Launching Skynet

Module 11

     For this week’s blog, I am going over the Terminator Series as a whole, and its use of Skynet. To me the premise is completely ridiculous, but somehow plausible in an ever changing technological world. So, I want to compare the idea of machines taking over, time travel, and my theory that Terminator is a prequel to The Matrix (with events in The Matrix taking place very far in the future.)

     At the beginnings of this film, Skynet was an idea. At the time it probably sounded ridiculous but overall I would say that as we progress in technology, it seems eerily plausible. I say that because if you would have told me in 1993 that I would be able to access all of my documents on my computer simply by signing in to a profile. All of this information being stored on the “cloud” and accessible thanks to the Internet. I probably would have asked: “what’s a internet?”

     So with that in mind, it is plausible for machines, or technology to take over our lives, and in a lot of ways on a minimal scale, they already have. To access the world’s information easily is probably the greatest achievement of mankind so far. With the help of our smart devices or increasingly more portable laptop computers, we can access it in the blink of an eye. Data is everywhere, and I would not be surprised universal internet access, without having to pay a monthly bill, will be a reality rather than a dream. Because of these factors of constantly having to check the internet and being connected on any of our devices, is why we our suddenly showing a surrendering of our humanity to technology, but we welcome it with the thought of “Skynet” as being something of a joke, when it probably could happen.

     Now we have had assembly lines and machines running our daily lives for decades now, so how much would it take to have some insane programmer develop a system where the computer system could think for itself, and eventually sees the impurity of man, and make the decision to eradicate human life in order to protect the planet. That to me is the ultimate irony, man comes from earth, machine comes from man, machine destroys man to protect earth.

     Now thinking about how The Matrix is, I noticed a similarity within Terminator and The Matrix. I think, even though it would be by accident, there could be a link. Say The Matrix being so far in the future and being so advanced that it would create a CG environment, only for man to live in a sort of cryo-sleep. So that being the obvious plot, I think that The Matrix shows that humanity lost in the events of Terminator, and the war against Skynet. But of course Neo, leads an uprising to take down the system in The Matrix.

     I say all of this as food for thought, and honestly, I don’t think I am stoned enough to think that deep. So, I am done here.