"My CPU is a neural-net processor... a learning computer. But Skynet presets the switch to 'read-only' when we are sent out alone." The first 1984 T-800 was most certainly "sent out alone" and didn't need his chip reset to learn. But...I could see someone making a case based on what Uncle Bob means by "learning." Maybe the first Terminator was programmed with "Get clothes, get weapons, go through the phone book and blow away every Sarah Connor you find. Speak to humans only when you need something, repeat their own dialogue and phrases back to them as necessary." That could theoretically be all the first Terminator "knew," in which case he wasn't so much learning a new phrase (**** you ***hole) as he was just following the directive that instructs him to repeat dialogue as appropriate. He probably didn't even know what that phrase actually meant other than you apparently say it when you want to make somebody leave you alone.
So I do think you could make an adequate bridge between T1 and the T2 SE if you like that theory.
How do you know that it wasn't it's mission? Primary mission? No. But I think the fact that John's "orders" couldn't overrule the decision indicated that it was programmed to seek it's own destruction once John was protected from the T-1000. "I cannot self terminate" has always been weird though. You can't kill yourself but you can give up and instruct someone how to kill you? Even to the point of stepping onto the device that will be your doom? Same damn thing dude.
I understand Cameron's reasoning for the contrivance of course, the ending wouldn't have been nearly as poignant if Uncle Bob simply did a running cannonball into the steel instead of slowly letting the movie's theme song play as they all gazed into each other's eyes.
