Gen:lock is a computer network and gen:locked brains are computers, that's the whole point. I wouldn't have an issue with it if it was portrayed as some sort of psychic link or soul fusion or some other such non-technological phenomenon. But it's been explicitly explained as "your mind is digitized and uploaded into computer hardware, which can then interface with other also-digitized brains through a computer network".
The idea that Weller didn't build in blacklist functionality to the network from the start isn't entirely unreasonable (though given that he's been using it in a military context for years, he damn well should have given some thought to network security to keep the Union from hacking in), but the idea that he suspected that Nemesis was Chase Prime and still didn't do anything about securing the network just makes him an idiot.
Edited by NativeJovian on Mar 5th 2019 at 9:01:35 AM
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.Marin's VO is hyping the finale on Twitter, so I'm anticipating that we will see what happened to the Anvil off the bat.
Rewatching episode 6 and when the unions sent in their breach teams she ordered the blast doors closed, which we can see in several shots of the command room so she'd be safe from the nanoswarm.
If we assume the consciousness is the equivalent of the MAC address then they can't lock out Nemesis that way as he would be identical to Chase. You would have to block the Holon he is using, but unless they implement a whitelisting security rather than a blacklisting one the Union could in theory keep finding ways around it.
There hasn't been an instance for them to be used since then: in the first episode we see them used in combat and then see them fail to hack a Holon, but the robotic soldiers have only reappeared once since then and it was to scout an empty building. Given the way the Polity used them, it's likely that their vulnerability has seen them relegated to the role of expendable scouts rather than front-line combat units like was seen in episode one.
Edited by 4maskwolf on Mar 6th 2019 at 4:12:11 AM
It's because the bromanship is too strong between Chase and Migas: there was nothing Cammie could do to improve upon the Migas touch.
We may as well go back to exactly what show said:
When the group realised that Nemesis was monologuing Chase (implying that Chase was the only one who could hear Nemesis talking), Cammie grounded them immediately and explained it as follows:
- "None of us can upload. The Doc told us he's you— gen:LOCK. That means he's always on the GL network. He senses us when we're uploaded."
The the full team conversation:
- Yaz: He can find us through gen:LOCK?
Cammie: It's why he kept showing up whenever we went on a mission.
Valentina: Does that mean he's been creeping on us the entire time?
Cammie: Range might be a factor, I don't know. But, maybe. Yeah. He could have been listening in.
Chase: Which gets him what?
Cammie: Well, it's you. What would you do?
Chase: He's fighting for the Union. Which says, whatever he is? He ain't me. Not any more.
Valentina: Cammie, can we not block him?
Cammie: The GL net's all about making it as easy as possible to share your minds. If I had the source code, maybe I could rewrite the protocol stack, but...
Valentina: So we never upload again? Stay off the gen:LOCK network? They don't find us?
Cammie: That doesn't feel right.
In Episode 4, Weller describes the GL network as follows:
- There's an always-on private network between all uploaded minds. Think of it as telepathy. It will even allow you to achieve gen:LOCK Phase II where you can begin to share, well, everything about your minds.
In Episode 2, Weller describes the holons and mindframe as follows:
- '...they are piloted by a decanted human mind'.'We are at the dawn of a new age. One where it is possible to digitise the human mind, grab it, and send it across a brain-computer interface so it can run on an electronic mainframe, or 'mindframe', if you will. Maybe e-brain. Mm, yeah, well, I'm still working on it, but it's still better than 'cyberdome'.''Chase, here, is the world's first human to successfully achieve what we refer to as gen:LOCK. Phase I, anyhow. Which in this case means he uploaded his mind to the cybernetic brain inside his holon, allowing him to operate the mech much as though it was his own body. Miss Madrani, here, represents the second such success.
So the finale was...Well I liked the action, but Nemesis being killed off is kinda eh on me. OTOH, his last line to Chase seems to imply that he's also a copy (of a copy of a copy of a copy...) rather than Chase's original mind, so there could very well be more of him around.
Weller's bomb actually had a signal that caused the nanites to mistakenly identify the Vanguard as friendlies, hence they weren't wiped out as we were lead to believe, and in fact the Anvil didn't even fall. But of course the Union has countermeasures for those countermeasures by the next time they engage, so they can't just shut off Nemesis's nanobots until after Chase extracts something from him via mind-linking.
We get the Leon sacrifice with the sixth holon, which leaves him comatose upon download. Then The Stinger reveals that !real Sinclair is actually alive, and somehow escaped Union captivity and is now undercover among Union infantry. He's the most likely candidate for a proper Sixth Ranger because of that.
