Was I the only one who, yesterday afternoon, upon learning that power was going out all over the country and that cell phone systems were down, thought, “Ðámņ. Skynet’s gone active.”
PAD
Was I the only one who, yesterday afternoon, upon learning that power was going out all over the country and that cell phone systems were down, thought, “Ðámņ. Skynet’s gone active.”
PAD
• 
To tell you the truth I thought someone, somewhere trigered an EM pulse. That would have been an interesting development.
Probably.
And I was thinking, “Ðámņ. They brought Tesla’s equipment out of the warehouse sooner than expected.”
Me too–spooky
EM pulse? But isn’t Magneto supposed to be dead?!?
“Singing power to the people right on!”–John Winston Ono Lennon
I am curious PAD, of what you thought of T3.
I know I was thinking they should send up a helicopter to see if the Shocker was spelling out his name…
(How’s *that* for an ancient and obscure reference…?)
Y’know, I saw T3 again on Tuesday and it *still* didn’t occur to me. I guess my subconcious just couldn’t accept even the *possibility* that our fate was in the hands of Nick Stahl’s John Connor, the most ineffectual “hero” since Chris O’Donnell in “Batman & Robin.” (Who, as I never tire of pointing out, gets tossed around in the course of the film by Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Bane, Batman *and* Alicia Silverstone…)
Just for fun, here’s an article where Iraqis give tips on how to survive a blackout. (I got it from http://www.fark.com):
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/6540718.htm
What I find interesting is that someone over at http://www.blackout.com actually claimed responsibility for creating the blackout and agreed to restore all power if someone would just send over a good New York pizza.
Funny thing.. I was watching DS9 and the Earth just suffered a planet-wide power outage when my friend call to tell me about the real one. I’m thinking, is he spying on me or something? So I turned on the news, and HOW WEIRD IS THAT?
Actually, I mostly thought “AHHHH WE DIE NOW” and, once it was established that it wasn’t terrorism, “It’s that effing Blaster worm, isn’t it?”
Btw, that strikes me as a major plot hole in T3. Spoilers for the ending follow…
OK, so Skynet has taken over pretty much all the world’s computers. So what’s the first thing it does? Set off several thousand electro-magnetic pulses. Which wipe out, oh, 99% of those computers. D’oh!
Side note: if it takes incredible efforts and current tech to wipe out a single Terminator, how the heck do the post-nuclear holocaust, that no one’s even gotten any warning about it about to happen in order to prepare, humans manage to survive once Skynet starts pumping them out.
Personally, I’d thought of a Dark Angel-style nuke-related EMP (since 8/29 is Judgement Day).
And humans survived because in the original timeline, they weren’t that tough; the T-800s were very recent. It isn’t until it loops around, after Sarah and John have been warned and stockpiled weaponry, that you get the toughies (like the T-1000 and T-X).
And humans survived because in the original timeline, they weren’t that tough; the T-800s were very recent. It isn’t until it loops around, after Sarah and John have been warned and stockpiled weaponry, that you get the toughies (like the T-1000 and T-X).
You know, it occurs to me that there is a really good sci-fi story in the story of what happens between the end of T2 and the beginning of T1.
(Time travel… head hurts…)
T3 wasn’t it, but there’s still a really good story there. One that, I daresay, a long-form storytelling format like comics could do well with…
JLK
Honestly, I enjoyed T3, and I had to give props to the writers who didn’t chicken out with the story- giving us a depressingily nice one-two punch of John Connor’s fate and the ending.
I did have one quibble regarding the fusion cells powering the T-800 model (aka the Governator). Umm… we’ve seen two T-800 models get destroyed with decidedly non-nuclear results. How come this model is kinda volatile? And in my usual schiophrenic point-counterpoint manner- here’s two solutions. Hypothesis One- this is a differently constructed T-800, bourn out of the alternate timeline that was created post T2. Hypothesis Two- this T-800 was upgraded by the resistance fighters before being sent back in time to face the T-X.
eddie
I was too busy trying not to look at the gorgeous naked elves cavorting around my feet.
Yes, I thought something along those lines, too.
A strange coincidence: The day before the blackout, I was talking to my friend, discussing with her how I frequently have a burning dislike towards all the modern technology and cyber-sophistication of everything today, and that I miss the feeling provided by the days before the big technological boom of the 90’s. This might have seemed strange to passersby, seeing as how she and I are both around the age of 20.
Anyway, she disagreed, and stated that she liked most of the tech. these days, that it made things “good.” We discussed it for a while, and eventually I brought up my feelings that everyone relies too much on technology. Then, being only semi-facetious, and since we had just watched all three Terminator movies recently, I stated, “Haven’t the Terminator movies taught you anything?! One day, all the world’s technology is going to fail and we’ll all be crippled against some massive threat!! It’s no good!”
