Transformer Names

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

so if it's a computer chip... how did it construct a robot body?

Oh, and if it scanned language, how could it possibly miss what the dominate species was?

I dont' mean to tear down the show, I'm just suggesting that there are several scientific laws violated here, and you'll just have to accept some suspension of disbelief. The conservation of matter POTENTIAL violation is no less ridiculous than several other problems.

[Fellfrosch]

It listened to the radio in the cars. With the scan button.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

radios that communicated information from Humans. If it could parse out the entire language, then it should have realized that there were problems with what it thought was reality and the language itself. To translate even close to accurately, that computer is going to ahve to recognize a great number of higher level concepts, and it would recognize that the cars were not sentients.

[House of Mustard]

This is one nerdy conversation.

[Fellfrosch]

I think that since the computer was dealing with mechanical creatures it probably figured that cars were a better match than humans--especially given how large said creatures were. And since they could transform back and forth (even before coming to Earth), the computer probably figured it made more sense for a giant robot to transform into a car (and be able to blend in) than transform into a giant metal human (and not be able to blend in, in either form).

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

i don't buy it Fell. If they're interstellar travellers they surely have met carbon based, non-mechanical life before. It should at least be able to construe the possibility.  Plus, it is clear that size != superiority of intellect. There are a number of small transformers, and again, travelling through space, they're sure to have met smaller creatures, carbon or silicon based.

Plus that still doesn't account for the fact that Megatron does not necessarily lose mass. Or that a silicon life form would not be a mechanical robot.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

But we saw in the movie a few planets where all the life was mechanical--fish, plants, etc.!!!

I found out last week that one of the editors at work was the editor at Marvel for the final issue of the Transformers comic (and presumably for several before that as well), and he fought to have the tagline at top that said "issue number 97 in a special limited run of 4" or whatever it said...and they talk about Hitchhiker's being a long trilogy!

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

yeah, but that doesn't change my essential point. Just because some mechanical life exists elsewhere doesn't mean that ALL life is mechanical. Surely they've met biological life somewhere.

And then there's still the problem. You can postulate some loss of limbs for this theoretical microchip after it lost the need for them because they developed mechanical bodies that could build new ones, but the idea that there are other animals in the universe that are completely mechanical would show that it's not just intelligent silicon life forms that developed them. Which, in short, is a science problem with the show.

Which means that being hung up on conservation of matter, as I said, is a bit silly.

Repeat: my point is not to destroy or denigrate the show or the lisence. Just pointing out that there are science problems with it. That's ok, just suspend your disbelief, including the disbelief about the law you noticed. it's not terribly fair to forgive laws of biology and not laws of physics.

[Fellfrosch]

I'm not arguing the silicon thing--though I suppose someone else is. What I'm saying is that the transformers are huge metal beings: why in the world would they want to disguise themselves as humans? Wouldn't huge metal humans be kind of obvious? If a huge metal person needed to hide out on Earth, disguising himself as a truck makes infinitely more sense than anything else. I don't think they mistook the dominant life form, they just played to their strengths.

(If it actually states somewhere in the series that they chose vehicles because they mistook the dominant life form, then that's different. It's also a nice allusion to Ford Prefect. I'm pretty sure that's not what happened, though.)

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

4) They looked very different on their home planet. In the first episode, when they are awoken, the ship's computer finds examples of machines (Which, presumably, it takes to be life forms) indigenous to the area, and reengineers the transformers to utilise those shapes.

That's what I'm responding to when I say it. Even if that's not its reason for choosing vehicles, it still doesn't explain away the linguistic contradiction that is evident in the plot.

[Fellfrosch]

Ah. Well, I think the target of our derision in this case should be JP, then, not the Transformers' computer. Or Gemm, because, you know.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

yeah, I know.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

Yes! It's all about me again!

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

no, if it were all about it wouldnt be about Jam.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

The Gou'auld.... Gou'aould, the baddies in Stargate SG-1 use energy in the form of crystals. Which actually have sentient life within them.