I'm not disappointed with this episode when you contrast it to previous
episodes from the "non consipiracy" category. Do you remember the first
murderous AI episode?? PURE STINKY TRASH.
But that's just my opinion..
jeff
Harvey Newstrom wrote:
> Actually, I was disappointed with the episode. Of course, I loved
> seeing an episode written by Cyberpunk authors. I enjoyed seeing
> similarities with their previous work.
>
> INVISIGOTH was rude to Scully, saying that she was too dumb to
> understand the network. Unfortuneately, she didn't really get to
> demonstrate any great skill in the episode. She didn't do anything
> special or figure anything out to solve the case. She just stated that
> she was a superior intelligence without demonstrating it.
>
> The hacker friends of Mulder quoted ancient history in Computer Lore and
> then seemed to approve of INVISIGOTH because she was "hot". They didn't
> analyze how great her work was, except in the vaguest of terms as being
> "very advanced". I wish they would have demonstrated more to the
> audience.
>
> At one point they needed "someone in the Government" to track down the
> T3 connection. Shouldn't the network/hackers/cyberpunks have been able
> to do that? This probably was a plot device to allow Mulder to track
> down the chicken-farm trailer and get there first, but if a non-network
> government man can trace a network connection to its source faster than
> the cyberpunk/chic who wants to upload and live in the net, then it
> doesn't show a superior knowledge of the network.
>
> I also wish the street-smart attitude was explained as resulting from
> hiding from the government and/or avoiding industrial espionage.
> Without a proper background explanation, INIVISIGOTH appeared to be a
> homeless corporate drop-out living in a box and surfing the net all
> day. She also didn't appear very street smart to me, just tough and
> rude. She played her music so loud that Mulder and Scully could zoom in
> right to her box, etc. She had no defenses and could be completely
> taken over by Mulder and Scully with a handgun.
>
> I also wish there was more technology being used by the cyberpunks.
> Except for their connections to the Internet and their taking-over of
> other people's computers and satellites, they didn't seem to have much
> of their own personal stuff. I wish they would have faught back more
> via the computer and network, and relied less on guns, handcuffs, and
> FBI agents to respond. When the satellite was zooming in, I wish they
> would have faught back on the computer more. I wish there were more
> weapons than the telephone calls in the beginning and the satellite. I
> wish the network entity could track them by credit card purchases,
> cameras in stores, records in the FBI, or anything more than just
> tapping their phone line. As long as they stayed off the phone, the
> network entity was helpless, which is unrealistic given how much of our
> lives are recorded by computers.
>
> I know I'm being picky. I loved the episode for personal reasons.
> However, as a tool to educate the public, I don't expect nonExtropians
> to have learned much if anything from this episode. It didn't
> demonstrate or prove any points. It just alluded to most things that
> only insiders applauded with all their ramifications. Outsiders just
> watched with little interest.
>
> Of course as Dennis Miller says, That's just my opinion... I could be
> wrong... (Maybe I'm just greedy and want more, more, more!)
> --
> Harvey Newstrom <mailto:harv@gate.net>
> PGP 5.5 Fingerprint: F746 7A20 EB7D 27BA 80A5 4473 D8E1 6A54 1EB0 56F7
> PGP Public Key available from <ldap://certserver.pgp.com>