3 ms·

Let us now pause, and write in praise of POI. Not for any political reason (Snowden, et. al.), but because the writers have created genuine science fiction. I c

Let us now pause, and write in praise of POI. Not for any political reason (Snowden, et. al.), but because the writers have created genuine science fiction. I can't recall who said it -- perhaps one of the greats (ACC, PKD) -- but good scifi takes the world as it is, and changes one very small thing (in this case: genuine AI). Such a pleasure to watch. I know, I know, many folks on HN will point out technical shortcomings, but as someone who has straddled these many worlds (natsec, digital security, privacy), I see them reflected here in a glorious alternative universe that is thought provoking, entrancing, mesmerizing.

ocdtrekkie 11y ago
Indeed. Person of Interest has struck me as one of the most prescient scifi shows of our era, while remaining incredibly entertaining and understandable to the general viewer. They definitely stepped up the 'future' with the warring AIs, but just the basic premise of incredible surveillance and predictive technologies, and how that could be used for good or evil was fantastic. Another show that did some awesome science fiction in the last few years was Continuum. A lot of it was heavily based on the concept of corporations (particularly tech corporations) gaining a strong influence in or control over our government. To the extent of having a 'corporate congress'.
Spooky23 11y ago
The first two seasons were amazing. I think they were more successful than they thought they would be, and didn't think the story out well beyond that. In was also amazing that it was a CBS show, given their typical fare.
EFruit 11y ago
>Such a pleasure to watch. I know, I know, many folks on HN will point out technical shortcomings After you get past the first season, (if you accept the premise of an omniscient, digitally omnipotent artificial superintelligence that oversees the world), there are really very few technical errors. In the first season, your standard crime-drama tech mistakes apply (malformed IP addresses, someone invading a computer system with a DDoS, randomly placed PCB overlays, etc.) As the show progressed in to its second and third seasons, I was surprised to see the protagonists' computers sporting GNOME taskbars. EDIT: There are its fair share of minor discrepancies in various things like shell syntax and code formatting (like using Greek symbols in C code), but the point I was trying to make is that PoI's accuracy was overall very impressive. This impressiveness is amplified when compared with a series like CSI: Cyber, a show which does a far worse job of writing believable technobabble and designing realistic UIs, despite such things being arguably more critical to CSI: Cyber.
- dTal 11y ago
  Heh, I would hope that we crack Unicode in C before we crack omniscient, digitally omnipotent artificial superintelligences, or I despair for the world.
awinter-py 11y ago
Agreed -- it's so genuine it's spooky. You have to wonder how deep the parallels go. Does Keith Alexander speak in the voice of bumblebee from transformers? Is it safe to answer the payphones in Bryant Park? Did Ed Snowden also rescue Jesus from the NYPD? And if he didn't, who will.
shubhamjain 11y ago
In my opinion, the show is the least interesting TV series I have ever seen. Same recycled rubbish in every episode with almost same storyline and absolutely no progress over broader plot. I wish they tried to created lesser episode with better moving story.
- jamie_ca 11y ago
  I don't disagree, the first two seasons were very much "number of the week" episodes. Season 3 ramps up the plotline quite a bit, wrapping up the big HR story arc early in the season and introducing the new bad guy, Samaritan. Who is an opposing super-AI, btw. The rest of S3 is the team fighting to keep Samaritan from going online, and S4 has the team trying to keep under the radar as the two AIs start battling. It's definitely grown into a more story-arc driven show, and the Numbers have become more often than not relevant to the ongoing plot.
schwarze_pest 11y ago
> good scifi takes the world as it is, and changes one very small thing (in this case: genuine AI) Isn't that more a description of cyberpunk than scifi?
jhayward 11y ago
I was fairly floored last week when I realized that POI predicted the US Office of Personnel Management hack which attacked clearance records. Season 3 episode 19 aired in March 2014, which is about when the hack was believed to begin. It wasn't discovered until March 2015.

ocdtrekkie 11y ago

Indeed. Person of Interest has struck me as one of the most prescient scifi shows of our era, while remaining incredibly entertaining and understandable to the general viewer. They definitely stepped up the 'future' with the warring AIs, but just the basic premise of incredible surveillance and predictive technologies, and how that could be used for good or evil was fantastic. Another show that did some awesome science fiction in the last few years was Continuum. A lot of it was heavily based on the concept of corporations (particularly tech corporations) gaining a strong influence in or control over our government. To the extent of having a 'corporate congress'.

Spooky23 11y ago

The first two seasons were amazing. I think they were more successful than they thought they would be, and didn't think the story out well beyond that. In was also amazing that it was a CBS show, given their typical fare.

EFruit 11y ago

>Such a pleasure to watch. I know, I know, many folks on HN will point out technical shortcomings After you get past the first season, (if you accept the premise of an omniscient, digitally omnipotent artificial superintelligence that oversees the world), there are really very few technical errors. In the first season, your standard crime-drama tech mistakes apply (malformed IP addresses, someone invading a computer system with a DDoS, randomly placed PCB overlays, etc.) As the show progressed in to its second and third seasons, I was surprised to see the protagonists' computers sporting GNOME taskbars. EDIT: There are its fair share of minor discrepancies in various things like shell syntax and code formatting (like using Greek symbols in C code), but the point I was trying to make is that PoI's accuracy was overall very impressive. This impressiveness is amplified when compared with a series like CSI: Cyber, a show which does a far worse job of writing believable technobabble and designing realistic UIs, despite such things being arguably more critical to CSI: Cyber.

dTal 11y ago
Heh, I would hope that we crack Unicode in C before we crack omniscient, digitally omnipotent artificial superintelligences, or I despair for the world.

awinter-py 11y ago

Agreed -- it's so genuine it's spooky. You have to wonder how deep the parallels go. Does Keith Alexander speak in the voice of bumblebee from transformers? Is it safe to answer the payphones in Bryant Park? Did Ed Snowden also rescue Jesus from the NYPD? And if he didn't, who will.

shubhamjain 11y ago

In my opinion, the show is the least interesting TV series I have ever seen. Same recycled rubbish in every episode with almost same storyline and absolutely no progress over broader plot. I wish they tried to created lesser episode with better moving story.

jamie_ca 11y ago
I don't disagree, the first two seasons were very much "number of the week" episodes. Season 3 ramps up the plotline quite a bit, wrapping up the big HR story arc early in the season and introducing the new bad guy, Samaritan. Who is an opposing super-AI, btw. The rest of S3 is the team fighting to keep Samaritan from going online, and S4 has the team trying to keep under the radar as the two AIs start battling. It's definitely grown into a more story-arc driven show, and the Numbers have become more often than not relevant to the ongoing plot.

schwarze_pest 11y ago

> good scifi takes the world as it is, and changes one very small thing (in this case: genuine AI) Isn't that more a description of cyberpunk than scifi?

jhayward 11y ago

I was fairly floored last week when I realized that POI predicted the US Office of Personnel Management hack which attacked clearance records. Season 3 episode 19 aired in March 2014, which is about when the hack was believed to begin. It wasn't discovered until March 2015.