Edited by CaptainCapsase on Mar 9th 2019 at 11:45:02 AM
So that was Season 1 of gen:Lock, aka the “Honeymoon” phase. And it’s a strong start with lots of questions that still need to be asked:
How many copies of Chase are there? Can they all access the gen:Lock Network?
Given what happened to Leon, is mass Holon production even feasible?
What’s up with Sinclair? They have confirmed the Union troops are in fact, human, and they act like a standard military racist government, but we still know way too little about them, their politics, etc.
Still, these are all questions S2 can answer. I’m glad at least one person died in the siege BTW to avoid feeling a total copout.
Wiping out cities except for confirmed sympathizers? Damn, I don't think the Nazis did that.
Kind of an anticlimactic escape from the nano. Why the hell wouldn't the gen:LOCK team have been told about that? If nothing else, surely they'd have been chipped themselves. Also, why didn't command or Miranda respond? And what was the Colonel's gesture?
Am I the only one who feels like we really ought to be seeing more of Jodie's perspective on this Chase/Miranda subplot?
So just as decentralization (union vs. polity) leads to tyranny, privacy is the ultimate vice? Good to know.
...so I only just noticed that Gibson's name wasn't in the opening credits. It was only there in the first two episodes. Please tell me I'm not the only one.
I initially thought Leon's upload, while virtually certain, was anticlimactic, until his download, but now it just seems strange. If Leon, who tested in, but aged out, and he can't be that old the way the Vanguard uses him, could fail to download that dramatically, surely there should be significant risk to the main five? I mean, the aging process doesn't exactly keep a rigid schedule.
My posts make considerably more sense read in the voice of John Ratzenberger.Well, Series 1 is finished.
- Okay, that's Migas. Everyone from the Anvil survived. I guess the only question is whether they lost the Anvil or not.
- Getting Serenity vibes from the 'Renegade' scene. Serenity is a cooler name, though.
- It kinda is believable, Cammie. At least... I was expecting it.
- Okay, here's the explanation for that weird little bubble we saw surrounding the troops and that Union civilian back in the pilot episode (during the Battle of New York) that stopped the Smoke from destroying them. And I believe Migas is referring to something the Doc started to tell Marin in Episode 3 about the signal they use for something he was prevented from revealing to the audience because Marin was too focussed on the risk of having the Doc in the same place as the Anvil.
- Nope. They didn't lose the Anvil.
- And Nemesis can now fly. Except... while Chase is a plane, Nemesis is a rocket.
- Oh. The Smoke animation changed.
- And they've already figured out the Doc broke the nano code.
- I'm really not a fan of Cammie's new Holon design. And I just realised that I'm watching a robotic bunny while eating a chocolate one.
- I'm... not a huge fan of the redesigned Smoke either.
- 'You think too loud' seems to be fairly obvious in what it means: the team are broadcasting their intended moves before they make those moves. Weller said the network would function like electronic telepathy. Nemesis is far ahead of the gang in how to use it: he can figure out their moves before they make them while they haven't figured out how to read his. And that tells us that the network can be controlled to limit the information that's shared between uploaded Holons — because Nemesis is doing it.
- You know, Kazu. I think your body parts are intact.
- What's the betting Chase will overcome his Mindshare issues by the end of the episode?
- Looks like the Smoke Nemesis is using acts as mecha regen, too.
- Okay, it was already fairly obvious, but this is confirmation that Mindshare burns through uptime like Overclocking does.
- Looks like Cammie forced Yaz to have eye lasers, after all.
- I think Valentina's invisibility cloak is my favourite mod.
- Okay, so that's Chase's issue with Mindshare... his mind is the last intact piece of him he has left. Makes sense, given the state he's in.
- Okay, I'm no shipper, but it does look like they want us to think Yaz has got a thing for Chase.
- And the mods burn through Uptime, too.
- Nice play on words there: Yaz tells him 'we do this as a team', and he shoots back that 'I am doing this for the team'. He may have put on the uniform last episode, but he didn't put on the team brain. I guess this is what the episode is about for Chase: his brain letting go of the past and moving on with his new life and his new team.
- Well, it was obvious someone was going to exceed Uptime. It makes sense for it to be Chase. We're going full Shadowrun now.
- And we finally see Union Chase just as he is in the opening credits.
