The Terminator Index measures how far real science and engineering have got towards building a Terminator. Forty‑four components, each scored against what the films require, rolled into one level from 0 to 1000.
Each component carries a Terminator Readiness Level from 1 to 9, mirroring NASA's ladder, and a spec fraction: how much of the canonical requirement the best real system meets. Progress is the product of the two. A fielded technology delivering three per cent of what the films demand scores three per cent. The index is the weighted mean.
Two tracks. Canon establishes what the fiction requires, from films, shooting scripts and novelizations, quotes checked against source text. The real‑world side scores the state of the art from papers, spec sheets, benchmarks, filings and company reporting. Figures that prove to be marketing or fan wiki are excluded, and recorded as such.
Components are re‑checked on their own cadence, a fortnight for fast‑moving AI entries, six months for general relativity. New findings enter through one authenticated endpoint that records what moved, by how much, on which source. Retractions and failed demonstrations move the index down.
Not a forecast. It reports where things stand, not when anything gets built. Spec fractions are judgements, and every entry states the comparison behind its number so it can be argued with.
progress = (TRL / 9) × spec fraction
TI = 1000 × Σ(w · progress) / Σ(w)
Forty-four components across fourteen categories, total weight 313. Weights are editorial and published: they state how load-bearing a component is for fielding a Terminator, not how interesting it is.
A one-to-nine ladder mirroring NASA's Technology Readiness Level, applied to a different destination. One is “the physics permits it”. Nine is “in routine operational use, at the required specification”. We score the best demonstrated system in the world, not the median one.
How much of the canonical requirement the best real system meets. A mature, fielded technology delivering three per cent of what the films require scores 0.03. Each entry states the comparison, so the number can be argued with.
Dated, cited, resolving evidence, and nothing else — papers, spec sheets, benchmark tables, filings, regulation. Retractions and failed demonstrations move it down. An index that only rises is not an index.