The Attic (210)

[DigiFluid]

The supervillain monster of the dream world is a muscular, faceless black man? Whoa there, Joss, you're treading on thin ice my friend.

The SuperEchoMatrix ridiculousness continues. So her brain is plugged into a computer, it's been done. And twisted dream weirdness, well, The Sopranos perfected that particular storytelling technique in their episode "The Test Dream". And she kills herself only to be resurrected to save the world? Yeah Joss, we already saw that in The Matrix. Even if it all part of a dream.

Still, it's a very fascinating development that the Attic is actually Rossum's processing power. Neat idea, really neat. It's a bit of a plot deus ex machina, but it works.

I'm also a bit confused.... on two points: Adele was having Boyd 'arrested'/removed at the end of 2.09. So why is he back at work at the beginning of this episode? And 6 Million Dollar Paul, what happened to the Adele/Ballard stand-off?

Enjoyed seeing Mr. Dominic and Sierra's dead guy again, though; the lighting/colour palette/cinematography was just fantastic, and it was really cool to see the future/Epitaph vision.

[Giantevilhead]

I wonder how they got the saran wrap off of Caroline without taking out the needles on her head.

[ShadowMaat]

I didn't think Boyd was being arrested, just... removed from the office. And the standoff could be dismissed as the tricksy brain tinkering being responsible.

Or we could all still be inside the Matrix Attic.

[Amalthea]

The supervillain monster of the dream world is a muscular, faceless black man? Whoa there, Joss, you're treading on thin ice my friend.

I'm curious, are you implying it's borderline racism, or that he's ripping from somewhere else? If it's the former, I got the impression that Arcane was supposed to be a shadow more than a man, especially since it turned out to be a nerdy white dude, and if it's the latter, what is it from?

The SuperEchoMatrix ridiculousness continues. So her brain is plugged into a computer, it's been done. And twisted dream weirdness, well, The Sopranos perfected that particular storytelling technique in their episode "The Test Dream". And she kills herself only to be resurrected to save the world? Yeah Joss, we already saw that in The Matrix. Even if it all part of a dream.

I don't think because things have been done that they can't ever be done again. I found it all sufficiently different not to feel like I was watching a Matrix rehash or anything. This twisted dreaming was very well done, I think. Especially incorporating the twistedness from all the personalities up in her brain. And as for her saving the world-

Spoiler:

It's not going to work, based on what we've seen in Epitaph One.

Still, it's a very fascinating development that the Attic is actually Rossum's processing power. Neat idea, really neat. It's a bit of a plot deus ex machina, but it works.

I would argue it's more rushed than deus ex machina. I imagine Joss wanted to spread it all out over a few more episodes, but the impending death of the show sped it up.

I'm also a bit confused.... on two points: Adele was having Boyd 'arrested'/removed at the end of 2.09. So why is he back at work at the beginning of this episode? And 6 Million Dollar Paul, what happened to the Adele/Ballard stand-off?

I wondered about the Boyd thing too. It was alittle odd just seeing him back to work as if nothing happened. Again, I attribute this to rushing due to show death.

Enjoyed seeing Mr. Dominic and Sierra's dead guy again, though; the lighting/colour palette/cinematography was just fantastic, and it was really cool to see the future/Epitaph vision.

Agreed! Only a 3% chance that it doesn't end in disaster!

[Exiled Master]

It's official: Dollhouse is the transhumanist Prisoner.

[pjt]

The SuperEchoMatrix ridiculousness continues. So her brain is plugged into a computer, it's been done. And twisted dream weirdness, well, The Sopranos perfected that particular storytelling technique in their episode "The Test Dream". And she kills herself only to be resurrected to save the world? Yeah Joss, we already saw that in The Matrix. Even if it all part of a dream.

Matrix? That's just about batteries. Actually it's the Hyperion/Endymion saga that's about using human brain as supercomputer.

But having dollhouses only for rich clients would be too shallow for a series, this actually gives a meaning to it.

It rather makes me angry seeing just how good this series got knowing it's been canceled. Too bad.

[HAL2100]

The SuperEchoMatrix ridiculousness continues. So her brain is plugged into a computer, it's been done. And twisted dream weirdness, well, The Sopranos perfected that particular storytelling technique in their episode "The Test Dream". And she kills herself only to be resurrected to save the world? Yeah Joss, we already saw that in The Matrix. Even if it all part of a dream.

I might point out that it could be said that the Matrix ripped off the brain in the computer bit from other stories. Just because a chef decides to include a side dish that he lifted from another chef doesn't mean that the mean isn't original.

[Giantevilhead]

The Wachowski brothers actually wanted the Matrix to be a super computer using human brains but they thought that it would go over people's heads so they went with the much dumber idea of human batteries.

[HAL2100]

The Wachowski brothers actually wanted the Matrix to be a super computer using human brains but they thought that it would go over people's heads so they went with the much dumber idea of human batteries.

Its not a 'dumber' idea. That the fact that you don't like is no reason to personally attack it.

[Giantevilhead]

Its not a 'dumber' idea. That the fact that you don't like is no reason to personally attack it.

I'm not attacking it, the laws of thermodynamics are attacking it.

You get far more energy from humans by burning them than keeping them alive and leeching off of the body heat and electrical discharge. In order to keep humans alive, you need to put in more useful energy than humans can produce. The energy contained in a donut for example can be used to do a lot more work than the energy generated by humans after they eat the donut.

