From: Harvey Newstrom (harv@gate.net)
Date: Thu Feb 19 1998 - 08:33:29 MST
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>
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