Any Person Of Interest fans ?

[SolarLiner]

C'mon, I can't be the only one in here loving this show.

For those who don't know it, person of Interest is a show written by Nolan (father and son) about "The Machine", an Artificial Super Intelligence created after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, built by Harold Finch (Michael Emerson) and Nathan Ingram (Brett Cullen) on top of pattern matching algorithms to detect - and prevent - future terrorist attacks.

But because the Machine can't differentiate terrorist attacks from crimes commited by "ordinary" people, Finch had to draw a line between what was sent to the government (the "Relevant" list), and the "non-terrorists" group (called the "Irrelevant list).
After a backdoor was created to access it, Finch recieves the Social Security Numbers of people who are in danger around the city of New York. But since he can't directly act to prevent those crimes, he calls John Reese, a former CIA agent, to help him.

Eventually their actions catches the eye of a genius hacker called Root (Amy Acker), who will do everything to find and set this machine free.


I seriously think everyone here, especially if computer nerd, should try and watch it. First season is kinda slow, sets things up and shows how it works. Season 2 starts to shakes things a little bit but it really start to get interesting in Season 3, and season 4 is definitely my favorite.

So, is there any Team Machine members? Or maybe even Team Samaritain?

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Team Shaw.

 

[Andy44]

I watched the first season and part of the second, I think. I like it but I didn't have time to keep up with it. I have time for a small number of TV shows, and this one didn't make the cut. Which is sad, once upon a time it was generally agreed on that TV was awful, but in the last 10 years TV has become really good. I guess since the movie industry has no room for creativity anymore TV is where the action is. Even broadcast TV, subject to all the censorship rules, has improved dramatically.

As for this show, I think of Reese as a sort of "Batman" and Finch and his machine are basically Alfred and the Bat Computer, respectively. Maybe that's why it works so well. Reese as a covert vigilante superhero.

The creepiness of the concept is intriguing, too. It's no secret that the machine in this story is pretty much exactly what the NSA/FBI/etc. would like to implement, with all the potential for abuse that such a thing entails.

 

[SolarLiner]

Team Shaw.

Oh yeah, except I like Root better (don't ask me why ^^), but yeah, Root & Shaw to the end.

The creepiness of the concept is intriguing, too. It's no secret that the machine in this story is pretty much exactly what the NSA/FBI/etc. would like to implement, with all the potential for abuse that such a thing entails.

[Warning: Season 1 spoilers below]

This is I think too one of the question the writers are trying to answer.
The Machine was design kind of a black hole: everything comes in, nothing comes out, except a number here and there. But there's Decima Technologies, with John Greer (John Nolan, the uncle [yes the family's all in this :lol: ]) the former MI6 agent, leader of Decima that wants all the information. And that's what the "God Mode" in Finch's Machine is all about: having access to all the information. And ultimately that's what Greer and Decima is getting to: Controlling the machine.

[Warning: Season 3 and 4 spoilers]

And since he can't get to that God Mode because Root took it (which, without even knowing it, makes her become superior to Greer in his own war), he decides to build his own ASI that, unlike the machine which is a closed system, will built around an open system that accepts any request.