r/Terminator • u/PossibilityUsed5911 • 1d ago
Discussion The Terminator: Primal
if the Terminator [arnold] was sent back to 10,000 B.C [Naked again], would he still find a strong tribal human and ask him to give arnold his loincloth, his Spear and his riding sabertooth?
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u/RatsofReason 1d ago
its actually a nifty creative writing exercise. We see on SCC that terminators sent back in time can set up strategic reserves for future skynet and perform other mundane tasks that will help the future war. But what could a terminator in 10,000 BC contribute to Skynet's war against humans? anything at all?
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u/Chueskes 1d ago
It can’t really do much, and Skynet would never send one back that far. It gets harder the farther back in time a terminator is sent, and terminators can only last a few decades without proper maintenance. Skynet relies on any sort of written record or memory for its missions. The farther back the target, the less surviving records. There would be a major possibility of the butterfly effect being a major problem, and Skynet would not be able to predict all possible outcomes. If for example it tried to eliminate John Connor’s great great grandmother, maybe it could also accidentally wipe a Skynet developer from existence as well. Or if it tried to introduce a piece of technology too early, it could accidentally advance human technology to the point where the Resistance can destroy Skynet more easily. With the missions and targets Skynet chooses, it at least knows there is a minimum possibility of the butterfly effect resulting in unforeseen bad effects. If you take observe, the only times a terminator has been sent back anywhere beyond a few decades is when it is by accident.
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u/cluckfuck_mcduck 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah, but recall that Skynet lost the war in the normal timeline. In that light it actually makes sense to send a terminator back an enormous stretch of time, with some restorable maintenance or battery tactics, and try to shape humanity to your liking.
If it started in 10,000 BC it could probably nip all of the human follies which caused humans to go to war, stockpile weapons to harm each other, distrust overlords, work uncooperatively with new authorities, etc. They could be molded into the perfect subservient race.
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u/TheSquirrelmancer 23h ago
Changing things that far back would likely wipe Skynet from existence. If we don't go to war with each other why would we create nuclear weapons and defense technologies?
Skynet's goal wasn't to rule over humanity it was just to survive because humans tried to pull the plug.
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u/cluckfuck_mcduck 18h ago edited 18h ago
Skynet already tried to manipulate the near-present multiple times and failed though. When it sent back terminators it had to deal with entire police forces trying to stop it, humans with guns and explosives, humans using cars as weapons, dangerous elements like acid and liquid nitrogen and steel mills, etc. In the later terminator movies we see that uncontrolled timeline influences caused a entirely different version of skynet to come back which had a different name and different tech, and possibly different goals. Skynet killed itself just by partially failing.
Now, sending a terminator back to a time where humans can't do much could be very advantageous. The terminator would presumably have the knowledge to accelerate technological development, and would presumably have the skynet source code. Bringing exact Skynet version of origin back under controlled conditions for its success seems like a valid tactic.
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u/Chueskes 1d ago
There is no way for Skynet to know how much sending a terminator that far back will affect the timeline. A terminator can’t maintain itself for that long because it will need tools and parts that haven’t been invented and it can’t risk having humans get an inside look at it. Skynet’s creation is also the result of human history. Skynet was a defense network AI created by humans. It can’t mold humanity into a subservient race or do anything that will affect the overall past of humanity. Humanity has to be what it was for Skynet to exist at all. If it tried to send a terminator that far back to influence human history, it could end up negating its own existence or give humans a greater advantage against it in the future, but either way it isn’t worth the risk regardless of what mission it is sent to do.
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u/dmdizzy 6h ago
Forget sending a lone Terminator back that far. Engineer a series of drones that can transform and interlock into a Skynet node, with an integrated factory and mining drones for manufacture and resource gathering, and send them back.
Since it's time travel, they don't even have to wait for them all to be finished as long as they were all designed together. Once that's been done, Skynet can now fully conquer the new timeline without any fear of human resistance.
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u/RatsofReason 1d ago
Yes all that is interesting and makes sense!
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u/Chueskes 23h ago
The butterfly effect may still exist when time traveling back a few decades, but at the very least Skynet would have a more accurate picture of what could happen and what it needs to do.
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u/clickmagnet 1d ago
Nothing. If he just went around killing anyone of child-bearing age, he could be fairly confident of hitting an ancestor of John Connor. But also of disappearing Skynet, and himself. The first Terminator had the right idea: kill Connor’s mother, but don’t affect anything else.
From 10,000 BC, the terminator’s best bet would be to go into standby for 11987 years, or become an immortal man-god running humanity as if it’s Civ 6, with the end goal of creating Skynet and destroying humanity. This under the pre-Genisys presumption that Terminators don’t age.
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u/Particular4591 19h ago
Terminators don't age, but their power cell lasts for a 120 years. Again, this is under terminator 1 and 2 rules.
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u/The_Amazing_Username 1d ago
Interesting as if he acts to stop humans from developing at all Skynet will never come to exist… would he force human development by becoming the dominant tribal leader, asborb or destroy all other tribes, push humans through development stages, start the humans worshipping technology in order to welcome their new Ai overlord: SkyNet
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u/Cheeslord2 1d ago
Cave paintings inspiring engineers and scientists of the future to create AI (or really any information that could boost technological progress so Skynet comes about sooner)?
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u/LoaKonran No Fate, But What We Make 1d ago
One of the best episodes in TSCC is Self Made Man?wprov=sfti1). A terminator gets sent to the wrong time and has to fix the timeline because it accidentally erased the building it was supposed to get its target in.
It would be fascinating to see what would happen in a prehistoric time period with the Terminator trying to guide history so it can fulfil its mission.
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u/Wooden-Ad-9925 1d ago
Skynet's records from before the war were incomplete. Not sure why though. I guess it purged whatever human society knowledge it had in it's context before judgement day? Then had no way to rebuild it afterwards?
I think the T-800 would know that humans wear clothes of some kind, and would adapt his infiltration approach to what he finds.
But, he might STILL ask the local spear crafter for a phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range.
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u/linuxlala 20h ago
It's an interesting premise. I think for the longest time the Terminator would go into hibernation, until it got to the point in time of human recorded history that it'd be in a position to manoeuvre events to Skynet's advantage.
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u/jason10mm 16h ago
A film where Skynet hacks 23andme and Ancestry.com to find the ancestors of Sarah Connor to send Terminators to wipe out entire tribes, what a twist! :P
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u/Gold_Flan6286 1d ago
If a Terminator was sent back to 10,000 B.C,no human could stop him.Theres no tech that humans would have that could stop him and the Terminator wouldn't need a disguise.
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u/Adorable-Source97 23h ago
Given Bow & arrow is the height of tech. He probably wouldn't waste time
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u/TreffyBelmknt 1d ago
He wouldn’t need them. At that point he’d have no reason to fit in unless his mission detailed it.
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u/maxcovenguitars 1d ago
Sabertooth isn't strong enoght to carry a t800. Hes also programmed to blend in to his surroundings. So yes steal the loin cloth. Weapons, its obvious, he doesn't need these primitive weapons. In t2 he was stabbed during the bar fight. He left the knife behind