# Terminator 2: a couple of questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 28, 2014, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508 "2014-02-28T10:48:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/83 "2014-06-16T01:41:35Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > It was (and is) a stupid plan as according to the narrative, Skynet had only one shot to send something into the past. Instead of sending a Terminator lie dormant in the distant past until it could revive itself or even a few years back to let Skynet know how to build the time machine earlier and this bypass the whole “John Connor” affair, it send a Terminator to the past to kill someone that may or not even be a real person. How do you know that your plan is even possible within the rules of time travel of the movie? You are assuming facts that are simply not in evidence in order t construct an incredibly complex plan that you, and only you, think is better. How do you know that the plans for the time machine could even fit within a Terminator’s memory? An unmanned attack drone has a lot of processing power, but that doesn’t mean that I can send one into the field with working plans for the Large Hadron Collider. Your “superior” plan requires you to make a hell of a lot of assumptions that simply are not in evidence within the story. That doesn’t make it a superior plan, or highlight a plot hole. It just means that you are unable to comprehend how complicated the real world is. > [@](#): > > How could Skynet possibly know that Sarah Connor was "real” if it lacked the necessary information to find her? You seriously have to ask this question? Just using the knowledge available from public library from 1985, or from Wikipedia today, can you be certain that Adolph Hitler was a real person? Sufficiently sure that sending someone back in time to execute him would be a sensible move? Can you, just using the knowledge available from public library from 1985, or from Wikipedia today, have the necessary information to find Adolph Hitler before he turns 30? Now repeat that question with half a dozen other historical figures. Vladimir Lenin? John Lennon? Julius Caesar? Sid Caesar? Marie Curie? Mariah Carey? Now, try this same exercise with _their mothers_. We can be absolutely sure that she exists. Wikipedia or a public library will tell you her name and even where she was her famous child was born. But you tell me what her address was before the child was born or provide me with a photograph of the woman. Go on, I’ll wait. Once again, you don’t seem to understand how complicated the real world is. For you to even ask how Skynet could be absolutely sure that Hitler’s mother existed but not know anything more than the town where she lived when he was born is mind boggling. > [@](#): > > What if her name wasn’t “Sarah Connor” in the past? Film’s over Yes that’s right. And that would be a boring movie. But that’s not a plot hole. What if Forrest Gump had died at birth? Film’s over. What if the Nazgul had captured Frodo at Bree? Film’s over. What if George Bailey went on his overseas trip? Film’s over. But none of those things did happen in those films. In the interesting Terminator movie that was actually made, the intelligence that Skynet thought was highly reliable, turned out to be highly reliable. Relying on intelligence that is merely “highly reliable and corroborated by multiple sources” rather than “absolutely, graven in stone true” doesn’t make a bad plan. In the real world, that is the only type of intelligence that actually exists. > [@](#): > > As I said…stupid plan. And as everybody else in this thread keeps telling you: only you believe that because you don’t understand how the real world works. Were the Normandy Invasions also a stupid plan? After all, the intelligence behind them were merely “highly reliable and corroborated by multiple sources” rather than “absolutely, graven in stone true”. What if the Nazis had a thousand divisions waiting on those beaches. Film’s over. Must have been a stupid plan. Right? > [@](#): > > Are the police a highly advanced AI which has managed to almost completely wipe out humanity and has the technical ability to construct a working time machine? Probably not, as they can’t even solve who broke into my neighbor’s car last week. And that person left a blood trail and fingerprints. This doesn’t even make any sense. I ask once again, can you please explain what steps a highly advanced AI would take to locate someone via their DNA. Don’t just handwave about “advanced” and “DNA”. Tell us all what actual steps should be taken. > [@](#): > > Even a relatively slow HUMAN would tried to discover if John Connor was a real person or a legend. Sending a Terminator back in time to kill a legend makes even less sense than sending one back without enough information. The movie tells us that Skynet did have evidence that John Connor wasn’t a legend. It even knew where he was born and his mother’s name. Can you please tell us why you believe it didn’t have that evidence. Evidence equivalent to the evidence that any public library could provide about Adolph Hitler. > [@](#): > > Considering that there few human beings left alive… What makes you think there were few humans left alive? The movie mentions hundreds of millions of people being killed. Even if it was billions that were killed, that still potentially leaves billions of humans on the planet. In what sense is that a few? > [@](#): > > searching for John Connor or proof his existence (hence the DNA) would have been paramount Why? You seem to have this misguided