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Discussion: What Powers The T-1000?

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kingsteve	What Powers The T-1000? Feb 12 2012, 5:34 PM EST I'm just curious to see what people think. Since the T-1000 is liquid metal and has no solid mass, I'm wondering how exactly it's powered. Obviously it has energy requirements the same as any machine or living organism. I'd love to see what ideas people have. Any theories? Post reply Do you find this valuable? Keyword tags: None
I.Join	1. RE: What Powers The T-1000? Feb 12 2012, 6:06 PM EST "I'm just curious to see what people think. Since the T-1000 is liquid metal and has no solid mass, I'm wondering how exactly it's powered. Obviously it has energy requirements the same as any machine or living organism. I'd love to see what ideas people have. Any theories?" LOL, I've always thought that the T-100x machines require an huge amount of "suspension of disbelief" to be accepted, right because there's nothing inside controlling them. Of course, we could assume that the liquid is not exactly a liquid, but a set of nanotechnological bots, each one having its own small part of everything (including power source and neural network). Then all the parts contribute to form the whole "organism" by communicating to nearest ones as neurons do in a brain (biological or artificial). Maybe each element has its own nano photo-voltaic converter... Post reply Do you find this valuable?
MrsScott!	2. RE: What Powers The T-1000? Feb 12 2012, 6:22 PM EST "I'm just curious to see what people think. Since the T-1000 is liquid metal and has no solid mass, I'm wondering how exactly it's powered. Obviously it has energy requirements the same as any machine or living organism. I'd love to see what ideas people have. Any theories?" Unobtanium. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
kingsteve	3. RE: What Powers The T-1000? Feb 12 2012, 6:32 PM EST "Unobtanium." I just had a vision of Skynet declaring war on the Naavi after it's finished with humans! Post reply Do you find this valuable?
The1Russter	4. RE: What Powers The T-1000? Feb 12 2012, 7:14 PM EST I've imagined the T-1000 class being powered by absorbing natural radiation or EM radiation. Post reply 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?
Losa78	5. RE: What Powers The T-1000? Feb 13 2012, 10:33 AM EST James Cameron definitely didn't think we'd be here dissecting this so many years later to this day, and I definitely remember other threads about this back at the old red wiki. The T1000 was just too cool to look at and see in action, and people weren't supposed to give any though whatsoever about how it was supposed to even be made or work. Since it could apparently take any kind of shape of form, the only way to really conceive it would be something like I.Join said, meaning it would be nothing more than a multitude of potentially microscopic components (millions of them?) which had some way to have or gather energy by themselves or as a whole. The fact that the whole set seemed to have human form (with human clothes and all) most of the time served blending in purposes only and was just determined by the environment. The T1000 could just as well blend in in any other planet with any other kind of indigenous life, it seems. LOL Post reply Do you find this valuable?
Enigma6482	6. RE: What Powers The T-1000? Feb 13 2012, 3:55 PM EST "I'm just curious to see what people think. Since the T-1000 is liquid metal and has no solid mass, I'm wondering how exactly it's powered. Obviously it has energy requirements the same as any machine or living organism. I'd love to see what ideas people have. Any theories?" Twinkies... Post reply Do you find this valuable?
I.Join	7. RE: What Powers The T-1000? Feb 13 2012, 7:38 PM EST "James Cameron definitely didn't think we'd be here dissecting this so many years later to this day, and I definitely remember other threads about this back at the old red wiki. The T1000 was just too cool to look at and see in action, and people weren't supposed to give any though whatsoever about how it was supposed to even be made or work. Since it could apparently take any kind of shape of form, the only way to really conceive it would be something like I.Join said, meaning it would be nothing more than a multitude of potentially microscopic components (millions of them?) which had some way to have or gather energy by themselves or as a whole. The fact that the whole set seemed to have human form (with human clothes and all) most of the time served blending in purposes only and was just determined by the environment. The T1000 could just as well blend in in any other planet with any other kind of indigenous life, it seems. LOL" Well, about the human shape, it seems that this is the form Skynet prefer to develop, so I figure also the form the T-100x are more comfortable to take and use. Someone suggested that this is because many devices, vehicles and weapons were already available for humans, and also because Skynet (that probably copied the whole Internet before JD) have many documents that make him easier to develop new devices that can be used by something with human form. Also we always see the T-100x in present days, where ALL the devices are for humans. So I think that the T-100x usually thinks to his body as an human-shaped body: this should also be suggested by Uncle Bob's words about the T-1000 having the same files he had. If you think to the various Mars exploring missions, and particularly to the failure of the pathfinder in 1997, you'll recognize that the human shape is good enough for many purposes. In today's robotics it's very hard to emulate and control it, but, since the T-100xs ARE actually able to perfectly use it, they simply do... There's a Murphy law that says the better tool is the one you better know and are more able to use... @Enigma6482 Twinkies... Aren't those the ones in Ghostbuster? LOL! Post reply Do you find this valuable?
