Flawed Thinking

I recently read a blog post about the new movie in the Terminator franchise. The blog writer said that she didn't like the movie because she had a hard time suspending her disbelief because of continuity problems. Specifically, she mentioned that, in Terminator: Salvation, that the machines already knew John and Kyle Connor would be important to the resistance even though, at the time the movie takes place, they aren't important yet. I cannot speak to this, as I haven't seen the film, and, based on reviews, probably won't 'til it comes out on cable. However, I would speculate that the machines sent back messengers to that point in time to tell the other machines.

Now, don't get me wrong. I liked Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and I also like Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The other movie(s)? (Was there more than the abyssmal Terminator 3?) Not so much. The Mythology keeps changing. But there has always been one thing that bothered me about the whole concept of machines launching a nuclear attack that is at the foundation of all the films, and it is this:

It's hard to suspend disbelief when the catalyst is a premise that makes everything else that follows implausible. I mean, given that Skynet has become self-aware, it boggles the mind to think that ultra-intelligent machines would then decide that the best course of action for eradicating mankind is a nuclear bomb. Assuming that the machines know what we know or have put into their databases, then, certainly, Skynet must know that a nuclear blast would cut all electricity, among other, horrific side effects. Given that at the time of Skynet's supposed first attack, the Big Bad Machines were, basically, just a computer sitting in a room, who, exactly, would have had the knowledge, manpower, and wherewithal to restore the power grid?

I believe that the writers of The Sarah Connor Chronicles attempted to address this paradox (machines blow up mankind, blow up themselves and their power sources in the process, hence, no man-like machines could ever be built), by spending at least one episode in a power plant in southern California (see Season 2, Episode 2 of TSCC, entitled "Automatic for the People").

I suppose that one could theorize that Skynet was smart enough to know that it would need power, and avoided precisely destroying certain, pivotal power plants so that it could build more machines (using other machines, I would guess, but who would program those machines? Skynet?), and that might also explain how anybody managed to live through the nuclear blasts (world wide, I further assume) and the radioactive fallout.

But this actually brings me to another point: if it was Skynet that programmed the other machines to build human-like androids, how did it do so? Because most computers used to tool machine parts are not connected to databases, but are instead programmed locally to a dedicated hard drive... at least, in my experience with them. There may be some computers for this purpose that are connected to networks, but that actually seems a bit counter-productive to keeping one's designs from being hijacked, so, even if those computers were networked, it would probably only be within the company where those computers were housed and not connected to a wider, world-wide network like the Internet. Machining designs are quite proprietary. Therefore, one would have to assume that Skynet would be able to access those computers another way, perhaps through electrical outlets that the machining computers are plugged into, but that brings up two problems: the first is what I started writing this post about (the power problem, post-nuke, not to mention the physical damage that the machines would have to avoid with their nuclear blasts, thus sparing more people in order to spare facilities); the second would bring us in to Tesla territory, which I am neither qualified nor inclined to talk about, except to say that it's pretty scary to think that someone out there might be able to figure out what you're up to, what you're using, or even what's on your hard drive due to the nature of the electrical ground plug.

Then again, perhaps I am wrong altogether about this. After all, I am not a nuclear scientist, and don't really know that much about it. Maybe power grids and machines could continue to work through massive electro-magnetic blasts and the force created by a nuclear explosion.

But I don't think I am wrong.

Okay, Break's Over!

I have a list of things to do:

• Write a synopsis for A Night Borrowed and write that in June instead of July
• Put together a disc of songs for Dad for his birthday
• Mop these disgusting floors
• Clean out the porch (will need help with this)
• Find someone to mow my fields and lawn
• Put together sheet music for the new covers
• Finish the record by August
• Finish writing Devil's Handiwork by the end of July
• Finish writing A Night Borrowed by the end of June
• Edit both books in August
• Get A Night Borrowed to the printer by September
• Start querying Devil's Handiwork in August
• Move my office to the porch by the end of September
• Finish the record cover and printed material