Talk:1978: Congressional Testimony
We should change the logs and stuff so it looks like this page was created before the comic came out (say, on 2018-04-07) Blacksilver (talk) 15:54, 9 April 2018 (UTC)
I was about to change the bot to Mark Zuckerberg's terminator double, but somebody was faster. Ah well. 108.162.219.106 15:24, 9 April 2018 (UTC)
Not sure it has anything to do with the comic, but I think the blob near the top of the tree is a squirrel's nest. You can see the squirrel climbing down the trunk in the 2nd panel, there's something on the left branch in the 3rd panel (squirrel or bird?), and I think the squirrel is climbing back into the nest in the final panel (a tail hanging down from the nest?). Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 16:32, 9 April 2018 (UTC)
- That had me curious, too. I think you're right about what you described, and it seems to me it's just a bit of artistic flair.162.158.255.172 14:07, 10 April 2018 (UTC)
I'm still confused about "the phone book becomes skynet". Any thoughts? Cgrimes85 (talk) 17:54, 9 April 2018 (UTC)
- The way I interpreted it, megan is referring to the Facebook glitch that caused it to "turn against its creators", not the actual skynet in the film. She is pointing out that it is ironic that the code running our nuclear launch facilities and robots isn't what is causing the most difficulties, but the code for helping people communicate. I am also reminded of comic 1539: Planning, specifically its title text.162.158.75.16 18:21, 9 April 2018 (UTC)
- Arnold finds Sarah through the phonebook, antics ensue, resulting in parts of Arnold being left behind, which (according to Terminator 2) led to and fed the research and development that became Skynet. If no phonebooks existed - like today - Arnold wouldn't have been able to find Sarah, and wouldn't have left parts which could be found, etc. NiceGuy1 (talk) 05:43, 10 April 2018 (UTC)
- I disagree with this interpretation, which now appears in the explanation as well. Megan is clearly stating that SkyNet did not originate from any weapon or robotic system but instead from the system that provided info sharing to all of the parts of the government. It was only later that it was elevated to the functionality that eventually caused the system to take control of those systems away from the humans and eliminate them. This is a commentary on how this is the same function currently being served by Facebook. It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that! Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 22:43, 9 April 2018 (UTC)
I came here hoping someone who knows the movies would explain this to me, but I suspect the "phonebook" = Assbook. Yngvadottir (talk) 18:17, 9 April 2018 (UTC)
- In the first Terminator, like it says in the explanation, the Terminator (played by Arnold) travels back in time to hunt down Sarah Conner. He finds a phonebook in which he finds 3 Sarah Conners, killing the two others before finally finding the one he was looking for. In the end he gets mostly destroyed. In Terminator 2, a reprogrammed-into-a-good-guy Arnold travels back in time (landing something like 16 years later), and reports that the previous Terminator's arm and CPU chip were found by a company who's been reverse engineering it since, and this research will lead them to creating Skynet (the artificial intelligence who's the primary adversary in the future that's trying to wipe out mankind and created the Terminators to do so). So if the first Arnie hadn't found a phonebook, he wouldn't have been destroyed in a way that would lead to creating Skynet. NiceGuy1 (talk) 05:43, 10 April 2018 (UTC)
Right now there are 3 (well, 4) listed thoughts on what Randall is trying to say:
It is unclear if Randall is:
- 1. Commenting on his lack of interest in the news regarding yet another internet tool being used for purposes for which it was not intended by comparing it to the much more interesting movie "Terminator".
- 2. Pointing out that using programs in ways for which they are not originally designed is actually quite common in both reality and fiction.
- 3. Pointing out that Facebook stores names and phone numbers and could thus be considered to have a phone book database...
- 4. All of the above
My initial interpretation, and what I still find most likely, is None of the above. MY interpretation is that Randall (and for him Megan) is likening this Facebook thing to the phonebook, that it's how a Terminator will now find Sarah Conner and start the cycle portrayed in the movies. Seeing as Randall likes to be fatalistic and paranoid. :) Before this, there haven't been phonebooks any more, so we've accidentally protected ourselves from the events of Terminator, but now with the information leak, if a Terminator travelled back to now, he'd once again be able to get contact information. In fact, wasn't it only a few comics ago where Randall put a Terminator timeline, where he said most people are afraid of the moment AI and killer robots turn on us, while the time HE worries about is the time before that, but after computers are able to MAKE killer robots? NiceGuy1 (talk) 05:43, 10 April 2018 (UTC)
- I agree with you, but with the main point of the comic being that Facebook or a system like it could evolve into a Skynet-like intelligence in the future. I think that's the real concern for him! Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 13:14, 10 April 2018 (UTC)