idea that DNA is somehow magical. If I see a person and he tells me his name is John Connor, then can you explain why you think I will be more certain of his existence by collecting a DNA sample from him? > [@](#): > > Certainly an AI which had conquered the planet would know that to track humans it would need a unique identifier to do so. WTF? You do not need unique identifier. Can you please tell me what “unique” identifier they used to track Che Guevara. Or are you perhaps arguing that they didn’t track Che Guevara? This has got to be the stupidest comments I have read for months. It betrays such a comprehensive lack of knowledge of history, human behaviour and science simultaneously that my head is hurting. > [@](#): > > DNA seems to be the most obvious choice as it would ensure that Terminator actually DID kill the Sarah Connor that it was seeking. We aren’t talking about identifying the corpse. We are asking about your claim that DNA could be used to actually _locate_ Sarah Connor. You claimed that “DNA” was a more effective way of finding Sarah Connor than using the phone book. Not that is was a good way to ID a corpse, but that it could have been used in place of a phone book to locate her. You still haven’t explained in any way at all how this could be done. All you have done is handwaved about something being “advanced”. > [@](#): > > The writers in 1983 when the film was made simply didn’t know about DNA and they compensated ( rather sloppily) by using the phone book to track her. The writers knew a lot more more about DNA than you do. They at least understood that it can’t be used to actually find someone who has no criminal record. The fact that you are utterly unable to explain what steps can be taken to locate someone via “DNA” tells us all we need to know. > [@](#): > > Even when people used the phone book regularly, people still had unlisted numbers or simply no phone in their name. Or they used a first initial instead of their entire first name;especially if they were a woman. Yes, and when Sarah Connors started to get murdered, what do you think those other Sarah Connors would do? > [@](#): > > Actually the Captain (played the late Paul WInfield…great actor) told her to wait there, not the operator. Can you explain what difference you think that makes? It’s standard film shorthand to have named characters do everything. What difference do you think that makes to the fact that the advice is standard advice given by emergency services when someone call in claiming they are being followed? > [@](#): > > The Terminator killed two wrong women before it accidentally uncovered the REAL Sarah Connor. And it alerted the authorities (and women named Sarah) that someone was hunting women with the same name. Exactly how long was it supposed to continue this killing spree before they managed to disable it or destroy it? Based on the fact that it took down an entire police station and survived an exploding fuel tanker, I would guess forever. Once women called Sarah Connor knew they were being hunted, they would seek police protection. That places the names and current locations of every last one of them on the same list in the same location. It is the only way I can think of to ensure that every last Sarah Connor is located. In contrast, you have a plan to find them by “DNA”, that works by being “advanced”. That’s it. That’s literally all that you have. No details. Not even the vaguest outline. Just: Collect DNA from John Connor Be advanced ??? Locate Sarah Connor Profit. > [@](#): > > 1. The humans in the future send someone into their near past and destroy the time machine when its being built. How do you know this is even possible? Do you have any idea what the operating parameters of the machine are? The machine had to be destroyed rapidly according to the movie. How do you know it doesn’t take years to change the destination? How do you know that humans can even learn how to change the destination before they have to destroy it? Once again, you are finding plot holes based upon stuff you made up. > [@](#): > > Sarah Connor leaves California after the shootout the police station, changes her name and never goes back. Would a single Terminator be able to kill 3+ billion people (the world’s female population) to find her? Yes that’s right. At that stage, the plan went gone wrong due to the unforeseen intervention of Reece. That doesn’t mean that storming the police station was the optimal solution. Pointing out that a plan isn’t absolutely foolproof isn’t a plot hole. The plan to blow up the Death Star wasn’t absolutely foolproof. That didn’t make it a plot hole. It made it a source of tension. In the real world, no plan is absolutely foolproof. In movies, that fact is used to generate tension. It’s a sign of a good movie, not a failing. > [@](#): > > The humans send Kyle Reese into the past BEFORE the Terminator arrives and he waits at the spot where the Terminator will appear. He disables it with the shotgun or piece of heavy equipment…or…anything. 1. There is no reason to believe the machine can be re-targeted at all by the humans. The only ever send people through to locations that Skynet has already targeted. Given that humans only held the machine for a brief period before destroying it, it seems implausible that they had worked out how to fly it. 2. There is no reason to believe that even if humans can re-target the machine, they can do so in the short time they had before they needed to destroy the machine. 