"Highly improbable John Connor and the resistance could manage to create a flesh covered terminator of their own. Given the severe limitations in terms of technology and resources imposed on them by the conditions of fighting a guerilla war against Skynet.

The "Vick" model T-888 registering Cameron as a 'unknown cyborg' could simply mean that it doesn't recognise that specific terminator. Unless it's a mich newer model that Skynet made after "Vick" was activated?"

"This is correct, what we have here is a remainder of humanity not toasted on Judgement day, living in small groups underground and in hiding. As you say food, and weapons are the order of the day. Small calibre weapons are useless against the foe, so heavy weaponry, explosives and particle beam or energy weapons of some description would be needed to give them a realistic edge. I do not see them building laboratories of their own but maybe taking over unused facilities the may discover or Skynet factories they take over. However they need a scientific base with research and the personnel to do it who can be protected for long enough to produce results. I wonder if some sort of EMP weapon might not be effective against the cyborgs? Unless of course their skeleton acts as a Faraday cage? No I think the simple fact is that they are not in a position to develop their own weapons but just reuse whatever they can appropriate from Skynet. Each side obviously sees the past as being crucial as the only way to 'win' the war is to prevent Skynet from ev.er being built. That said intelligent computing will come to pass - inevitably I would say. It's what we want. Read this article from the weekend paper and you'll see what I mean!
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article3645114.ece
Funny stuff no? Sex it would seem is the driving force in our universe! Interestingly this avenue of research began with chess - dangerous game chess, who would have guessed!
Our military will no doubt be just as keen to have battlefield mechanoids that will do our dirty work without getting shot at.

What I want to know is Skynet's raison d'etre? What does it do after JD and what are its long term goals? Maybe it does not want to completely obliterate human kind."

"Yes live in UK and come and go from here to Australia, have dual citizenship. When in England live in Exeter. Have you visited? Sounds good where you are although Australia likes to think of itself as the land of the barbie as well!
Quad computer is great after my slow Athlon! If you want to see the stuff I put in here are the links:
Mobo: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-258-AS
CPU: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-172-IN (very overclocakble)
GPU: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-129-LT
Memory: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-093-CR
HSF: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-043-TR
Case: http://www.coolermaster.com/microsite/Cosmos/
PSU: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-149-CM&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat
HDD x3: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-054-SA
Actually screwing it all together is pretty easy just RTFM! Lots of online guides out there to show you how such as http://techreport.com/articles.x/13671
You can find pictures such as these of the thing http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?p=5557273

Give your profile another go may have been website prob windows shouldn't interfere!"

"Hi Dukejw. Well I suppose it depends on the energy of an EMP pulse, I wasn't thinking of a tactical nuke but more along the lines of something that could be handheld or at least portable have a look at this vid which is quite interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0odJKYTzXg8
So your car will probably not be working! If you fancy building one kits from http://www.plans-kits.com/kits.html
Yup have seen docos about the gunsmiths in bandit country Afghan/Pakistan, they are remarkable technicians, but that's it, they do copies. Don't know how reliable their weapons are but presumably most are for show and will not see hard service. Agree machining is no problem but alloy production may well be. May be cast - too hard for machining. Smelting works big noisy and hot...stand out like sore thumb! Take too lomg to do on small scale - if you want to build an army that is.
You are right about necessity of situation, but never forget just how much food is required so you are ne.ver going to get a lot of people in one spot as you just cannot feed them. Animal husbandry difficult and veg takes time to grow - the devil is in the detail.
The Borg were not too bright, they sought not to develop but to drag everyone down (or up) to their level. Skynet I think has plans for humanity otherwise it could have tried harder to kill the remainder - easier said than done? I think not, biological and chemical toxins would do the job.
AI of a 4 year old, you would not let a 4 year old run anything! Be scared when they get to the AI of a teenager. It is one thing to think like a human, but another to think as a human. You have to inject the random factor of the way our brains work not just attempt to write software that mimics us. You will nev.er get this with silicon."

"I think using human brains is very possible. The human brain is essentially just a computer but in flesh form. "