Terminator 2

The human form has been the most popular for representation of artificially intelligent robots in the media and in the real world. Many believe this is due to our desire to fashion a robot in our own image. An excellent example of this is the Terminator, played by Arnold Schwarzeneggar in the movie Terminator 2. In the film, all of the United States defense systems, in the year 2029, are put on a complicated computer network called Skynet. Skynet begins controlling all of the defense forces and armed responses. After a period of time, however, Skynet begins to become "aware" that the biggest threat to itself is the human race and it turns on humans. Skynet attacks Russia because it knows the Russian counterattack will be disastrous to all humans. The film’s plot revolves around a cyborg sent back through time to kill the leader of the human resistance group to Skynet, John Connor, before he can make it into the future. If Skynet is successful, it will be Judgement Day on earth, because all humans will be replaced by machines so that Skynet will have no competitors. The human resistance, therefore, sends back its own Terminator to protect the resistance leader as a child. This is Arnold Schwarzeneggar’s character.

The characteristics of the Terminator sent back to protect the resistance leader fits in well with today’s theories on Artificial Intelligence. Using Weak AI theory, we believe anyone who watched the movie would consider the Terminator intelligent. In the movie, the Terminator functions in every capacity as a human, with the absence of crying. "Even with the inability to cry, at the end of the movie when it knows it must destroy itself it says "now I know why humans cry." Unless one chooses to define intelligence as an inherent property of living organisms, the Terminator is certainly intelligent.

We believe that, using Strong AI theory, the terminator is also conscious. In the movie the Terminator learns and is aware of his surroundings. When asked if he can learn stuff that he hasn’t been programmed with in the film, the Terminator responds that his CPU can learn and that the more time he spends around humans the more he learns. One idea often used in the Strong AI theory is emotions. At the end of the movie, when the terminator says he would cry if he could, he certainly is feeling an emotion. He even apologizes to John Connor, saying he is sorry but he has to go.

In applying the principles of the Terminator to reality, Moritz makes the case that we do have computers that have a range of processing power and can do algorithmic threat assessment like Deep Blue and Chess. Moritz further postulates that the military uses this in a range of smart systems to prove better information and to handle more complex assignments than humans can do alone. In this respect, a Skynet type system is not that far off. While most of the decisions in the military are still in human control, as systems become more complex, more and more duties will be turned over to computers. Ross Wilhelm, an AI researcher explains that computers in the movie are intelligent in that they can reach a decision faster than a human could in the same situation. He does explain that we do not have any computers that are self-aware yet. Check out the following link to examine a different perspective of the movie.

This project was produced for PSY 380, Social Psychology of Cyberspace, Spring 2000,  at Miami University. All graphics in these pages are used with permission or under fair use guidelines, are in the public domain,  or were created by the authors.  Last revised:  Monday, April 15, 2002 at 22:03:32.  This document has been accessed  2,177  times since 1 May 2000.  Comments & Questions to R. Sherman