3. There is no reason to believe the machine’s location is known with greater precision than a few km. In fact all the evidence suggests the exact opposite. Once again, all your objections rely on the rules you have made up about how things work. They don’t actually contradict anything in the script. > [@](#): > > The humans send Kyle Reese to a time period before the Terminator arrives, he meets Connor and moves her away from LA or marries her and changes her last name to Reese. Movie’s over. 1. There is no reason to believe the machine can be re-targeted at all by the humans. 2. There is no reason to believe that even if humans can re-target the machine, they can do so in the short time they had before they needed to destroy the machine. 3. Reece is a severely traumatised, mentally and emotionally fucked up individual suffering from PTSD. He is utterly unable to function in the modern world. Sarah Connor sees him as a psychotic villain. She does not trust him and if he tries to tell her the truth she will call the cops and get him locked up. This is all shown explicitly in the movie. Yet your entire plan hinges on Sarah believing him and trusting him utterly with no evidence at all and actually marry him. And you think the plans the writers came up with has flaws. > [@](#): > > Like I said…stupid plan. I agree. Any plan that relies entirely on a pretty young woman marrying a socially dysfunction PTSD sufferer with no identification and no history is a really, really stupid plan. Dude, seriously. Your plot holes are based on nothing but your private ideas of how future technology works. They aren’t based on anything shown in the movie. Your alternative plans are based upon some idea that “DNA” will magically allow you to locate people with no criminal history and that women will inevitably marry violent, psychologically scarred drifters with no ID, no background and no social skills. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/84 "2014-06-16T05:29:53Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > Among them: > > 1. Genealogical tracing - Had SkyNet bothered to understand humans keep fairly decent ancestry records, it could have used records extant at the time to locate a “Sarah Connor” in the LA Basin far more efficiently than randomly choosing names from a phone book. How so? Even assuming that SkyNet could find a record of John’s birth certificate - there wouldn’t be any particular reason why his mother’s address a few years previous would be listed. Hell, many birth certs don’t list CURRENT addresses, let alone past. > [@nevadaexile](#): > > 1. Blood typing match - If SkyNet knew or suspected that john Connor was a real human being, then it could have obtain a sample of his blood and then used that to ensure that the Sarah Connors it killed were likely to have been the one it needs to have killed. Simply killing every Sarah,Sara, Zara, Zarrah,etc in the LA Basin not only could have taken months or even YEARS, simply starting to kill “Sarah Connors” would have caused the survivors to actually flee the area. This again assumes that they had a sample of John’s blood - and why would they have one? Speaking for myself, the ONLY blood sample for me is from donating blood, and even there I wouldn’t think any still exist, or that a proper “blood profile” has been made. > [@nevadaexile](#): > > 1. Computer records search - The Terminator was (wait for it) a computer. Sarah Connor was “in the system” meaning that the T-800 could have hacked into the DMV database and tracked her down within minutes (she had a scooter according to the film and thus a license to operate it) It actually DOESN’T neccessarily follow that she had a license for the scooter - one of the specific reasons for riding a scooter back then was that you didn’t need a license for it. I would have to wonder - how old are you? Back in the 80s (at least where I lived) you would have a pretty good chance of finding someone in the phone book faster than through “official” records - especially if the name she went by wasn’t the legal name. > [@nevadaexile](#): > > 1. Voice matching - SkyNet can imitate voice patterns which also has to mean that it would have to be able to recognize them. It could have hacked into the telephone system and simply listened for the name “Sarah Connor” to be uttered over the phone lines. While somewhat less interesting (read:sexy) than shooting up a nightclub and then later a police station, it does have the added benefit of being stealthy and avoiding the attention which would have slowed or prevented the Terminator’s rampage. These weren’t the days of computer networks - how much would it take to monitor the phone lines of a city that size? Especially with the tech of the time - and again, back in the 80s - you may (or for my family at least) only use the phone once or twice a week. And what’s more - what makes you think they even have a quality sample of Sarah Conner’s voice in the first place? > [@nevadaexile](#): > > 1. A personal ad - The least “sexy” of the myriad methods as it simply would have required the Terminator to place a personal ad in one or more newspapers (it clearly was used to financial transactions as it was shown checked into a motel room in a flophouse) and wait for Sarah Connor to come to it. An ad in the newspaper is the LEAST reliable way to find someone - which goes double for a classified - hell, even for a full page ad in the main daily, you could go days without anyone who knows Sarah seeing it. > [@nevadaexile](#): > > There are also numerous chemical tests that it could have done to determine that she was the person it was seeking. But given that film was previously going to star OJ Simpson as the Terminator and then changed its collective casting decision as no one would have bought him being a murderer, we aren’t talking about a masterpiece of subtlety. What chemical tests? As shown in the movie, they didn’t know her address or even her full legal name - what makes you think they have fluid samples from her to match against? ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/85 "2014-06-16T06:06:45Z")
They can do all those things because they are “advanced”. Don’t you get it? Being “advanced” means that you can do anything using “computers” and "chemical tests. It’s like some really badly written 1950s schlock Sci-Fi. And he thinks the movie script is flawed. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/86 "2014-06-16T08:10:27Z")
