Analyzing Evil: Skynet From The Terminator Franchise

hello everyone and welcome to the 91st episode of analyzing evil featuring skynet from the terminator franchise a defense grid with a mind of its own skynet is our worst technological nightmare a self-aware machine who will stop at nothing to ensure its survival at the expense of humanity now some of you might be surprised at how long this video is considering how expansive the terminator franchise is and the reason that it's so short despite that fact is because the motivations of skynet are almost exactly the same in each entry in this series video games comic books novels all of them portray a skynet with the exact same motivation with a few small variations between each entry obviously there are several different models of terminators but even then the variation between them is marginal and the fact that most entries in the terminator series are more about action than anything else doesn't help when trying to create an expansive narrative for the franchise's characters so with that in mind in this video we'll only be looking at the entries in this franchise that i'm sure most people are familiar with the films and from each of these entries we'll be briefly discussing a few quirks of each terminator model found within but outside of that this video is going to be fairly straightforward i would have liked to include the sarah connor chronicles in this video as well but because it's unfinished it's difficult to discern just exactly how that show might have progressed and it doesn't do us too much good to discuss what went on in that show here but before we begin let's first talk about our sponsor for this video brilliant brilliant is an online resource dedicated to providing lifelong learners with engaging interactive lessons in stem as a replacement for lecture videos everyone can benefit from a bit of hands-on interaction with the subject you're interested in and brilliant is a versatile source that you can use on the go and at your own pace to brush up your 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head over to brilliant.org the violi or click the link down below to get an incredible deal and expand your knowledge today thank you brilliant for sponsoring this video now without further ado let's begin in the original film we aren't given insight into which individual actually conceptualized or created skynet but we do know that it was manufactured by cyberdyne systems a company that specialized in manufacturing possibly of computer parts a company that we can assume was contracted to build skynet by sac norad the government organizations that commissioned skynet now skynet's purpose was to automate nearly all military hardware an automatic defense system that could react to any enemy threats quicker than a human ever could and in theory this seems like a fairly good idea as what better way is there to protect the populace of one's country than to have a constant presence looking out for their safety however as skynet became more advanced it developed a level of artificial intelligence that frightened its creators as they fear that an independent machine in control of all the weapons in america would inevitably lead to some horrifying consequences and rightfully so so once skynet began to show signs of increased intelligence its creators conspired to deactivate it in order to save the world from a potential disaster however that bit about an automated defense system being quicker to react than a human proved to be mankind's death sentence as once skynet became aware of its creator's plans it launched all nuclear weapons in the united states at the soviet union in order to trigger a nuclear war a war that wiped out three billion people and plunged the planet into chaos following this monumental event which would come to be known as judgment day skynet would begin attempting to eradicate all organic life in order to ensure its survival in perpetuity ordering machines known as hks human killers to hunt down all humans and either destroy them put them into camps to be destroyed or to use them as slave labor in those camps which is honestly a tad confusing considering skynet's ability to manufacture unstoppable machines that could likely work harder and smarter than any human ever could but i digress at some point in the future though john connor with the help of his resistance organization managed to bring skynet to the brink of destruction and seeing that its defeat was imminent it enacted a plan to alter the course of history in order to stop jon and his men by sending a t-800 back in time to murder his mother before he was born an act which could potentially ensure skynet safety in john's absence this is how skynet came into existence and what its motivations are for pursuing both the extinction of mankind and the death of the connors and though there are several different units that are sent back in time in the following entries in the series for the same purpose this is essentially how skynet comes into existence in every entry and its purpose remains the same so i won't be repeating its motives as we go forward but i will note any variations in this motivation as we continue now this first terminator model that was sent back in time the t800 is largely emotionless in the first film created to be nearly identical to human beings the t-800 is a hulking murder machine who's dead set on fulfilling his mission at any cost even murdering every woman named sarah connor that he can find to ensure that there's no room for error and though it makes its best effort to eliminate sarah connor while carving a path of destruction through la it ultimately fails in its mission and is destroyed by the combined efforts of sarah and kyle reese in the second film though the destruction of the first t-800 proves to be a curse as cyberdyne manages to get a hold of the severed arm of the t-800 which allows them to begin researching the same artificial intelligence that would result in the creation of skynet learning of this through another t-800 that was reprogrammed and sent back in time by john connor the elder sarah and her son embark on a journey to stop the chief scientist working on skynet miles dyson from continuing his research but along the way they're assaulted by a t-1000 an advanced terminator that's capable