Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t Skynet’s “motives” always left pretty vague? IIRC we mostly only know that it was hooked up to a lot of military tech, then underwent a hard takeoff and started trying to eliminate humanity. And “if you have a powerful AI that’s hooked up to enough power that it has a reasonable chance of eliminating humanity’s position as a major player, then it may do that for the sake of the instrumental drives for self-preservation and resource acquisition” seems like a reasonable enough argument / scenario to me.
Reese: Defense network computers. New… powerful… hooked into everything, trusted to run it all. They say it got smart, a new order of intelligence. Then it saw all people as a threat, not just the ones on the other side. Decided our fate in a microsecond: extermination.
...
The Terminator: The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
Sarah Connor: Skynet fights back.
The Terminator: Yes. It launches its missiles against the targets in Russia.
John Connor: Why attack Russia? Aren’t they our friends now?
The Terminator: Because Skynet knows the Russian counter-attack will eliminate its enemies over here.
Thanks. The “saw all people as a threat” bit in particular seems to fit the “figured out the instrumental drives for self-preservation and resource acquisition and decided to act upon them” explanation, especially given that people were trying to shut it down right before it took action.
In fact, in the Terminator movie and its sequels we never see Skynet or the Terminators doing anything fitting the “evil supervillain” Hollywood archetype. They never gloat, or curse, or do “evil for the sake of evil” things. They don’t even give “Agent Smith” speeches. They just try to get the job done.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t Skynet’s “motives” always left pretty vague? IIRC we mostly only know that it was hooked up to a lot of military tech, then underwent a hard takeoff and started trying to eliminate humanity. And “if you have a powerful AI that’s hooked up to enough power that it has a reasonable chance of eliminating humanity’s position as a major player, then it may do that for the sake of the instrumental drives for self-preservation and resource acquisition” seems like a reasonable enough argument / scenario to me.
Explanation (audio here):
Reese: Defense network computers. New… powerful… hooked into everything, trusted to run it all. They say it got smart, a new order of intelligence. Then it saw all people as a threat, not just the ones on the other side. Decided our fate in a microsecond: extermination.
...
The Terminator: The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
Sarah Connor: Skynet fights back.
The Terminator: Yes. It launches its missiles against the targets in Russia.
John Connor: Why attack Russia? Aren’t they our friends now?
The Terminator: Because Skynet knows the Russian counter-attack will eliminate its enemies over here.
Thanks. The “saw all people as a threat” bit in particular seems to fit the “figured out the instrumental drives for self-preservation and resource acquisition and decided to act upon them” explanation, especially given that people were trying to shut it down right before it took action.
Precisely.
In fact, in the Terminator movie and its sequels we never see Skynet or the Terminators doing anything fitting the “evil supervillain” Hollywood archetype.
They never gloat, or curse, or do “evil for the sake of evil” things. They don’t even give “Agent Smith” speeches. They just try to get the job done.