The Terminator is not imaginative. He just goes with most direct path from A to B. If Sarah had proven to be more elusive he might have moved on to other methods (as shown on the show). But for his purposes in 1984, a phone book was a good enough place to start. The phone book method also worked, so I am not sure what the issue was. The T-800 ends up at Sarah’s house after only a couple of failed attempts and guns down everyone he finds there, missing her only by chance (and then picking her up by chance again- who had an answering machine in 1984?!). Yes, he could have found her by other means. And if he hadn’t found her, he would have used those other means. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/87 "2014-06-16T09:11:59Z")
Obviously the way the terminator would find Sarah by DNA would be to lick everyone in LA. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/88 "2014-06-16T10:26:11Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > Obviously the way the terminator would find Sarah by DNA would be to lick everyone in LA. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/89 "2014-06-16T10:58:02Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > I worked for large telecommunications company starting in 1982 - and we were backing up data offsite then, and apparently had been for years. > > Of course, sometimes when they brought the tapes back from the caves, they weren’t readable any more. But that’s a separate issue. It was 1982. Just take a rubbing off the cuneiforms. ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/90 "2014-06-16T14:45:25Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > 1. Voice matching - SkyNet can imitate voice patterns which also has to mean that it would have to be able to recognize them. It could have hacked into the telephone system and simply listened for the name “Sarah Connor” to be uttered over the phone lines. While somewhat less interesting (read:sexy) than shooting up a nightclub and then later a police station, it does have the added benefit of being stealthy and avoiding the attention which would have slowed or prevented the Terminator’s rampage. Completely impossible given the actual technology of the phone system at the time. In the 1980’s phone systems still were mostly analog switching networks. Hacking the phone system consisted of tricking the switching system into letting you make long distance calls for free. Listening to a specific phone line usually required you to physically install a tap. Listening to all the phone lines at once was physically impossible, the phone network simply didn’t support that function, and even if it did you’d just get an impossible to decipher wall of noise from combining all those phone signals onto a single line. And somehow hacking the phone system to listen for a specific name would of course be completely impossible. The hardware didn’t exist in the phone system to do that kind of voice recognition, especially not on all the phones in the area at once. The Terminator might easily be able to recognize the name “Sarah Connor” being spoken, but even if it somehow had complete control over the phone network it could still only listen to a single conversation at once simply due to the way the phone system worked. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/91 "2014-06-16T14:53:12Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > who had an answering machine in 1984?! Jim Rockford had one 10 years earlier. And if you leave your name and message, he’ll get back to you. It wasn’t the stone age. Even TV game shows had been giving them away as prizes all through the 70s. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/92 "2014-06-16T15:43:31Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Jim Rockford had one 10 years earlier. And if you leave your name and message, he’ll get back to you. > > It wasn’t the stone age. Even TV game shows had been giving them away as prizes all through the 70s. The crazy mishmash of ideas in this thread of the technology of the 80s is really amusing. Still waiting on my phased plasma rifle in the 40W range. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/93 "2014-06-16T15:46:26Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Still waiting on my phased plasma rifle in the 40W range. Hey, just what you see, pal! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/94 "2014-06-16T16:53:51Z")
More acrimony and the thread may close early, today. ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/95 "2014-06-16T16:54:21Z")
