If the T-800 in T1 had a complete psychological profile of Sarah and Kyle, could it find them?

[Unimatrix Q]

Let's say they escaped the Terminator and were hiding off the grid in a small town in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in the US.

What if it knows about their personality and deeper character traits and psychological aspects like personal fears, untreatened depressions and personal quirks or if they are introverted or extroverted persons?

Could these things be enough for it to calculate and extrapolate potential hiding places?

The rise of Big Data, and the advancement of AI over the last two decades, made me think it could possibly do this.

Other reasons are that in T3 the T-850 mentioned that he had a psychological profile of John, which he used to determine his behavior and to manipulate him, and what Carl in Dark Fate was able to accomplish at the beginnining of Dark Fate...

To come back to my question, as i'm not an expert for informatics, i wonder how such a profile would have helped him to track them down to another town or country.

 

[David cgc]

I'm not sure how much good it would do. Kyle's profile would be based on being in a post-apocalyptic world on the run; Sarah's would be based on being a regular person living a normal life in a big city (if the Terminator had a profile of T2-era Sarah, it would probably know enough about her to just go where she'd been, without having to do a lot of extrapolating and conjecture to try and anticipate her). For both of them, their current situation would be drastically out of the norm, combined with them working together, it'd be difficult to anticipate how they'd apply their knowledge and traits to being on the run in 1980s America, especially once the Terminator had eliminated all the low-hanging fruit, like when it killed Sarah's mother at her cabin. When Sarah and Kyle's support structures had been taken away, by necessity they'd have to get more creative, and their moves would depend more on random chance and what happened to be available at any given time or location, when they'd gotten indications (true or not) that the Terminator was closing in on them and moved on, and so on.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Multiple loops.

Skynet gets unsolicited aid from temporal Refugees.

 

[Tosk]

in T3 the T-850 mentioned that he had a psychological profile of John, which he used to determine his behavior and to manipulate him

THat's not my recollection. The only line that comes close is when the Terminator says that, "Basic psychology is among my subroutines." Unless I'm forgetting something, that's very far off from a personalized psychological profile.

Anyway, my answer to the question is no. Psychological profiles are not enough to find two people on the run from death. Even putting random choice aside, how would you account for the dynamic between two competing profiles and how decisions would be made by one or the other or both at every turn?

 

[Turd Ferguson]

THat's not my recollection. The only line that comes close is when the Terminator says that, "Basic psychology is among my subroutines." Unless I'm forgetting something, that's very far off from a personalized psychological profile.

Anyway, my answer to the question is no. Psychological profiles are not enough to find two people on the run from death. Even putting random choice aside, how would you account for the dynamic between two competing profiles and how decisions would be made by one or the other or both at every turn?

The T-850 does mention basic psychology when turning his despair into anger, but later on in the movie, we discover that the Terminator does have some sort of psychological profile on John, as his model was chosen to appeal to John's boyhood memories of Uncle Bob, enabling the T-850 to complete his mission.

 

[Tosk]

but later on in the movie, we discover that the Terminator does have some sort of psychological profile on John, as his model was chosen to appeal to John's boyhood memories of Uncle Bob, enabling the T-850 to complete his mission.

Yeah, he was chosen by Skynet based on it somehow knowing about what happened in T2...the Terminator specifically says that his appearance helped aid his infiltration. Still no dialogue about personally possessing a psychological profile on John, full or otherwise.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

THat's not my recollection. The only line that comes close is when the Terminator says that, "Basic psychology is among my subroutines." Unless I'm forgetting something, that's very far off from a personalized psychological profile.

Anyway, my answer to the question is no. Psychological profiles are not enough to find two people on the run from death. Even putting random choice aside, how would you account for the dynamic between two competing profiles and how decisions would be made by one or the other or both at every turn?

Maybe by simulating the possible interactions between the two based on the options both of them have and their personalities and rate them based on probability.

I just wonder how accurate it could be if it knew enough about their personalities and how much it would need to know about them to get a good trail.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

At best he could make a reasonable prediction of what sorts of tactics he may consider. Nothing in terms of exact hiding places. Like, he could guess that he is hiding out in a cheap motel, but not which specific one.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

At best he could make a reasonable prediction of what sorts of tactics he may consider. Nothing in terms of exact hiding places. Like, he could guess that he is hiding out in a cheap motel, but not which specific one.

Not sure if it's wise to underestimate the T-800. If it knows enough about Sarah and Kyle's personalities, it may actually be able to predict that she, because of her inexperience in this situation, let Kyle decide on what to do next.

And it may also be able to see that Kyle may take the option to take Sarah out of the immediate danger by fleeing to a place where he doesn't expect the Terminator to look after them.

To get to your example with the cheap motel, which i think is a good one: It may look after such places, but at first look after them at locations which he may deduce are either as obvious as possible, because they don't expect the Terminator going there for this reason or the most unexpected random ones.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I would make the analogy to sports analytics.

You can make pretty good estimations of what the score will be but you probably won’t pinpoint the exact score. There’s so much variance in the outcome of every play you’ll never get it exactly right.

The information for what exact motel they will stay at just does not exist in even the most detailed profile, because the outcome is based on small unpredictable details of every given minute.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

I would make the analogy to sports analytics.

You can make pretty good estimations of what the score will be but you probably won’t pinpoint the exact score. There’s so much variance in the outcome of every play you’ll never get it exactly right.

The information for what exact motel they will stay at just does not exist in even the most detailed profile, because the outcome is based on small unpredictable details of every given minute.

Not saying that it will find them directly this way, as luck plays a big role in this, but it *might*. I think it may be very difficult to outsmart the T-800 in this situation. To make it easier for it, it could also hire private eyes to look out for them at the locations it deems the most likely.

 

[Tosk]

Even if the Terminator had "complete" psychological profiles of both people, I still doubt it would have much more success that the methods it did use in the film. A psychological profile isn't some magical document that can predict every little decision ahead of time. It's a guide to how someone might react.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Even if the Terminator had "complete" psychological profiles of both people, I still doubt it would have much more success that the methods it did use in the film. A psychological profile isn't some magical document that can predict every little decision ahead of time. It's a guide to how someone might react.

Yeah, but how someone might react may be actually enough. Especially if it wouldn't just consider one possibility but let's say a dozen, rate them on their propability with it going to the one it deems the most likely and involve others to check the rest.