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Artificial Intelligence
The Terminator features Skynet, an advanced artificial Intelligence system that has become self aware. The system serves as the main antagonist of the franchise as it retaliates against human attempts to deactivate it.
Robotics
The Terminator is an advanced cybernetic assassin sent to kill Sarah Connor. The Terminator is a robot with synthetic, human-like flesh. The robot was created by Skynet and is seen using several methods to hunt the protagonist throughout the film.
Time Travel
The plot of the film centers around the Terminator being sent back in time by Skynet to kill Sarah Connor before her son is born. Kyle Reese, a human, is also sent back in time by her son to protect her and ensure that he can be born. While the logistics are not explained in the film, Skynet is able to create a one-way time travel device that can send living organisms, or objects covered in organic tissue, back in time to create a more favorable future for the system.
Real Technologies seen in "Present"
While most technologies featured in the film are futuristic concepts, some real computing technologies from the time are seen throughout the film.
Police Computers, text-based systems. These computers are realistic to how departments would use databases in the late 70s into the 80s.
Telephone answering machines
Are the observed technologies realistic?
The future scenes from the Terminator take place in 2029, 45 years in the future from when the film released in 1984. The film's portrayed technologies raise valid concerns about potential risks of developing artificial intelligence technologies, but it takes a lot of creative liberty in dramatizing the technologies. While it may be an extreme portrayal of possible technologies, the events of the film can be useful in thinking of possible needs in controlling the development of new technologies.
As we get closer to 2029, the concerns raised by the film are more pertinent than ever before. In recent years artificial intelligence has made unprecedented progress in fields like language and image processing. However, it is still far from the advanced intelligence seen in the terminator and "self-awareness" seems to be very far away if even possible. While the portrayal may not be accurate to the real 2029, the technologies seen in the film four decades ago are becoming even more relevant and coming generations might be able to find the film applicable to real future technologies.
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