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Towards the beginning of Terminator 2 Judgement Day, when the T-1000 finds John Connor's address, how does he actually find him? During the year, of which the movie portrayed, there was never any GPS. Even the computer he typed the address into, did not seem advanced enough, to have a visual screen showing route by route directions.

Edlothiad
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Wanting Answers
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    (shrugs) It touched (sorry, 'sampled by physical contact') a street directory at one stage and immediately absorbed the entire layout of the city? – Andrew Thompson Jun 29 '15 at 01:24
  • It seems likely that he uploaded a map of Los Angeles in approximately that period before traveling back in time. – Wad Cheber Jun 29 '15 at 01:24
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    Oh crap, I forgot, it is a Terminator. I was like "how would it even remember all that?" Good possibility. – Wanting Answers Jun 29 '15 at 01:26
  • "I was like "how would it even remember all that?"" I was just musing that 'sample by physical contact' does not apply to the T-800 we see in the first movie tracking down Sarah at her home and ..Chez Noir(? the disco she tried to hide out in) but that he must have sat down and flipped through the pages of a street directory to ..hey wait a minute! If the T-800 had such good memory, why the heck did it tear the page (of 'Sarah Conner's) out of the phone book?!? Surely it should have been able to glance at it and commit it to memory.. – Andrew Thompson Jun 29 '15 at 01:33
  • @Andrew: Well I was actually not responding to your response; even though, it is a bit hilarious. Wad's response is more of a possibility.

    For that, I am sure it was a gitch in the movie. Total mess up. We do know that the T-1000 is far more advanced so I am sure it could commit more things to memory.

    T-800 is like Windows XP and T-1000 is like Windows 8.

     – Wanting Answers Jun 29 '15 at 01:34
  • Tip: Add @WadCheber (or whoever, the @ is important) to notify the person of a new comment (as well as identify who you are responding to!). – Andrew Thompson Jun 29 '15 at 01:36
  • I would, but I cannot re-edit my comment :/ – Wanting Answers Jun 29 '15 at 01:37
  • "T-800 is like Windows XP and T-1000 is like Windows 8." Bad comparison. XP was solid and reliable (quite capable) & gets the job done with a minimum of fuss and glamour while Windows 8 is founded on 'kewl effects'.. Actually, now I think about it, maybe it is a good comparison. ;) – Andrew Thompson Jun 29 '15 at 01:39
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    @Andrew: "Founded on 'kewl effects" and impossible to do what you want it to do? Self-aware? AHHHHHH!!!!!!! O_O – Wanting Answers Jun 29 '15 at 01:41
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    Believe it or not people got around, the mail got delivered, etc. before GPS. The T-1000 didn't roll up to the Voight residence until the next morning after it killed the cop, giving it plenty of time to hit one of the thousands of places in greater Los Angeles that sell street maps. – Kyle Jones Jun 29 '15 at 01:54
  • @Kyle: No, even scarier, its mind is a GPS. If Skynet is software, ingrained in cyberspace, the T-1000 would all ready have a GPS in its CPU. FACK! Missed that detail. – Wanting Answers Jun 29 '15 at 02:02
  • Early versions of GPS systems had been available in cars for a decade prior to the release of the movie. Whether or not the police car he stole had one is a valid issue, but the technology existed. – phantom42 Jun 29 '15 at 02:10
  • @Phantom42: GPS for civilian use was 1996. I am not sure of the date, within the movie, that T-2 takes place. – Wanting Answers Jun 29 '15 at 02:18
  • @ArvinGBorkar - I believe T2 came out in 91 and was supposed to take place in 94. Cops in a major city like LA would probably have had GPS of a primitive sort in their dashboard computers by then. The computer was clearly wirelessly hooked up to a central database, because the T-1000 was able to bring up John's criminal record pretty easily. – Wad Cheber Jun 29 '15 at 03:06
  • @ArvinGBorkar - I stand corrected- T2 was supposed to take place in 1995. – Wad Cheber Jun 29 '15 at 03:54
  • @AndrewThompson I re-watched the first film the other night -- FYI, the bar is Tech Noir and the Terminator doesn't tear a page from the phone book, Reese does. – Royal Canadian Bandit Jul 07 '15 at 11:04

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In the movie itself, there is no indication of how the T-1000 was able to find John's house. However, the T-1000 obviously knew his name, age, and the city in which he lived, among other things. It's memory was stored across its entire "body", and was apparently quite extensive.

We don't know whether the computer that the T-1000 used in the police car has GPS capability, but the movie takes place in 1995, and GPS was adapted for civilian use in the following year, so it is at least possible that the police in a major city like Los Angeles would have had access to it a little earlier than civilians did. However, the T-1000 wouldn't need GPS if it had been provided with maps before it arrived in 1995.

We also know that the T-850 in T3 was programmed to make himself resemble the Terminator from T2 so John would recognize him.

The TX in T3 was also programmed by Skynet with all sorts of data about her targets - including photos and DNA samples - and relevant technological information, as these images, showing her HUD, demonstrate:

In this first image, note the text display on the right- "Location Proximity Ratio". This sort of information would be very handy to the T-1000. enter image description here

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It seems quite probable that Skynet uploaded maps of Los Angeles in the mid-90's into the T-1000 before he was sent back in time. This would make perfect sense, since it was programmed for all kinds of other things, like how to interact with humans, how to drive a car, fly a helicopter, ride a motorcycle, use old fashioned firearms, etc. None of these skills would be useful in a post apocalyptic future, but the T-1000 had to learn them all for the sake of his mission.

If Skynet could provide the T-1000 with all this other information, it could certainly provide a map of the city as well.

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