We finished the conversation in a more serious tone, but it was kind of eery to learn the very next day that the country’s largest power outage in history had just occured.
I was glad to remind my friend of our conversation and have a good smile about it.
But yeah, I too thought of Skynet.
Pack: **I know I was thinking they should send up a helicopter to see if the Shocker was spelling out his name…
(How’s *that* for an ancient and obscure reference…?)**
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 151. Len Wein’s first issue as regular writer, if memory serves. Drawn by Ross Andru.
What can I say? Marvel used the story as clip art on their licensed notebooks and other school supplies back in the ’70s…
As to the blackout, I had a lot of these thoughts about technology dependence when an ice storm knocked out the water and power to my home a couple of Decembers back. I’m thankful people aren’t freezing, at least.
– DB Bennett
A world without cell phones? Sounds kind of like a paradise to me! I can’t go on, I’m all choked up.
Technically I believe Arnold in T3 was supposed to be an T-850 and not a T-800. They made a big deal about that prior to the movie debut, but it’s never really mentioned in the movie. At one point I believe he mentions something about an upgrade, but never goes into any real details.
Also, as to how they fought T-800s and the like in the future, by the time Skynet had made them, it had also made the plasma and laser, etc. weapons it armed them with, which the humans got their hands on. Machine gun fire doesn’t do much to an 800, but a plasma rifle with a 40Watt range does ok.
Lol, I thought the exact same thing when I heard about the blackout.
Guess that’s why I like your work so much PAD.
Brian
Actually, when I first heard it originated in Lansing, Michigan, I thought, “Oh, great, now George Bush is going send troops to Lansing to look for Weapons of Mass Destruction.”
You know, it occurs to me that there is a really good sci-fi story in the story of what happens between the end of T2 and the beginning of T1.
In that case, you’ll want to look into S.M. Stirling’s trilogy: T2: Infiltrator, T2: Rising Storm, and T2: The Future War.
Hypothesis One- this is a differently constructed T-800, bourn out of the alternate timeline that was created post T2.
If he was an T-800 (I don’t know whether or not he was a T-850 as Josh said) than this is the more likely hypothesis, especially since it’s known to be a different timeline (see the change in Judgment Day).
New here by the way
PAD you had T3 on your mind, vocalyz you just saw “Homefront” and me, I had a rerun of Futurama I’d just caught on TBS with the robot revolution and suddlenly they lose power and are huddling around a makeshif fire:
– what happens if the fire runs out?
– then we go to Pottery Barn and steal their fire!
Forget Skynet…I was watching one of my favourite movies on DVD and then found out what was happening when the movie finished. What film was I watching…?
The Day The Earth Stood Still.
I thought Chandler must be stuck in a vestibule with Jill Goodacre.
Okay, I want all your “Official Terminator Geek” badges back.
Arnold played the T-101. Not the T-800 nor the T-850.
Did anyone perchance realize how astronomical the chances of the blackout having been caused by terrorism were?
Even with incompetent or careless security services, something on the scale of 9/11 comes along only once in a blue moon. Even with Dubya doing a lot to make things worse, we’re not likely to see it again in our lifetimes. Everything else is just scaremongering.
Hehe ERBFan. Gum would be perfection.
Ironically, I just it was a problem my somewhat too high tech research building. Not until I’d gotten outside, noticed that traffic was strange, and my friend in Puerto Rico called to ask if I was affected did I realize that it wasn’t just my building.
“Umm, affected by what? Oh…”
Okay, I want all your “Official Terminator Geek” badges back.
Arnold played the T-101. Not the T-800 nor the T-850.
The movies say that he’s a T-800, and that he’s a model 101 (not “T-101”). I interpret this as the T-800 being the overall type (versus, say, the rubber-skinned T-600s) and the 101 being the model for the flesh (since you can clearly see in T1 that the Terminator who invades Reese’s compound is fleshed, but not Arnold).
Skynet? That was 1997.
Or it was supposed to be.
Actually, I had just recently finished a story on a robotics lab experimenting with an internet-controlled robot named Taz. So named because in early testing he tended to whirl around and around.
They pointed out a Big Red Button on the side of the robot that immediately shuts him down if he malfunctions or relapses into whirling.
The head robotics guy tells me, “See, if the Terminator had had a Big Red Button, they wouldn’t have had that mess.”
So when the power went out, I thought, “Oops. Someone pressed the Big Red Button.”
Originialy posted by The Blue Spider
Skynet? That was 1997.
Or it was supposed to be.
You haven’t seen the third movie yet have you?
“Skynet? That was 1997. Or it was supposed to be. You haven’t seen the third movie yet have you?”
And that’s assuming that potential later movies don’t undo those storylines and reschedule the whole thing to later in the future. They should have stuck to 1 and 2.
After the blackout happened, I didn’t think of Skynet; instead, I spent a few hours trying to think of how to plug in my nieces & nephews to use as batteries.