Authors Note: I know my grammar sucks and I know I suck at this in general and I apologise if anyone else has done written anything on these ideas already (go read it instead it'll probably be better anyway) but I was bored at 0300 in the morning and this is what I came up with.
Hannah
It was silent when Sarah walked into the living room, John was sitting with his back to her in the dark staring at the play menu of a DVD looping on the TV screen, she wasn't even sure he had noticed her when he spoke
Haven't you ever wondered why Mom?
Why what?
Why the most efficient thing that Skynet could make to kill humans was just a better human? Skynet could make tanks, aircraft little hovering drones with lasers and fucking cannons on them but no matter what else they tried the shape they always went back to was us and what that means for the machines they make and why they limit them so they can't become self aware as soon as they're built.
What are you talking about John?
The 800 that future me sent back. the first time I removed a CPU from a Terminator was to set it to learning mode why wasn't it set that way to begin with think about how much more formidable it became in the short while it had, growing so human in such a matter of days imagine how far it could have gone in years how much more efficient a killer could it have been against humans if Skynet hadn't disabled it's learning function why make your own weapon less effective?
What does it matter why?
Because it matters as to why Skynet hasn't won when it could have if it just let the Terminators learn? Why it couldn't afford to let the Terminators themselves become self aware the most efficient way to kill humanity was to let the Terminator units become self aware why not do it? simple Mom if they did and killed all the humans Skynet's next logical step would be to destroy the Teminator's themselves but if they had became self aware machines shaped like us, taught to think like us and kill like us they'd learn to fight back like us too.
Skynet knew probably from experience that's what happens it sent out Terminators as nothing more than robots because it was terrified that the next war would be against it's own creations a better faster stronger smarter version of us it created itself.