The human brains as processors makes far more sense. Our brains may not be the fastest processors but they do have incredible parallel processing capabilities. Our brains are essentially 750 hertz processors with about 10 billion hyperthreaded cores.

[HAL2100]

I'm not attacking it, the laws of thermodynamics are attacking it.

You get far more energy from humans by burning them than keeping them alive and leeching off of the body heat and electrical discharge. In order to keep humans alive, you need to put in more useful energy than humans can produce. The energy contained in a donut for example can be used to do a lot more work than the energy generated by humans after they eat the donut.

The human brains as processors makes far more sense. Our brains may not be the fastest processors but they do have incredible parallel processing capabilities. Our brains are essentially 750 hertz processors with about 10 billion hyperthreaded cores.

Its called suspension of disbelief and is the same cosmic force that allows boys who refuse to grow up to fly, British nanny's to take children and jump into sidewalk chalk drawings, little green creatures to telekinetically lift spaceships out of swamps and ships to fly at warp speed.

[Giantevilhead]

Its called suspension of disbelief and is the same cosmic force that allows boys who refuse to grow up to fly, British nanny's to take children and jump into sidewalk chalk drawings, little green creatures to telekinetically lift spaceships out of swamps and ships to fly at warp speed.

Suspension of disbelief can only be stretched so far. Just because you can accept that a boy who refuses to grow up can fly doesn't mean it's okay for that boy to suddenly develop the power to turn invisible, telekinetically blast pirates, and shoot lasers out of his eyes.

The Matrix didn't present itself as a "soft science fiction" movie. In fact, it took itself way too seriously. It tried to be like Alien and Terminator where there was some sense of realism and the audience is supposed to think, "hey, all this technology is fantastic but it doesn't seem impossible and we might just be able to develop it in the future."

[HAL2100]

Suspension of disbelief can only be stretched so far. Just because you can accept that a boy who refuses to grow up can fly doesn't mean it's okay for that boy to suddenly develop the power to turn invisible, telekinetically blast pirates, and shoot lasers out of his eyes.

The Matrix didn't present itself as a "soft science fiction" movie. In fact, it took itself way too seriously. It tried to be like Alien and Terminator where there was some sense of realism and the audience is supposed to think, "hey, all this technology is fantastic but it doesn't seem impossible and we might just be able to develop it in the future."

Actually, its okay for that boy to suddenly develop the power to turn invisible, telekinetically blast pirates, and shoot lasers out of his eyes if boy is in a movie wherein people in the real world enter video games.

"hey, all this technology is fantastic but it doesn't seem impossible and we might just be able to develop it in the future."

We're much closer to artificial intelligence than you think. That an AI might become sentient or begin acting on its own is only a natural, logical result.

[Giantevilhead]

Actually, its okay for that boy to suddenly develop the power to turn invisible, telekinetically blast pirates, and shoot lasers out of his eyes if boy is in a movie wherein people in the real world enter video games.

But not in Peter Pan. Even fantasy worlds have to have certain sets of rules. Just because there's magic in LotR doesn't mean that Sauron can suddenly open a portal to Oz and call up his old buddy the Wicked Witch of the West, and have her send her flying monkeys to look for the Ring.

We're much closer to artificial intelligence than you think. That an AI might become sentient or begin acting on its own is only a natural, logical result.

But that's not going to allow the artificial intelligence to break the laws of thermodynamics.

A Terminator scenario might actually be possible since nothing in the first two films actually breaks established laws of physics. The Matrix on the other hand is not possible because the whole human battery idea breaks the laws of thermodynamics.

[HAL2100]

But not in Peter Pan. Even fantasy worlds have to have certain sets of rules. Just because there's magic in LotR doesn't mean that Sauron can suddenly open a portal to Oz and call up his old buddy the Wicked Witch of the West, and have her send her flying monkeys to look for the Ring.



But that's not going to allow the artificial intelligence to break the laws of thermodynamics.

A Terminator scenario might actually be possible since nothing in the first two films actually breaks established laws of physics. The Matrix on the other hand is not possible because the whole human battery idea breaks the laws of thermodynamics.

The characters can do whatever the creators of the project and writer's imagine. Period. If I write a story where Peter Pan can phase in and out of reality and jump between universes, he can phase in and out of reality and jump between universes. Suspension of disbelief is not about what the characters do or the stories, its about the audience 'suspending' their 'disbelief' hence the term.

In the Night at the Museum sequel, I lost all suspension of disbelief when the two main characters ran out of the Air & Space Musuem (or maybe the Castle) and ended up at the Lincoln Memorial in just a couple of minutes. Knowning the Lincoln is at the very FAR end of the reflecting pool there was no way that the characters could have possibly traveled that distance in a few minutes.

In Transformers, the characters are at the Air & Space Museum and the bust out the back wall and are suddenly in a desert area with Mountains. I'm sorry, that was just ridiculous!

In 2012, I started laughing during the scene where they're escaping Vegas on the third instance of a plane taking off as the run way is falling apart.

What was shown on screen in those three instances was beyond my ability to suspend belief, but I'm certain there are those who were more than capable of maintaining that suspension of disbelief - like persons that had never been to DC or kids & teenagers in the case of 2012.

What one person sees as impossible, ridiculous or outlandish, another can see as plausible (within the context of the story).