If the terminator killed Sarah Connor... what would it do after?

[DigDog]

Skynet - being all-seeing and all-powerful - sent the Terminator back in time not to kill Sarah Connor, but to be defeated and have its chip become the foundation of the AI powering Skynet.

Skynet is the creator; it created itself.

Skynet is God.

 

[Newell Steamer]

It would move to California and run for governor.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

It would probably have moved on to a secondary target list after killing all the other Sarah Connors in SOCA just to make sure.

I suppose it might eventually have been stopped by the army or something, if people started figuring shit out.

 

[her209]

Two scenarios can happen:

1) the altered future will send back a Terminator to stop the first Terminator from killing Sarah Connor.

2) the first Terminator travels back to the 1800's.

 

[Red Storm]

In this thread we see why time travel is always a poor plot device.

 

[Artorias]

Waits for John Connor to post in thread......

 

[Jaepheth]

According to the theory of time travel, the Terminator couldn't ever have actually killed Sarah Connor. If she was dead, he would have no reason to go back into time to kill her, thus eliminating the entire premise.

After terminating Sarah the Terminator would need to go to a safe location until Skynet takes over (Or maybe upload an appropriate message in a location Skynet will find it). The Terminator then passes on its mission to Skynet and tells it to send him back in time to take care of a potential problem; thus creating a self-consistent and stable "eddy" in the time line.

 

[positivedoppler]

Totally off topic, but I wonder there will ever be a Terminator vs Alien or Terminator vs Predator.

 

[SsupernovaE]

What would it do after killing Sarah Connor?

Marry a Predator, of course!

 

[Jaskalas]

According to the theory of time travel, the Terminator couldn't ever have actually killed Sarah Connor. If she was dead, he would have no reason to go back into time to kill her, thus eliminating the entire premise.

Changing the future wouldn't eliminate the Terminator in the present.

 

[Braznor]

I suppose the Terminator had orders to disintegrate itself inside the Cyberdyne factory.

 

[Kev]

Pick a fight with Predator and get STOMPED?

Yessss!!!!!!!!!

 

[Kev]

Another theory is that travel to the past could only occur at a far enough distance from the entry point that the speed of light of this "new" information would not reach that same point until immediately after the entry from the future into the past.

wat

 

[SagaLore]

wat

It has to do with energy, thermodynamics and feedback. Not only are you moving mass from the future to the past, but you're also moving energy. What happens is that a future portal would transfer energy to the past, increasing the total energy in that area. Eventually we're back to the future, where the energy then re-enters the portal going back to the past. So as soon as the portal opens, you've created a feedback loop that actually instantly and infinitely aggregates so much energy it destroys the portal (and everything the vicinity) preventing the portal from existing in the first place. It is a paradox and therefore can't happen.

Instead, the closer your future and past is, the farther apart the portals have to be so feedback can't happen. Theoretically you could have the portals sitting right on top of each other but only if the timespan is extremely large, such as a million years.

 

[Jaepheth]

It has to do with energy, thermodynamics and feedback. Not only are you moving mass from the future to the past, but you're also moving energy. What happens is that a future portal would transfer energy to the past, increasing the total energy in that area. Eventually we're back to the future, where the energy then re-enters the portal going back to the past. So as soon as the portal opens, you've created a feedback loop that actually instantly and infinitely aggregates so much energy it destroys the portal (and everything the vicinity) preventing the portal from existing in the first place. It is a paradox and therefore can't happen.

Instead, the closer your future and past is, the farther apart the portals have to be so feedback can't happen. Theoretically you could have the portals sitting right on top of each other but only if the timespan is extremely large, such as a million years.

... So you're saying the entry and exit points must be in non-intersecting light cones?

I guess that makes sense... I never thought of that one.

 

[alkemyst]

Your mom?

Can't believe it took 15 posts to get to this.

Well your mom would have taken less....but I can't tell mom jokes

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Back to the movie. I assume terminator would have an alternate hit list or contact someone from cyberdyne to speed up the project or to walk into the deep ocean and wait kind of like Cthultu (sp?).

 

[Kev]

It has to do with energy, thermodynamics and feedback. Not only are you moving mass from the future to the past, but you're also moving energy. What happens is that a future portal would transfer energy to the past, increasing the total energy in that area. Eventually we're back to the future, where the energy then re-enters the portal going back to the past. So as soon as the portal opens, you've created a feedback loop that actually instantly and infinitely aggregates so much energy it destroys the portal (and everything the vicinity) preventing the portal from existing in the first place. It is a paradox and therefore can't happen.

Instead, the closer your future and past is, the farther apart the portals have to be so feedback can't happen. Theoretically you could have the portals sitting right on top of each other but only if the timespan is extremely large, such as a million years.

So considering that planets, solar systems, and galaxies are traveling through the universe at such high speeds, it would be nearly impossible to set up 2 portals at the exact point in space.

This is another issue I have with any type of time travel. If you traveled from a location in space (on earth) to that same location in space in the past or future, you woudn't land on earth.

 

[SagaLore]

So considering that planets, solar systems, and galaxies are traveling through the universe at such high speeds, it would be nearly impossible to set up 2 portals at the exact point in space.

This is another issue I have with any type of time travel. If you traveled from a location in space (on earth) to that same location in space in the past or future, you woudn't land on earth.

I've thought about that - it always bugged me too. So there are 2 ways around it, that I have come up with:

Your portal must be anchored to a gravity well, such as a planet. To be safe you'd want the portal to be positioned in an orbit around the planet, otherwise you could end up inside a mountain or under the ocean or some considerable height which causes you to fall to your death. The portal can only open to a past point that exists while the gravity well exists.

Or, your exit point can only be the same portal setup in the past. So the very moment your new portal goes online, any future instances of that portal can send people back to that point or in between. The physical constraints of that portal becomes your anchor.

 

[ultimatebob]

I suppose the Terminator had orders to disintegrate itself inside the Cyberdyne factory.

But Terminators cannot self-terminate. We learned that in T2.

 

[ThinClient]

According to the theory of time travel, the Terminator couldn't ever have actually killed Sarah Connor. If she was dead, he would have no reason to go back into time to kill her, thus eliminating the entire premise.

Alternate time lines. There's more than one kind of time travel theory.