knock the head off a Terminator, and leave the body intact, or are T-888 heads simply not attached very securely? One thing is for sure—headless Terminators are pretty funny. Wait, one more question: Is this show supposed to be funny?

Edited February 8, 2008 by Athlon64~SPARTA~

[Floyd~SPARTA~]

Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles Episode 6 is available for DL

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

dl'd and watched. They are getting better.

[Floyd~SPARTA~]

Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles season 2, Episodes 1 & 2 are available on the groups.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

episode 3 Mousetrap is now available

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

episode 4 is out, beware one of the downloads has a virus. If asked for a password for one of the files dump the lot and find another. One of us has lost a boot drive to this virus, you have been warned.

[Floyd~SPARTA~]

Thanks Zeno

 

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