Monday, January 28, 2008

i don't get this whole unboxing thing...


Last week my assassin robot from the future arrived. I don't even remember ordering the thing. According to the invoice, I bought it on woot six months ago. Still doesn't ring a bell.. Anyways, I put it to work tracking those responsible for the new terminator show having a repeat only 3 weeks in. Then I checked the link and found that they claim a new one for tonight. Whups.. Already sent it off. Live and learn. [edit]tvguide.com clearly shows no new episode tonight.. conscience clear[/edit]

There is something bothering me about the Terminator series, though. Not the show specifically, although it's rampant abuse of time-travel makes it no exception.

If I am Skynet 2071, and I can send a robot back in time to 1980-something to kill Sarah Connor, what is to stop me from sending back a few robots to help Skynet 2015 win the war before it even gets to me? There's no question of the san points lost in time travel, whatever I remember seeing that the future me did is obviously justified if it worked. If it didn't work, I'll have to send back twice as much muscle.

The only problem is that the plucky humans have stolen my time-travel technology, and are sending back some of their pluckiest fellow humans (and some killer robots who have been programmed to do good).

Doesn't this lead to a sort of temporal arms race, with greater and greater numbers on both sides being sent back to flash-point time-events, to the point where it's not even possible for anyone to understand how the war would have started without both of us having sent back armies of robots to make it start?

It's infuriorating.


5 comments:

The Mushroom said...

There's a reason why it's called "science fiction". Plenty of the 'Terminator' franchise is based upon the concept of going back in time to stop something that made the need and ability to go back in time possible. Seriously, you can picture the people in charge of making this stuff happen de-rez [TRON word there!] like Marty in 'Back To The Future'. Asimov or whomever made that rule about not changing stuff if you go back in time for a reason!

I'll just wait for the movie.

the illiterate said...

I am wondering if the terminator franchise has room for "iteration zero" stories.. The first time through, before time travel.. John Connor grew up without a father, and without a purpose. bounced around different correction facilities, got out when the bombs started dropping and rose to prominence in the resistance.. when he learned of the plot to assassinate his mother, he knew his own importance, and he had the opportunity to make himself into a better man retroactively

hurts the brain.

The Mushroom said...

Oh, the things we'd do retroactively...

aag said...

Just out of curiosity...is "infuriorating" worse than "infuriating"? :)

And you have a point...the problem with weapons, technology, etc. is that the opponent ends up with it too, and then it's not an advantage anymore. Unless, of course, your opponent is a dragon, and you have a yellow-handled club. :)

the illiterate said...

The dragon can get at the toybox just as easily as we can.. don't be so certain on that.