The only point nevadaexile makes that’s remotely plausible is that by publicly killing the Sarah Conner’s he’ll drive them out of town. But thinking about it further it reveals a pretty clever plan. By going through the phone book and killing only Sarah Conner’s he drives the rest of them, out of fear, straight to the police. By monitoring who the police protect he can find many more of them in the LA area. While the movie shows the T800 following Linda Hamilton there’s no reason to assume he wouldn’t have ended up at the station (or other stations) at some point when other SC’s work their way there. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/96 "2014-06-16T17:00:09Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > More acrimony and the thread may close early, today. Wrong. BLAM! ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/97 "2014-06-16T22:02:49Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > Obviously the way the terminator would find Sarah by DNA would be to lick everyone in LA. Not necessarily lick them - going through positively everyone’s trash for ciggy butts, soda cans, plastic cups, napkins and paper handkerchiefs, used toothbrushes, old sweaty socks… would have worked too. And not been suspicious at all. Wait, shit, LA. Not Baltimore. Scratch that last part, then 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/98 "2014-06-16T23:18:49Z")
> [@Frazzled](#): > > The only point nevadaexile makes that’s remotely plausible is that by publicly killing the Sarah Conner’s he’ll drive them out of town. But thinking about it further it reveals a pretty clever plan. By going through the phone book and killing only Sarah Conner’s he drives the rest of them, out of fear, straight to the police. By monitoring who the police protect he can find many more of them in the LA area. I wish I had said that. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/99 "2014-06-17T13:00:15Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > Obviously the way the terminator would find Sarah by DNA would be to lick everyone in LA. Stupid plan. Obviously he’d only have to lick _half_ of everyone in LA. 😉 Terminators, nothing if not efficient. This thread actually reminds me of a rather amusing incident that occured when I started one job. The new intake was being met and welcomed by the Big Boss of the company, a man in his late 60’s/early 70’s, he was walking along the line and everyone was introducing themselves, came to one lady, “And who are you?”, “Sarah Connor, Sir”, he went to walk on but halted and did a double-take, “Terminator, Sir”, he just nodded in understanding and moved on down the line. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/100 "2014-06-17T13:25:23Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Not necessarily lick them - going through positively everyone’s trash for ciggy butts, soda cans, plastic cups, napkins and paper handkerchiefs, used toothbrushes, old sweaty socks… would have worked too. And not been suspicious at all. You forgot tampons. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/101 "2014-06-17T13:29:11Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > Handwave what? > DNA was discovered in the 1950s. Certainly an AI which had conquered the planet would know that to track humans it would need a unique identifier to do so. Perhaps it could use quantum tracking…but that’s beyond our technology now 30 years after the film was made. > > DNA seems to be the most obvious choice as it would ensure that Terminator actually DID kill the Sarah Connor that it was seeking. The writers in 1983 when the film was made simply didn’t know about DNA and they compensated ( rather sloppily) by using the phone book to track her. 1. DNA ≠ RFID Chip. Say Skynet mapped Sarah’s DNA…then what? Ping her DNA IP address? Use some sort of Magic DNA-Radar that picks up her DNA’s um…scent…to locate her? 2. Right now there are ~9 [Sarah Conners in the LA White Pages\*. In this kind of search, the smart thing to do is start with the easiest method. So you A) Go to the phonebook and whack all 9 of them. You can test each one’s DNA if you care about saving the lives of the others, but Skynet isn’t really all that concerned with collateral damage. B) When all the obvious Sarahs are dead, you go to (say) the local IRS office. Kill everyone and access _their_ records and kill any Sarahs you missed in step one. C) Go to other sources (DMV, Credit reporting agencies) and repeat step B. Repeat as needed D) Start spiralling out from LA and snuff more Sarah Conners. Remember… there’s no return trip, might as well just keep snuffing Sarahs. > [@](#): > > Even when people used the phone book regularly, people still had unlisted numbers or simply no phone in their name. Or they used a first initial instead of their entire first name;especially if they were a woman. Then visit the “S. Connors” too, ([url=“[http://www.whitepages.com/name/s.~conner/Los-Angeles-CA](http://www.whitepages.com/name/s.~conner/Los-Angeles-CA)”]There are only 9 S. Connors]([http://www.whitepages.com/name/sarah-conner/Los-Angeles-CA](http://www.whitepages.com/name/sarah-conner/Los-Angeles-CA))). ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508/102 "2014-06-17T13:55:03Z")
As for time travel suggestions I.e. why not go back earlier to prevent whatever, I propose that the time travel process involves some uber-complex set of calculations that only Skynet can do, and even then not easily. So they send a T-800 to 1984 Los Angeles. The humans shortly after capture the time machine and can only use Skynet’s computed settings to send their agent also to L.A. of 1984. If there’s some inescapable randomness to process, that can explain why they don’t land in the same place. Basically the humans can OPERATE the time machine but can’t TARGET it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terminator-2-a-couple-of-questions/682508.md?page=6)