# What would a real life terminator be like **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 25, 2012, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-real-life-terminator-be-like/638882 "2012-10-25T23:04:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-real-life-terminator-be-like/638882/41 "2012-10-29T05:07:40Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > A similiar device was used by a hitwoman in Prizzi’s Honor. She posed as a mother with a baby using a doll in place of an actual baby and threw the doll at the bodyguard of her target hoping to distract him. It didn’t work. The bodyguard made no attempt to save the “baby” thrown at him. And _that_ is why you load the “baby” with explosives. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-real-life-terminator-be-like/638882/42 "2012-10-29T12:59:43Z")
DARPA is building robots that have rather disturbing mobility. Their latest model is basically bipedal, but can use its arms for bracing to navigate obstacles like holes in the floor, and can also climb stairs. A few more years of hardware/software improvements, add a gun in his hand and a rubber Schwarzenegger mask on his face, and you’ve got the real deal. [video here.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFGfq0pRczY&feature=related) If you’re not a Schwarzenegger fan, you could give it a [Travolta mask instead.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcOi6npIsVc)😃 ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-real-life-terminator-be-like/638882/43 "2012-10-29T16:45:39Z")
For those advocating that the Terminator just be some sort of robot bomb that wanders up to Sarah Connor and blows her up, it won’t work for a variety of reasons. 1. The Terminator didn’t know who Sarah Connor was. It first went to a few other Sarah Connors and killed them, remember? So if the Terminator is some sort of one-shot explosion, it would have completely failed at its mission. 2. “Aha!” you say. “They can just send back 100 bombs and send them to all the Sarah Connors in the USA!” Well, no. They sent back one Terminator, not 100. I don’t know why they didn’t send back 100. Maybe the energy bill was too high for Skynet to handle. Maybe they wanted a fair fight. Maybe the hamsters were on strike and this was all the juice they could muster. Whatever. They sent back one Terminator. And you just used yours up as a bomb. 3. “Well it could just wander around until it found the right Sarah and then BOOM!” Except that’s exactly what the real Terminator did and it completely failed at its mission because the resistance also sent someone back to protect Sarah (who would now be protecting her from a cute robotic dog, or teenage girl, or whatever). ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-real-life-terminator-be-like/638882/44 "2012-10-30T01:30:13Z")
which is why you should nuke her from orbit, if you want to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-real-life-terminator-be-like/638882/45 "2012-10-30T03:02:39Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > If you can stomach T3 and T4 you can see that Skynet is winning decisively and advancing their level of technology along the way. > > T1: Terminators are simple, non-intuitive and they speak from a list of options. I don’t think you’re giving the big guy enough credit. _“No, I can’t tell you where I am, Mom; I was told not to say.”_ _“Oh, but, honey, I need to know where I can reach you; you tell me to hide out up here at the cabin like some fugitive, and – and you won’t tell me what’s going on? I am worried sick, dear … yes, go ahead … uh-huh … uh-huh … I’ve got it … I love you too, sweetheart.”_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-real-life-terminator-be-like/638882.md?page=2)