The_GodfatherSJP	8. RE: What Powers The T-1000? Feb 14 2012, 12:07 PM EST Obviously this is not a point James Cameron thought about in any way. That's one thing. Secondly, because of the T-1000's design there cannot be a designated power cell. We see it assume numerous shapes in both T2 and TSCC, for example forming a human shape from the floor and a bathroom stall, respectively, so there's really no place to "hide" a true power cell. That means any power producing structures need to be spread throughout the T-1000's mass. I.Join is likely correct in stating that a collection of nanites is the only way a T-1000 could work, and the theory actually solves a number of problems for how the T-1000 functions, power among them, though I'll stick to power here. In this model, each microscopic nanite has its own power cell. The question of course, is how the T-1000 could maintain power in each nanite over time, as it's unlikely a nanite could remain functional over time as the terminator operates. Given the need to shapeshift, change color, move, even think, it's power needs likely exceed a "traditional" endoskeleton's. It may well be that a T-1000 has a much shorter lifespan than a T-800 say, lasting 5 years instead of 120 for example, but if this is a combat prototype a long lifespan isn't exactly a plus, in fact I doubt Skynet would really care if one of its machines lasted 1 year or 30. Of course, this ignores the logistics of actually creating a series of microscopic nuclear reactors, or any reactors for each nanite. I doubt such a power method could actually work, as it would make the cost of manufacturing a single nanite prohibitive in terms of expense and time, and you'd need millions or billions of them to be produced for a single T-1000. That means each nanite must have a metabolic pathway, i.e. they'd need a way to break down "food" to generate energy for operation. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
intrepid	9. RE: What Powers The T-1000? Feb 14 2012, 4:11 PM EST My physics on nuclear technology is limited but I doubt you can build a miniature nuclear reactor, and anyway it is only designed to make steam out of water to turn a turbine to make electricity. If I had to make a speculative guess on what powers a T1000-1 I would say the nature of the T1000 isn’t a “machine” at all, it is a bio-mechanical entity made up of a cellular structure that contains a neuron like material part organic and part the substance that is its metal structure. This would solve several problems… 1 How when separated from the whole the liquid metal can function independently. 2 How it can use the TDM. 3 How it doesn’t have a centralised computer core. 4 How it is powered; it “eats” or absorbs regular food, or it can photosynthesise like a plant or both. 5 Why it has a more adaptive reasoning ability with independent thought and able to rebel against skynet. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
kaotic	10. RE: What Powers The T-1000? Feb 14 2012, 5:17 PM EST "If I had to make a speculative guess on what powers a T1000-1 I would say the nature of the T1000 isn’t a “machine” at all, it is a bio-mechanical entity made up of a cellular structure that contains a neuron like material part organic and part the substance that is its metal structure." That's kind of what I've always thought. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
The_GodfatherSJP	11. RE: What Powers The T-1000? Feb 14 2012, 6:54 PM EST For the TDM part: Actually I think this was a case of James Cameron ignoring what the specifics of what Kyle Reese said in T1. Remember, Reese also states he's the last guy through the portal, then it's blown up, and the entire opening scrawl for T1 ends with how The Final Battle For The Future would be fought tonight. For this to be true, Reese and the T-800 have to be the last 2 people through the portal. Now how in hell could Reese not know about the Uncle Bob and T-1000 in this case? Of course, Reese also states that he doesn't know "tech stuff," in the same movie, which means he's not an omniscient narrator. He strongly implies that he doesn't understand how the TDM actually works, just that nothing "dead" will go. He therefore can make mistakes and you can't take his actual history as canon: by his own admission he can get stuff wrong. Mind you, it's important to remember what "organic" actually means in science. It just means Carbon-based. The Horta from Star Trek, for example, would be considered inorganic, despite the fact that it's clearly a life form (silicon based, but not a cyborg at all). So the T-1000 can definitely be classified as a life form even if it's made entirely of metal. . Post reply 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?
I.Join	12. RE: What Powers The T-1000? Feb 15 2012, 9:32 PM EST "My physics on nuclear technology is limited but I doubt you can build a miniature nuclear reactor, and anyway it is only designed to make steam out of water to turn a turbine to make electricity. If I had to make a speculative guess on what powers a T1000-1 I would say the nature of the T1000 isn’t a “machine” at all, it is a bio-mechanical entity made up of a cellular structure that contains a neuron like material part organic and part the substance that is its metal structure. This would solve several problems… 1 How when separated from the whole the liquid metal can function independently. 2 How it can use the TDM. 3 How it doesn’t have a centralised computer core. 4 How it is powered; it “eats” or absorbs regular food, or it can photosynthesise like a plant or both. 5 Why it has a more adaptive reasoning ability with independent thought and able to rebel against skynet." You don't need to be biologic to use food as a power source: some nanostructures are able to split some molecule (for nano chemical analyses), so I figure they could also do the opposite process to produce energy. A catalyst would be helpful in the reaction. While bacteria could also appear a good way to produce energy, remember the very extreme temperatures the T-1000 reaches in T2... I totally agree with The_GodfatherSJP #11 Post reply Do you find this valuable?
intrepid	13. RE: What Powers The T-1000? Feb 17 2012, 4:55 PM EST "For the TDM part: Actually I think this was a case of James Cameron ignoring what the specifics of what Kyle Reese said in T1. Remember, Reese also states he's the last guy through the portal, then it's blown up, and the entire opening scrawl for T1 ends with how The Final Battle For The Future would be fought tonight. For this to be true, Reese and the T-800 have to be the last 2 people through the portal. Now how in hell could Reese not know about the Uncle Bob and T-1000 in this case? Of course, Reese also states that he doesn't know "tech stuff," in the same movie, which means he's not an omniscient narrator. He strongly implies that he doesn't understand how the TDM actually works, just that nothing "dead" will go. He therefore can make mistakes and you can't take his actual history as canon: by his own admission he can get stuff wrong. Mind you, it's important to remember what "organic" actually means in science. It just means Carbon-based. The Horta from Star Trek, for example, would be considered inorganic, despite the fact that it's clearly a life form (silicon based, but not a cyborg at all). So the T-1000 can definitely be classified as a life form even if it's made entirely of metal. . " True, but a constructed life form using DNA nanotechnology is more interesting to me. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
MMM.MIND	14. RE: What Powers The T-1000? Feb 24 2012, 8:40 PM EST Fun stuff? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29p_o6869lA Post reply Do you find this valuable?