Watch Ben Adams, Matt Belinkie, and Mark Lee propose and debate their solutions to the Terminator invasion of Los Angeles in the kickoff episode of Overthinking It Popfixers, hosted by Pete Fenzel.
“Where we take real smarts and waste them on imaginary problems!”
Audio Version
Audio version available here.
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Caught about half the show. Loved it.
There’s something magical about joining in and saying, “It probably doesn’t deserve,” in real-time. :-D
Oh wow, this is the best thing ever. If you want guests, or suggestions for future problems to tackle… hint…
Bonus points to Ben for decorating in preparation for the occasion.
I liked Ben’s idea because everyone needs a good 3-point plan. I do feel there was room for an internet style pivot: Step 1: Bomb Malibu, Step 2: ???, Step 3: Profit. Funnily enough the internet style 3 point plan actually feels fairly close to many public-sector plans. At least from the outside. I also felt Mark’s idea was perhaps the most logical, in a self-serving nihilistic way, so I got a good kick out of that one.
Joking aside, I was a little disappointed there were no internet based solutions to the terminator problem. The way to defeat the terminators has always been based in American institutions or ingenuity. Explosives, heavy industry, fire-arms. What would happen if the online institutions of America were made aware of the terminator problem by an astute public servant? If the 4Chanic discourse turned it’s pitiless gaze upon Skynet, who would come out on top? What would happen if the silicon valley tech industry decided to get involved?
Surely some revelation is at hand.
Surely the the brony apocalypse is at hand.
Sooo… when can we get an audio version of this?
Outstanding idea for a webcast series!
Assuming that the Terminators have been killing all of the Sarah and John Connors they can find, and that they have not yet positively identified a particular individual as their target, I would have to support Belinkie’s solution. The fact that multiple Sarah’s have been killed indicates that the Terminators are programmed with the signifier only, and have no way of determining which is the correct human signified by that name.
If the Terminator gets to a point where it cannot find any more Sarah Connors (because you’ve relocated them, and, if it cannot trace the relocated Sarahs, or, perhaps because you created falsified information about their death), the Terminator would have to assume that its task has been completed, at which point the rational thing for the robot to do is to go into sleep mode somewhere safe so as not to disrupt the timeline and prevent Judgment Day. The only reason it would cause havoc trying to draw Sarah out is if it knew that there was another Sarah to kill. So if it believes that all of the Sarah Connors in the LA area are dead, as far as it knows, its job is done.
Kind of sounds like a Burn Notice solution to a Terminator problem.
Hi, Popfixers Fans! The audio version of this episode is available here.
Thanks for posting as audio.
Very fun.
It did kind of feel like a miss-step (from my perspective) to veer away from the main theme for the mid section. I wonder what gems might have emerged by sticking with the creative momentum of the subject at hand.
I really would have enjoyed hearing “A {Random} solution to a Terminator problem”
A Little House solution to a Terminator problem is where the youngest daughter befriends the T-1000, and we learn that he really just misses his mother. The episode reaches a triumphant climax when Pa hitches the plow to the T-1000 and they get that field planted just in time.
A Frankenstein solution to a terminator problem gets really interesting. (my first thought is the T-1000 chasing Miles Dyson through the endless arctic, but that’s a bit too “from the text”)
The idea of keeping the problem the same and rapid-firing different solutions for the lightning round is a good one. I’ll try that in a future episode. Thanks!