Question.

[the_grynne]

What kind of sense of self does Skynet have?

Specifically: Is Skynet indifferent to which version of It exists in the dominant timeline?

Comments

[the_grynne]

My thought is that there is some single as-yet-unknown element that is ultimately Skynet - a piece of code or a certain chip architecture.

If so, do you think this central element (the pin or spindle, is the metaphor so_spiffed used up-thread), destined to become Skynet, can be developed independently by people with no ties/communications connecting them? I think it's interesting that the franchise so far seems to be saying that there is a line of evidence to link the various originators of Skynet. (Dyson's labs, to Andy Goode the intern, etc.)

I used the word destiny on purpose - Skynet seems convinced of its destiny, what it was destined to be. We know that when it became self-aware, it acquired a great self-preservational instinct - or why else eliminate the human threat. So Skynet would not decide to alter the past if it thought that was going to alter what it was - a kind of self-destruction.

I suppose my central issue is that I don't feel that all of these separate Skynets, even with the connecting key element (the chip, or whatever), SHOULD be the same. I don't think that even computers can be THAT deterministic, that it has this unswerving destiny to culminate in the Skynet that wages war.

If Cameron did end up becoming Skynet, would she be indistinguishable from the Skynet that created her? From all the other Skynets that preceded her? I think learning has to play some part in what kind of Skynet you get. (In my darker moments, I imagine Skynet in the future sending the Terminators back to teach the younger version of itself what to think, and how to fear humanity.)

[indiefic]

...can be developed independently by people with no ties/communications connecting them?

I guess my point was that if we don't know what the pin/spindle/element is, there's no indication that it is a different person(s) developing it each time judgment day is averted/postponed.

my central issue is that I don't feel that all of these separate Skynets, even with the connecting key element (the chip, or whatever), SHOULD be the same.

But that seems like a very human perspective to me. It's an AI. And Skynet may be able to acknowledge that a different iteration of itself might behave differently without necessarily seeing itself as fundamentally changed. Also, I think an AI would assume that its logic is the only possible logic, the only logical logic, ergo regardless of when/where/who creates it, it will always reach the same ultimate destiny.

(though to play devil's advocate against myself, obviously Skynet has a vested interest in making sure it's "born". They sent Vick back to guard/watch/guide the wife, whose name I can't remember right now, so Skynet does seem to be mucking with things just as much as John Connor is)

Anyway, I don't know. I just don't see Skynet as having the same sense of "self" that humans have. But it's an interesting question and I would love to see how SCC handles it. It's *got* to come up, especially with Cameron being part of the core team.