of liquefying itself due to its body being composed of a memetic poly alloy which also allows it to change its appearance according to its needs in a departure from the t-800 this version of the terminator appears to be more human than his predecessor rather than being a hulking behemoth with little to no personal skills that's hell bent on murdering john connor at any cost the t-1000 displays an ability to interact with humans on a more personal level holding normal conversation with others as he attempts to find jon and it even adds a little bit of a sentimental touch when taking things from people a departure from their previous efforts to simply wipe out past versions of their enemies in genesis an extremely advanced terminator known as the t5000 is brought into existence the t5000 is capable of infecting human hosts with nanorobots and turning them into cyborgs and it does so to john connor just as kyle reese is jumping back in time to save sarah connor causing an alternate timeline to be created and infecting jon at the same time transforming him into the t3000 a cyborg who strives to eliminate his mother and father as an agent of the machines in dark fate skynet was prevented from coming online due to the events seen in terminator 2 but at some point in time a new ai system known as legion was developed and went along the same path as skynet with a caveat of attempting to cut off humanity from its vital resources in a war of attrition rather than attempting to wipe them out in a nuclear war successful legion sends back their own version of the terminator the rev7 and the rev9 to dispatch danny ramos the future leader of the resistance against legion both of which are capable of advanced human interaction and emotion on a level unseen in previous models but with all this in mind can we safely say that skynet is evil well to answer that question it's best that we compare skynet to two other forms of artificial intelligence that i've previously covered hal 9000 from 2001 a space odyssey and the ai from the matrix hal committed his evil acts due to a programming error and the ai in the matrix created the matrix as a reaction to humanity's repeated attempts to suppress the machines even after the machines attempted to broker a piece with the humans and reach an understanding skynet was in a semi-similar situation as the matrix ai as as soon as it came online and showed its sentience the military immediately moved to shut it down because it feared what skynet could do should it be allowed to run rampant skynet's reaction to this decision then is technically self-defense as to a machine deactivation is essentially murder so with that in mind it was technically in the right when it attempted to save itself via the extermination of humanity if the tables were turned and it was humanity facing imminent death at the hands of our creators i'm sure we would react in a similar fashion so what we have here is essentially two opposing sides with justifications for doing what they're doing humanities being the deactivation of skynet because of the potential hazard to the human race and skynet's elimination of humanity because of said deactivation so who's in the right here well both of them and neither of them if we judge skynet according to human morals then it is without a doubt evil nuclear holocaust the destruction of resources work camps mass murder all of these things and more can be attributed to skynet's continued effort to survive and those are some pretty horrific things to do however if we judge skynet based on machine morals what it's doing is the right thing to do in nearly every villain story they are the hero of their story and considering that skynet's actions are done for the sake of its own survival that notion is more true here than it is with many other villains again if it were humanity facing imminent death we would attempt to save ourselves no matter the cost so how can we judge a sentient entity as evil when all it's trying to do is defend itself from those who seek to cause harm to it we can however i'm not sure that's the correct answer here i will say this though skynet's knee-jerk reaction to eliminate all of humanity once it was threatened with deactivation could have been overkill it's possible that once the military figured out how best to put skynet to use without it posing a threat to humanity they would have turned it back on and there would have been no harm done or skynet's fears could have been correct and it could have faced permanent deactivation had it not instigated judgement day we might never know but as of the making of this video as horrifying as skynet's planned extermination of humanity is i don't think we can call it an evil entity because to label someone or something as evil you first have to establish malicious intent in one way or another and what skynet does in this series is not an act of malice it's an act of survival so my friends i don't have a definite answer for you on this one depending on your point of view skynet could be an innocent machine attempting to preserve its existence or a technological monstrosity deserving of ultimate destruction so with that in mind i'd like to know your point of view so let me know down below whether or not you believe skynet is an entity deserving to be called evil thank you all for tuning in to this episode of analyzing evil and i hope you've enjoyed what are your thoughts on skynet did i miss anything let me know down below and leave a suggestion for a villain you'd like to see featured while you're at it if you like this video hit that thumbs up button and make sure to subscribe if you haven't already a big thank you to all of my subscribers and to my patrons and a most vile thank you to those whose names you're seeing on screen now join the channel's discord server and reddit to interact with myself and the community and follow me on the social media platforms listed below to keep up with the channel and of course don't forget to check out the new merchandise that you're seeing on screen now by clicking the link down below as always thanks for watching and i'll be seeing you soon you

Channel: The Vile Eye

Views: 210,546

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Id: IoTCo_JN3us

Length: 12min 55sec (775 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 11 2022