From: domalley@unix1.tcd.ie (Slartibartfast            (alias Daniel O'Malley))
Newsgroups: alt.cult-movies
Subject: Re: T1000 sampled the kid too.
Date: 10 Apr 92 18:12:35 GMT
Organization: Trinity College, Dublin

In <8APR199212443039@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov> fovsutt@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov (VINCENT SUTTMILLER) writes:

>In article <ragnarok.702722114@cs1.bradley.edu>, ragnarok@cs1.bradley.edu (Matthew Lathrum) writes...
>>In <1992Apr6.095747.17624@aber.ac.uk> dmf@aber.ac.uk (Darren Michael Forbes) writes:
>> 
>>>This theory assumes that sampling is a passive process.  I believe that
>>>the T-1000 has to actively try to sample something to be able to
>>>imitate it.
>> 
>>I don't understand how the T-1000 could shape into that guard that was getting
>>a cup of coffee if the only contact he had with him was the guard's shoes
>>walking on top of him.  Any comments?

>Maybe some of the atomic particles making up the T1000 
>travelled through the shoe and shocks and sampled the makeup of the guard.

Hmmm, rather dodgy, don't you think?

>Every nucleus of each cell in your body has a DNA which has all of the 
>biological makeup of the person.  So if the technology was so advanced 
>maybe the T1000 samples the DNA of the person.   This would lead to an 
>argument that maybe the sampling has some sort of minimum time needed to 
>complete the sample.

You're forgetting one important fact about sampling someone's DNA, the
fact that it will only enable you to replicate a person's _body_.
From a sample or someone's DNA, you _cannot_ tell whether they are fat
or skinny, what clothes they are wearing, or even what kind of haircut
they have! From this semi-obvious fact, which nobody else has mentioned,
you must conclude that the T-1000's sampling process is at least partly
visual, and as the incident with the guard shows, it could be completely
so.
Think about it: instead of dreaming up these convoluted theories about
how the T1000 sampled the guard, consider a simple, and a totally
believable one: Instead of T1000 taking a physical sample of someone,
he takes a 'snapshot', a picture of that person instead, and moulds
himself into the right shape accordingly. This would explain how he
sampled the guard without resorting to an immensely complicated theory.
The same could be true of the T1000's other 'victims', we never see
him taking on the shape of John's foster mother, so we can't tell from
that, and when he takes on Sarah's shape, sticking his finger into her
shoulder was not necessarily to 'take a sample', but just to torture
her. Besides, where did this sampling thing come from anyway?
Arnie tells John that he can take on someone's appearance by sampling
them, but he never says what form the sampling takes. So I reckon that
he takes a visual sample of his victims.

So, I hear you say, why doesn't he take on John's shape, for example,
if all he has to to is take a picture? Well, it can't be as simple as
that. He would probably have to see the person 'in the flesh', and in
reasonably good light (This could explain why he had trouble taking on
Sarah's form in the dimly-lit steel mill, although the liquid nitrogen
also probably accounts for some of that. Also note that the scene with
the guard took place in a well-lit corridoor. Maybe the real answer is
somewhere between the two... Visual in good light, sampling in
darkness...)

I'm only speculating here.
Anyone care to comment? 

(All I can say is, it makes sense to me :-)
Daniel.
--
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