tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6503758639704574841.post1037311422906118843..comments2022-03-25T15:01:43.500+00:00Comments on Visual Mutterings: The Prisoner - The GeneralH E Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05967729929106311170noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6503758639704574841.post-52080444178032374322015-03-25T12:58:51.644+00:002015-03-25T12:58:51.644+00:00PART TWO OF TWO (comments are apparently limited t...PART TWO OF TWO (comments are apparently limited to 4096 characters and I hadn;t realized I had written so much):<br /><br />A final note on the title. Obviously, the title is the name of the computer. But by naming the computer The General (instead of The Teacher or The Thinker or The Professor) and trying to perfect it so it could teach "intelligent cabbages," it gives a glimpse into the purpose of those who run The Village. What they want to produce is a generation of good little soldiers who do what they are ordered to do. I think they had thought Number 6 was a good little soldier, and then he resigned. Something went "wrong" in his training, something that left him his rebellious streak (playing truant). They need to know WHY he resigned so they can figure out how to stop anyone else from walking away from their control.<br /><br />For all its loose, rough and ready handling of the tropes of subliminal learning and computer intelligences, I guess this episode does contain a lot of depth which still applies even today.<br /><br />Thank you again for doing these reviews.<br /><br />Be seeing you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6503758639704574841.post-64653355512770842102015-03-25T12:57:22.581+00:002015-03-25T12:57:22.581+00:00Good review.
This one is an unusual episode, even...Good review.<br /><br />This one is an unusual episode, even among unusual episodes. First, as you pointed out, it has a character who appears to be one of the faction which runs The Village yet seemingly tries to help Number 6. If true, it is an important episode which helps convince Number 6 to keep resisting. And yet I wonder if it was true, given what happened to Number 12 at the end. (Still, it's always fun to see John Castle, especially just a year or so before he filmed "The Lion in Winter" with its brilliant cast.)<br /><br />Aside from the machinations of the faction which runs The Village, the episode itself touches upon a few common trends of the era, including subliminal learning and intelligent computers. The subliminal learning was far more "sci fi" than other examples of the era. I know several places in the United States which would love that technology so their students could pass the standardized tests which were created to "ensure" the students were "learning." As Number 12 pointed out to Number 6, knowing some simple facts is not the same as understanding reasons, or even knowing ALL the facts. This is especially interesting since Number 6 wants to know ALL the facts about The Village while The Village wants to know Number 6's reasons for resigning. This latter point makes Number 6's question to The General even more pointed, because it is what The Village keeps asking HIM. And depending on how you interpret the series finale, it might have the same final result.<br /><br />As for the intelligent computer brought low by unanswerable questions, well, we've seen that a LOT in science fiction. One of the very first lessons I learned about programming computers (back in 1983 when I was learning BASIC), was to never set an operation going without a timer or loop counter to break an infinite pattern, just in case. One of the very first things I learned about electrical systems was the use of a cicruit breaker to prevent explosions. It's funny when I see genius computer builders and programmers on TV forget those simple rules ... kinda like watching the Three Stooges or the Marx Brothers trap themselves.<br /><br />One more note about The General's usefulness. Number 2 proved the uselessness of The General himself when he was giving it the facts to have The General "solve" the problem of who was helping Number 6. He gave it only the facts which would convict Number 12. The phrase "garbage in, garbage out" rings a bell. It is this expectation of a certain answer and therefore providing only certain bits of data which revealed the true weakness of the machine to Number 6. I think that's also why Number 6 didn't ask who Number 1 is. Unless, for some reason, they gave that piece of highly classified information to The General, there is no way it could know the answer.<br /><br />If you are interested in seeing the great-great-grandchild of The General, the TV show "Person of Interest" has not one but two machine intelligences which have been trained to gather LOTS of data and sift it to solve certain problems. Watching the two of them plan and counterplan shows what a properly executed computer intelligence can do, and neither of them would be stopped by something as simple as "Why?"<br /><br />END OF PART ONE<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com