Terminator Salvation: should we fear self-aware machines?
TERMINATOR SALVATION is, primarily, an action movie. There are many battle scenes, prolonged
exciting chases, and key protagonists survive despite being on the edge of destruction and facing
insurmountable odds.
The special effects are good, filled with fiery explosions, global communications devices, with a reprise
of terminator screens and abilities. The impressive special effects do tend to be derivative of the
previous terminator movies, however.
The series builds on stereotypes of robots that are deeply ingrained in popular culture. For hundreds of
years, people have had a fascination with robots or inanimate forms gaining life and behaving
autonomously, sometimes controlled by some powerful force (often evil).
Such robots include the legend of the Golem of Prague in the 1700s, Mary Shelley's fictional creation
Frankenstein, and more recently, the cloned protagonists in Star Wars. The Terminator series is
definitely an iconic addition to this 'stereotyped robot' genre. The terminator robots lack emotion, in
contrast with humans, and are close to indestructible.
THE TERMINATOR ROLE was well matched to Arnold Schwarzenegger's acting persona.
Understandably, but disappointingly, Terminator Salvation does not contain the Governor of California.
But there are a few moments of tribute to Arnie's legacy, which I won't give away here.
The overarching theme in the current movie is that machines and humans are different, and the key
to being human is our heart (depicted quite literally). It is a common perception, and, not
unreasonably, a stereotype propagated by the movie. It doesn't convince me, though.
Set in 2018, Terminator Salvation depicts a critical battle between humans and Skynet. A key plot
theme is that humans believe that they have discovered a way to override Skynet. As to be expected,
there are time shifts, with the film starting in 2003. Kyle Reese, who is the protective protagonist from
the first film, plays a significant role in Salvation.
The plot doesn't bear too much examination. Going backwards or forwards in time, to adjust the past,
to determine the future, is problematic. Real life thinking around causality doesn't correlate to how
these shifts occur in the film.
The terminators embody interesting technical capabilities that add to the movies' charm. They have a
stunning ability to regenerate, even from puddles of metal (in the second movie). It will be a long
time, if ever, until research reaches such a level of sophistication.
SO-CALLED AUTONOMIC SYSTEMS that can self-heal are in their infancy and have demonstrated
no capacity so far. The ability to withstand extreme force or extreme hot or cold is impressive, though
unexplainable and probably inconsistent. The ability of terminators to mimic is excellent. People and
current robots are much less flexible.
There are also interesting technical issues surrounding the capability of computer networks. It is
certainly true that distributed systems are much more difficult to control than centralised ones, a key
topic of debate in music sharing and rulings about copyright.
Whether there would be a hidden 'under signal' that could override the network in the way depicted is
questionable. The computer messages sent on the screen were also a little unrealistic and overly
teleological.
In one detail, however, the movie series has been conservative. When Judgement Day happens,
Skynet takes over the network while calculating at 60 Teraflops. Current machines can calculate at
300 times that speed.
One theme that is seriously underdeveloped is Skynet's motivation. The explanation we are given for
Skynet's war against humans is that humans are a threat to Skynet's existence.
But how did that perception arise? How did the machines become self-aware? Machine self-awareness
is a common fear, but again, one, which is way beyond our current understanding or technological
capability. For that matter, why did Skynet want to take charge? Why was it so committed to stopping
John Conner and his associates? Unfortunately, this is missing from the movie.
In summary, the movie is entertaining. However, it is unlikely that it will attain the iconic status of the
previous movies.