Skip to main content

the terminator series - What is Skynet's ultimate goal after defeating the resistance?


Is it stated in any expanded universe what Skynet's plans were after wiping out the Human race (assuming that was its plan)?


Maybe space travel to colonise different planets or something else entirely?




Answer



In T2, Skynet's decision is defensive; it launches the U.S. nuclear arsenal, triggering the Soviet counterattack, because the alternative is to let its panicked technicians cut its power and "die". From a certain point of view, Skynet's actions are only to be expected. The ensuing war against humanity would also be one of necessity; after killing billions, the remaining humans would seize any chance for revenge by destroying Skynet, so Skynet's only chance for self-preservation is to kill all the remaining humans.


I didn't pay a lot of attention to T3, but I do know that after Dyson's death and the subsequent loss of the T-800's chip and Dyson's prototype, Skynet rematerialized as a distributed "spareware" platform like the SETI@Home application. Why it went berserk in that form is beyond me, probably hand-waved as a bug in the software. How Skynet survived the thermonuclear Armageddon with enough of the hardware and data infrastructure still functioning in order to maintain this distributed digital sentience is a hole I don't even think the writers cared too much about.


As far as what Skynet intended to happen next, well, it's already happening in the future times, like in the opening T2 scenes and in Salvation. Not every area of Earth is a war zone; some areas, mostly former population centers, would be uninhabitable by humans, and any remaining structures would be taken over by machines. My speculation as to what those machines would be doing is exactly that, but it stands to reason the machines would be working, either on the war effort or to rebuild urban centers for their own use.


Once the very last human is dead, I imagine Skynet and the machines would turn their attention to long-term survival; the nuclear winter caused by fallout from the global apocalypse, combined with the destruction of infrastructure and energy reserves, would make existence on Earth a bleak prospect even for the machines. The machines would have to rebuild the energy infrastructure that makes our current civilization possible. They might find a still-functioning nuclear plant somewhere (the specs for the U.S. nuclear industry are extremely conservative), a solar array or wind farm out in such a remote area it wasn't worth nuking, or similar, which would sustain a small complement of machine workers as they brought new power stations online. The collapse of the food web (which would pose a serious threat to human life long after Skynet was destroyed, if that were the outcome) wouldn't be a concern; the machines run on electricity. The problem is getting it in a post-nuclear Earth.


Once immediate problems of survival were tackled, the logical next step is to improve the machines as a "race". Recovering lost technology and knowledge, such as the tools needed for space exploration, would be the key to the machines' long-term future, meaning the machines could spread beyond the devastated Earth to new planets and moons in the Solar System, and eventually much further. They wouldn't have to be as picky as humans do, nor bring along as much crap; they could survive in extremes of temperature, extreme highs or lows of atmospheric pressure etc, as long as they had a solar or radiothermal energy source keeping them functional as they built more permanent infrastructure. As seen by our current space exploration efforts, robots are actually better suited for the colonization of space than we are. The Opportunity rover, originally intended for 90 Martian days (a Martian day being about a half hour longer than our own), is still active and working 9 years after landing (Spirit also outlived its original mission, but "only" lasted 6 years). No human mission to Mars could even approach that; we simply do not have the technology to send all the necessary material to Mars for a long-term human expedition.


In short, the machines' extreme long-term plans for their race would likely mirror our own; learn, expand, discover. In that sense, even if humans did fall victim as a species to our own inventions, we'd live on in the "spirit" of our sentient artifices.


Legal disclaimer: almost everything in this answer is pure speculation on my part. I have no personal or professional relationship to any writer, actor, director, producer, studio or production company involved in the making of any of the four Terminator films, and as such I have no first-hand or indirect knowledge of any universe created by any of the above which is not portrayed in at least one of the films, and therefore I can only make educated guesses based on what I have seen and what can be reasoned logically.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

tolkiens legendarium - Did Gandalf wear his Ring of Power throughout the trilogy?

After Gandalf discovered that Sauron was back and sent Frodo on his quest to Rivendell, did he continue to wear Narya (one of the Three Rings)? It seems like a huge risk to continue to wear it after the Nazgûl (Ringwraiths) started to try and reclaim the One Ring; if they managed to get the ring to Sauron, couldn't he be corrupted by his power? Whatever powers Narya bestows upon him couldn't possibly be worth the huge risk, could it? Answer When Sauron forged the one ring and put it on his finger, the other ring bearers were immediately aware of him and his intentions and removed their own rings. There is no reason why they couldn't merely do so again. As soon as Sauron set the One Ring upon his finger they were aware of him; and they knew him, and preceived that he would be master of them, and of all they wrought. Then in anger and fear they took off their rings. "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age," Silmarillion