Attila Domos: Posted on Thursday, January 26, 2012 1:24 AM.
I was watching Terminator-2, when something stuck me.
There was a scene where teenaged John Connor, his mom (Sarah) and the T-101 (terminator) were riding in a station wagon. Sarah said something from the back seat, to which the driving T-101 replied “Affirmative”. Teen John Connor then corrected the T-101 and asked if it “Listens to how people talk?” He told the T-101, a cybernetic organism... no doubt the coolest thing anyone could possible have ever seen, to not be such a square. John then gave him a few examples of some hip slang responses like “asta lavista”, “chill out”, “no problemo”, “eat me” and the like.
The T-101 looked almost shocked as it processed this newly acquired information. Teenaged John then continued, and told the T-101 that it could also do “combinations”. The T-101 processed a little longer, then looked young John Connor in the eye and said…“Chill out, dick-wad.”
This made young rebellious Connor proud, like he’d just turned a square, from the future-killing machine, into a hip 90’s bad-boy.
This little moment got me to think.
In the first “Terminator”, there was a scene where the janitor knocked on the door to the motel room where the T-101 was staying. Obviously, the guy must have noticing a foul stench, so he followed up his knock with a classic Hollywood one-liner.
I was watching Terminator-2, when something stuck me.
There was a scene where teenaged John Connor, his mom (Sarah) and the T-101 (terminator) were riding in a station wagon. Sarah said something from the back seat, to which the driving T-101 replied “Affirmative”. Teen John Connor then corrected the T-101 and asked if it “Listens to how people talk?” He told the T-101, a cybernetic organism... no doubt the coolest thing anyone could possible have ever seen, to not be such a square. John then gave him a few examples of some hip slang responses like “asta lavista”, “chill out”, “no problemo”, “eat me” and the like.
The T-101 looked almost shocked as it processed this newly acquired information. Teenaged John then continued, and told the T-101 that it could also do “combinations”. The T-101 processed a little longer, then looked young John Connor in the eye and said…“Chill out, dick-wad.”
This made young rebellious Connor proud, like he’d just turned a square, from the future-killing machine, into a hip 90’s bad-boy.
This little moment got me to think.
In the first “Terminator”, there was a scene where the janitor knocked on the door to the motel room where the T-101 was staying. Obviously, the guy must have noticing a foul stench, so he followed up his knock with a classic Hollywood one-liner.
“Hey buddy, you got a dead cat in there, or what?”
The T-101 paused from reading through a small notebook (possibly Sarah Connor’s diary), slowly turned its head as it processed through some “Possible Response” choices to such a question, and selected the now famous line…
“Fuck you, asshole.”
Among its other choices were…
“Yes/No
”“Or What?”
“Go Away”
“Please come back later”
and…Just a plain“Fuck you”, not a combination (like it’d eventually selected).
First of all, the fact that I’m even breaking this down tells me that, at the moment, I have more time than I should.
Secondly, it made me think.
The first T-101 was sent back by “Skynet”, an evil, (from a human point of view) robot machine creating-super computer, which REALLY hated humans. It obviously had no problem with a foul mouthed terminator, telling people to fuck off. Of course, the janitor got off lucky, because the T-101’s alternative likely was to open fire. But no… our favorite terminator decided to use not only a swear word, but threw it into a combination (Fuck you / Asshole) like teenaged John Connor, a little over a decade later, would tell him to do.
I then wondered… did middle-aged John Connor remove the foul-mouthed combination using program, from the captured T-101’s hard drive, before he sent it back to meet and save himself as a teenager? If he did, well… it was very thoughtful of him. It’s the kind of thing a man in his mid-30’s, early 40’s might do… even if that person himself was as foul mouthed as a drunken sailor, in his teenaged years.
Perhaps middle-aged John saw how uncivilized teen John grew up to be, so he saw fit to attempt to change himself, even if a tad for the better, by sending back a more polite “machine”. Inevitably though, if this IS what he’d tried to do, this little subliminal attempt would have been doomed to fail. The T-101 is an “always learning” machine, which would make it the cybernetic organism equivalent of a teenager. Perhaps he should have programmed into the T-101 some “peer pressure resistance software”.
The conclusion I drew from these two scenes is that teenagers are like “Skynet”. They both think that they are on this Earth to rule it and they’re both excellent at corrupting a young mind… robot or human.
“Bad Skynet… bad!”
Well, that problem’s solved. Now… what will I do for the rest of the night? Hmmmm…
- Attila
The T-101 paused from reading through a small notebook (possibly Sarah Connor’s diary), slowly turned its head as it processed through some “Possible Response” choices to such a question, and selected the now famous line…
“Fuck you, asshole.”
Among its other choices were…
“Yes/No
”“Or What?”
“Go Away”
“Please come back later”
and…Just a plain“Fuck you”, not a combination (like it’d eventually selected).
First of all, the fact that I’m even breaking this down tells me that, at the moment, I have more time than I should.
Secondly, it made me think.
The first T-101 was sent back by “Skynet”, an evil, (from a human point of view) robot machine creating-super computer, which REALLY hated humans. It obviously had no problem with a foul mouthed terminator, telling people to fuck off. Of course, the janitor got off lucky, because the T-101’s alternative likely was to open fire. But no… our favorite terminator decided to use not only a swear word, but threw it into a combination (Fuck you / Asshole) like teenaged John Connor, a little over a decade later, would tell him to do.
I then wondered… did middle-aged John Connor remove the foul-mouthed combination using program, from the captured T-101’s hard drive, before he sent it back to meet and save himself as a teenager? If he did, well… it was very thoughtful of him. It’s the kind of thing a man in his mid-30’s, early 40’s might do… even if that person himself was as foul mouthed as a drunken sailor, in his teenaged years.
Perhaps middle-aged John saw how uncivilized teen John grew up to be, so he saw fit to attempt to change himself, even if a tad for the better, by sending back a more polite “machine”. Inevitably though, if this IS what he’d tried to do, this little subliminal attempt would have been doomed to fail. The T-101 is an “always learning” machine, which would make it the cybernetic organism equivalent of a teenager. Perhaps he should have programmed into the T-101 some “peer pressure resistance software”.
The conclusion I drew from these two scenes is that teenagers are like “Skynet”. They both think that they are on this Earth to rule it and they’re both excellent at corrupting a young mind… robot or human.
“Bad Skynet… bad!”
Well, that problem’s solved. Now… what will I do for the rest of the night? Hmmmm…
- Attila
"Because You Shouldn't be Afraid to Chase Your Dreams"
a book by: Attila Domos
Available at Amazon & Kindle
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