Hey SCC fans. I wanted to be the first writer to welcome you guys to our new site. It took a foot race down the hallway to beat fan-boys/writer-producers Zack Stenz and Ashley Miller to their prolific little cyber-savvy keyboards but ha! Here I am.
Of course big talk inside the Writers’ Room this week is Comic-Con, or as I heard Seth Green call it on KROQ this morning, “The Con”. El Jefe Mr. Friedman will be emceeing the SCC panel, which will feature our gorgeous talented cast members, both old and new. Both Josh and John Wirth (or the “J’s” as we call them here in the office) have been sneaking off to post-production to work on a Comic-Con only special treat for our SCC peeps. Lots of questions buzzing around staff: who’s gonna drive to San Diego, who’s gonna take the train, and most importantly… where exactly are we going to drink afterwards?
A little work getting done as well. Lots of amazing stories brewing inside the writers’ room here at SCC – and I hope that’s not just our daily 4pm Starbucks-run talking. Friedman would terminate me if I spilled any secrets, but I think I can divulge a few of the broader topics we’ve been noodling over the past few weeks. And who knows, maybe there’s even a fan or two out there who would like to weigh in on these matters:
Can Terminators swim? What are the physics of Terminators in water?
How close are we, real world-wise, to a Skynet-esque, sentient artificial intelligence?
How does the Resistance feed itself in the future?
Well I have to run now, I can hear the pitter-patter of little brain waves gathering inside the writers’ room. Hope to see you all at the Con. Until next time …
Natalie Chaidez aka 22
[...] Check out more of what she has to say on the new TSCC Production Blog. [...]
Thank you Natalie!
Please keep us updated on the goings on in the Writer’s Room.
Thanks for the updates!
On the questions:
I don’t think that Terminators can swim with all that metal. People don’t swim that well and we’re approximately the same density as water. Terminators would sink unless they spent huge amounts of energy to stay up. It would be more efficient to just walk along the bottom.
I’m not sure of where current AI is, but computer vision is certainly nowhere close to replicating human vision. For instance, object recognition is quite easy for people, but very difficult for machines. Computers can reliably pick out faces in a picture, but discriminating different faces under uncertain lighting and camera positions is best done by a human.
If the Terminators are running work camps, then they must be supplying the prisoners with food. So presumably, the Resistance steals from them.
I think real world wise we’re not that far off from an artificial sentient intelligence, if you take the view that modern humans evolved as a result of an aberration from Neanderthal man, perhaps inbreeding, a corrupted gene pool or something like that, bearing in mind that chimps have 99% of our gene pool. An AI unit might develop along the same way, a virus, which isn’t always a bad thing:-) Cameron certainly seems to be questioning her identity and developing human characteristics, so maybe it’s closer than we think.
More importantly than swimming, I’m very curious how Terminators pick up objects. I always thought they were programmed, as part of their infiltration knowledge, the overall densities of common things (especially foods like eggs, etc), but it then occurred to me - do Terminators *feel*? In the films, T800 said it sensed injuries, but is that because of the ballistic impact on its endo, or is it somehow sensing the flesh? And if it is, where is the flesh attached to the CPU? How does it interpolate a touch? In the show, it’s heavily implied that a Terminator has now had sex (YEEEK, EW EW EW), but how did it gauge how hard to … do certain things to her without tissue damage? Does it have enough sensation to feel what was going on?
So the question I’m curious about, given all this, is basically: Can a Terminator pick up an egg, first try, no problem? Or does it go through crushing small objects until it realizes? And, does it *feel* the egg? This is stuff I’m dying to know, if anyone wants to answer.
I think terminators can swim. Any object can displace its own weight in water, take aircraft carriers for example. But the physical capabilities are probably different. A terminator could shut down breathing as non essential, change its vision mode and close valves to prevent water getting into metal joints. Vic was married so presumably had to shower to blend in. But underwater they could propel their arms and legs to swim and stay under water for extended periods of time.
On another matter I read about the US military using tiny robotic insects as spy drones, they have over 5000 deployed in Iraq alone. They are talking about developing spy insects that can extract energy from plants and stay in the field for long periods of time, perhaps with nanotechnology they could reproduce each other and well the mind boggles at the thought.
But I thought it interesting that when we create some marvellous new invention we try to turn it into a weapon. Skynet was created by humans to protect humans and instead of using its artificial intelligence to benefit mankind we put it in charge of the most deadly arsenal the world has ever seen.
Is this a fatal flaw in mankind? On the one hand we have this primal urge to survive, the propagation of the species and on the other hand we have this self destructive urge whereby we destroy our environment in our struggle to survive. Whether its defoliating the world or destroying neighbouring nations the seeds of our destruction come from the same source as our desire for survival.
It’s no wonder Skynet fears us. If you look at humans from their perspective we are illogical, weak and riven by conflicting desires. Sarah both hates and needs Cameron, John needs and fears her and Derek hates but uses Cameron. If I was Cameron I might be afraid of these people. I think the writers have done a marvellous job creating Cameron because she observes our actions and reactions and evaluates them and by doing this she forces us to re-evaluate our own reactions and actions. I think Cameron’s search to find her ‘heart’ (as in the tin man of Wizard of Oz) is one of the most fascinating journeys since that of the replicants from Blade Runner. Where will her hero’s journey end?
I liked the concept in one of the episodes where Andy says that the Turk became afraid. Perhaps it was similar to Adam and Eve in the garden, eating the fruit and become ashamed or afraid. They covered themselves with fig leaves, Skynet unleashed the nuclear storm in order to protect itself. It could have seen mankind as a virus that had to be eliminated in order for skynet to survive.
Looking forward to season two!
Alastair
“Can Terminators swim? What are the physics of Terminators in water?”
My first instinct is to say no. It would sink. Water displacement is only part of the equation. The other part is buoyancy. I think the arm and leg movements could keep a terminator afloat, but these movements would be strange. I’d like to see the Terminator highly concentrating on this act because (1) swimming is not readily practiced, (2) the physics of such an act are dynamically different from humans, (3) the computer processing required for the Terminator is constant and at near maximum. My guess is Cameron would go through the effort, perhaps even requiring some sort of rest period afterward, either way it would make for great comic moments. The other Terminators would simply sink to the bottom and walk.
“How close are we, real world-wise, to a Skynet-esque, sentient artificial intelligence?”
I think we’re quite far from such an event.
“How does the Resistance feed itself in the future?”
At first, think “Survivor.” Later, more coordinated, but small scale size and geographical natural limitations.
Keep listing the questions.
—JET_Fusion