Why would a Terminator need to see debug information in his vision?
I recently saw The Terminator (1984) again and I still think it is a great movie.
However, during the movie I was always thinking "Why does the terminator have debug information in its vision?" The Terminator is built by machines, nobody would see that text or those lines of code. Machines themselves probably have much more efficient way to pass debug information.
I am aware that the out-of-universe (or Doylist) explanation is simply: "The debug information is for the viewer, makes the action easier to understand and often funnier."
But I was wondering if there an in-universe (or Watsonian) explanation? Perhaps it is a legacy of the humans that created the first terminator's prototypes?
Best Answer
As said before, no in-universe explanation is given and, a machine wouldn't need to information dumped onto a screen. Furthermore, why would a machine need the headup-display in the first place ? Answer : "it wouldn't", information could simply be fed into it's processer.
Therefore, why does the terminator have a display ?
Simple because, we, as the audience and lowly humans can't 'see' what the terminator is 'thinking' in it's processor.
So, the display is a plot device to communicate information to the audience...
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Why do terminators see in red?
Terminator visual displays and HUD's are usually monochromatic. T-800, T-850, and T-888 units all have a largely red HUD, this is because of the infrared mode that is used to save energy.Can Terminators see in the dark?
The Terminator's optical sensors can sample an extended range of visible frequencies, including infrared (which can allow it to see heated bodies in total darkness).How does the T 1000 see?
The sweep of the back of the eye of that small section of light is what enables eyes to create an image rather than to just sense color around them. This accounts for the T-1000's use of its head and eyes as a person would. Because otherwise, it would only be able to have a vague sense of the light and color around it.How did the Terminator talk?
It seems obvious that Terminators don't have vocal cords, and their speech is probably generated by some kind of speaker assembly linked to a speech processor. However, every time we see a Terminator speaking, it moves its mouth just like a human would.The origin of all The Terminator's source code revealed
More answers regarding why would a Terminator need to see debug information in his vision?
Answer 2
No in-universe explanation, but...
1) Assuming the first models of Terminators (like the drones from T3: Rise of the Machines) were built/designed - not to mention repaired - by humans (rather than by robots and computers), it would make sense to put some sensor- and debug-information on the video/data-stream. When so the robots started building themselves, it's not unreasonable that some core-programming were left unchanged even if it wasn't needed - it would be just the way robot-kind had "always done it".
2) The video we see is not the input from the camera or what the terminator "see", but rather the representation in it's "brain" - multiple data streams (eg. from "eyes" and "ears", gyros, &c), data from sensors, status of various systems, errors, damage, &c...
It wouldn't be too far away from how we perceive the world ourselves. We build-up an image in our minds of our surroundings with ourselves in the middle - based on our external senses, but also of internal senses - like position of limbs, pain, hunger. We supplement with experience and memories - like how things are outside our immediate sensory range. And we add feelings like love or hate.
Because vision is our primary sense, much of how we build-up the mind-image will be visual. But we can imagine that other animals would build-up their mind-image primarily using other senses - like smell for a dog, and "radar" for a bat. Still, I would think the resulting mind-image would be very similar to our own - but with for example sources of smell moving around, instead of shapes of light and color.
Answer 3
No in-universe explanation is ever given, all you'll ever find is speculation.
However, remember that machines, while sentient, are still machines. They need code to tell their legs to move. They need code to determine if their actions are correct. So, it still seems logical that they need code to diagnose problems when things go wrong.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Subin, Magoi, Karolina Grabowska, Karolina Grabowska