In the lab at the start of the third act, one of Gemma’s assistants says they don’t know why this is happening, and then, and this is a direct quote, ‘we took every possible precaution.’ Despite taking zero precautions whatsoever.
This is after they know they are dealing with a murder-bot, which they have physically hooked it up to their network. It is off, you see.
This makes it sound like a poorly written script?, as it’s dependent on the characters holding idiot balls to advance the story.
i.e. If anyone involved with decision-making authority behaved even semi-realistically then the story would have ended right there...
Though I haven’t watched the movie yet so maybe I misunderstood?
Dumb characters really put me off in most movies, but in this case I think it was fine. Gemma and her assistant’s jobs are both on the line if M3GAN doesn’t pan out, so they have an incentive to turn a blind eye to that. Also, their suspicions that M3GAN was dangerous weren’t blatantly obvious such that people who lacked security mindsets (as some people do in real life) couldn’t miss them.
I was thinking the characters were all being very stupid taking big risks when they created this generally intelligent agentic protype M3GAN, but given that we live in a world where a whole lot of industry players are trying to create AGI while not even paying lip service to alignment concerns made me willing to accept that the characters’ actions, while stupid, were plausible enough to still feel realistic.
Yes, it’s really hard to believe that people are that stupid, even when you’re surrounded by very bright people being exactly that stupid.
And the characters in the film haven’t even had people screaming at them about their obvious mistakes morning til night for the last twenty years. At that point the film would fail willing suspension of disbelief so hard it would be unwatchable.
Not at all, she’s fooled the damned thing into letting her turn it off in a desperately scary situation.
Not realizing that it’s faking unconsciousness is hardly ‘holding the idiot ball’, even if she has the faintest idea what she’s built. Which she doesn’t.
The assistant says this, I think she means that they played with the prototype a bit to see if it was safe to be around kids, or something.
This is the sense of ‘every possible precaution’ that teenagers use when they have crashed their parents cars trying to do bootlegger turns on suburban roads.
Zvi is interpreting this as zero precautions whatsoever, but if he was being more charitable he might interpret it as epsilon precautions.
Honestly go see the film. It’s great if you’ve already read Zvi’s review. (I might have dismissed it as a pile of tripe if I hadn’t. But it’s damned good if you watch it pre-galaxy-brained.)
I’m not John, but if you interpret “epsilon precautions” as meaning “a few precautions” and “pre-galaxy-brained” as “before reading Zvi’s Galaxy Brained Take interpretation of the film” I agree with his comment.
I thought ‘epsilon’ was euphemism for ‘practically but not literally zero’. But then it wouldn’t seem to make sense for John to recommend it as great, since that seems to reinforce the point the character was holding an ‘idiot ball’, hence my question.
The assistant says this, I think she means that they played with the prototype a bit to see if it was safe to be around kids, or something.
This is the sense of ‘every possible precaution’ that teenagers use when they have crashed their parents cars trying to do bootlegger turns on suburban roads.
At least that’s the impression I got from this.
If the character took a ‘few precautions’ in the sense of a limited number out of the full range, for whatever reasons, then the required suspension of disbelief might not be a dealbreaker.
This makes it sound like a poorly written script?, as it’s dependent on the characters holding idiot balls to advance the story.
i.e. If anyone involved with decision-making authority behaved even semi-realistically then the story would have ended right there...
Though I haven’t watched the movie yet so maybe I misunderstood?
Dumb characters really put me off in most movies, but in this case I think it was fine. Gemma and her assistant’s jobs are both on the line if M3GAN doesn’t pan out, so they have an incentive to turn a blind eye to that. Also, their suspicions that M3GAN was dangerous weren’t blatantly obvious such that people who lacked security mindsets (as some people do in real life) couldn’t miss them.
I was thinking the characters were all being very stupid taking big risks when they created this generally intelligent agentic protype M3GAN, but given that we live in a world where a whole lot of industry players are trying to create AGI while not even paying lip service to alignment concerns made me willing to accept that the characters’ actions, while stupid, were plausible enough to still feel realistic.
Yes, it’s really hard to believe that people are that stupid, even when you’re surrounded by very bright people being exactly that stupid.
And the characters in the film haven’t even had people screaming at them about their obvious mistakes morning til night for the last twenty years. At that point the film would fail willing suspension of disbelief so hard it would be unwatchable.
Not at all, she’s fooled the damned thing into letting her turn it off in a desperately scary situation.
Not realizing that it’s faking unconsciousness is hardly ‘holding the idiot ball’, even if she has the faintest idea what she’s built. Which she doesn’t.
So is this hyperbole then?
The assistant says this, I think she means that they played with the prototype a bit to see if it was safe to be around kids, or something.
This is the sense of ‘every possible precaution’ that teenagers use when they have crashed their parents cars trying to do bootlegger turns on suburban roads.
Zvi is interpreting this as zero precautions whatsoever, but if he was being more charitable he might interpret it as epsilon precautions.
Honestly go see the film. It’s great if you’ve already read Zvi’s review. (I might have dismissed it as a pile of tripe if I hadn’t. But it’s damned good if you watch it pre-galaxy-brained.)
Can you explain what you mean by “epsilon precautions” and “pre-galaxy-brained”?
I’m not John, but if you interpret “epsilon precautions” as meaning “a few precautions” and “pre-galaxy-brained” as “before reading Zvi’s Galaxy Brained Take interpretation of the film” I agree with his comment.
I thought ‘epsilon’ was euphemism for ‘practically but not literally zero’. But then it wouldn’t seem to make sense for John to recommend it as great, since that seems to reinforce the point the character was holding an ‘idiot ball’, hence my question.
At least that’s the impression I got from this.
If the character took a ‘few precautions’ in the sense of a limited number out of the full range, for whatever reasons, then the required suspension of disbelief might not be a dealbreaker.