There's been a recent (last nine months or so) uptick in "SkyNet could happen in microseconds" talk from certain AI researchers, including at least a few who have been talking about going prepper.

Having done a lot of get-out-the-vote calling in previous campaign seasons, I'm saying that they struck me as highly overrated, and at a certain call density, actively counter-productive. You wouldn't believe how much shit I would get for calling after a certain point in presidential campaigns. Five different…

Well, he wasn't a campaign manager, he was an in-house pollster. And frankly, people don't generally know who the in-house pollsters *are*, unless they're also "campaign strategists" and show their faces all over the talking-head shows. But yeah, they were definitely playing him as a schnook version of Nate Silver.

Presumably the current LG didn't fit Samaritan's parameters the way the new guy did, and neither did the current guv nor look-it-was-college-elect. I looked it up, New York is a separate-ballot primary/single-ticket general state, Samaritan was stuck with electing one of the two tickets, and then paring out the…

Which wouldn't explain why shows like PoI consistently run A+ through B- or C, whereas goofy crap shows run C+ through D.

I have to wonder if I'm the only one who thinks that some of the exchanges between Harold and Root crossed over the line into bathos. I mean, I like where they're going, but the writing was running ahead of the action, and it felt like they were rushing things to play out the character-arc in anticipation of Root…

At least the show means people don't call him that on the street anymore. Which I don't get, I don't think he really looks much like his character in The Passion of the Christ these days… But then, I'm not a believer, so Caviezel's face wasn't what stuck with me from that movie, so YMMV.

Well, the last attempt was the most blatant, but all of them were essentially SkyNet maneuvers; whatever Finch's particular AI homebrew involves, it's clearly highly motivated and viciously self-interested. As he said, the current and final version was stable, functional, and semi-socialized solely through a brutal…

Oh, yeah. Ask the poor citizens of Wasco, CA.

It's almost never from the host sites, but from the rolling suite of advertisers attached to the sites. Those are subcontracted out five ways from Sunday, and occasionally the blackhats get something inserted, even on usually-reputable sites. But you have a *much higher* chance of running across them on the…

Man, I used the word "signifiers" in a semi-serious sentence. I'm not sure *I* agree with me.

Oh, she'll be absolutely merciless on the other side, and she won't blink at going up against old friends and co-workers. That was sort of the point of her "I'm not in it for people" speech. They're lining her up to be the Prince Hal of Cook County. Hell, maybe the last season will be her indictment of and…

having visions

I liked the idea in theory, but the execution… They gave us an Elsbeth whose inner life is less a landscape and more of a Neitzchean abyss, an echoing wasteland of signifiers without signal.

Alicia never loves Peter more than when he's being deviously alpha-male. I'm thinking of the various trysts during the two campaigns. Hell, even with Will, she seemed to enjoy his moments of Odysseusian brutal cleverness.

Poor, distracted Reyna Hecht, like a harried mother dealing with an autistic savant child. She's discovered that Elsbeth is like an exotic pet - charming in small doses, but in dire need of a keeper. Which again plays into my question - did they intend for Elsbeth to appear so non-functional, or are we just looking…

You, too can be a money mule for the Russian Mafiya!

I don't think they know where to go with her home life. They seem to *want* to keep Diane as the second-wave feminist icon, and ramp back on or depersonalize the flyover politics from previous seasons. Also, they may not have access to Gary Cole, it looks like he's pretty busy.

My money is on "hubby's body is found".

Man, I had Russian in junior high for similar reasons. (Well, that and it was the Cold War.) I've retained exactly three words. Either Other Cary is a linguistic prodigy, or he's secretly working with the Mafiya. Or, somebody in the writers room needed a semi-transparent reason to have a conversation with a…