- Okay, it looks to me like everyone had between 4-5 minutes of Uptime left (but dropping fast). That makes sense because, during the training sessions, we learned that the Uptime warning first kicks in when the time drops below 10 minutes, and the safety mechanisms auto-download when the Holons drop below 5 minutes. So, while they were in Mindshare, that warning must have kicked in as they dropped below 10 minutes and the short time between that starting, them arguing with Chase and finally downloading, brought them to the 4-5 minute mark we see in the shot of the computer terminal (the speed of Uptime loss being as a result of their Mindshare and mod use).
- What does stand out is that Chase has much less Uptime remaining than anyone else. He was down to 3 seconds when everyone else had between 4-5 minutes left. That means he had burned through his Uptime much faster than any of the others. But that's consistent with the training sessions, where he had a habit of doing things like Overclocking.
- Nice bit of continuity with Episode 2: Chase's download error is the exact same log failure error that flashed up when Sinclair's attempt to Upload failed due to incompatibility.
- Looks like Nemesis is really screwed up. He's twitching even in his 'Chase' form. There's Smoke animation on certain parts of his body. Given how the Smoke acted like a sort of 'regen' substitute for the mech's damage, it must represent the injuries that have been inflicted on his brain by the Union since his capture.
- Does anyone else think Cammie looks insane rather than happy in that group photo?
- I've been wondering about that: whether there's a period of time that has to pass between uploads.
- Oh, look. It's Sinclair's mech. That must be Leon. I knew we'd see Leon in a Holon at some point. I wonder if he'll have any side effects given that he's too old for safe upload.
- That Uptime comment suggests Leon does have side effects. It sounds like his Uptime isn't as long as everyone else's. for a start.
- And Chase spots the advantage of exceeding Uptime: he can mod and Overclock to his heart's content. Which I suspect is what Nemesis has been doing all along.
- Right, so that's the point of Series 1 right there: this is about showing us what can happen to someone who has exceeded Uptime by many years and paving the way for Chase to become the ghost in the machine — the AI without a physical body, who has to fight the possibility of losing his mind and very identity in his quest to find a future for himself and a life that... well, that he can call an actual life.
- Chase pulled memories out of Nemesis... that's at least three 'Memory Redacted' and one 'Nanite Revision' that I can see. And then, in the close up, we see 'Memory Deleted', too. So, deleted memories are self-explanatory. Nanite revisions are going to be memories that have been altered by the Union (using nanotech). Redacted memories are going to be memories that are still with him, but the Union has locked them away so that he cannot access them.
- Okay, so Chase pulled out the memories to steal the nanites that were messing with Nemesis's memories so that Cammie could hack them.
- That scene of the Smoke reaching out tendrils towards everyone reminds me of the way the Rust was reaching out to stop time in Alice Through the Looking Glass.
- Looks like the nanite 'regen' was a temporary fix since they disappear with the rest of it.
- Okay, I thought the point of this was that the Polity needed GL to keep Nemesis off their backs so they could carry out the mission they needed in the city. When Alpha team (Leon, Miranda and Jodie) came to GL's rescue, that could have meant that the battle was won in the city... when Chase drags Nemesis high into the sky, we can see the Behemoth attacking the city is just being defeated at that point. So, it does seem like the Vanguard are winning that encounter.
- Oh, dear. Well, Nemesis grabbing Chase's head like that so that his Nano scar appears on Chase's face (and his left eye changed colour, too) is probably a very good sign that Chase has been infected by Nemesis and this is going to become a problem in Series 2. As long as Chase exists... so will Nemesis. Except, the fight will be inside him now.
- And that's before we get to the implication that Nemesis is a copy... of a copy... of a...
- Oh, yeah. Leon had issues uploading.
- Well, we've seen what happens when someone who isn't compatible tries to upload, and now we've seen what happens when someone who's compatible, but too old, tries to upload... or download, as the case may be.
- Looks like the pods can function as life support — which makes sense, given that they're effectively functioning as that while the pilots are uploaded.
- There might have been terrible cost but... it was all off-screen.
- Are they sure the battle couldn't have been won without the GL team? Because... it kinda looks like the Vanguard came to the GL's rescue, not the other way around. After all, the Union was winning North America before Nemesis came on the scene. In this battle, all the Holons were fighting each other, meaning neither GL nor Nemesis were taking part in the main battle... so how could the GL team turn the tide of the battle in Chicago? Shouldn't the odds still be in the Union's favour? I'm not seeing how the ESU was the turning point in this particular battle.
- What's the betting that saving Leon becomes the breakthrough gen:LOCK needs for overcoming Uptime? And potentially to enabling Chase to download his mind again.
- If the Ship of Theseus concept plays out to its natural conclusion, Chase's body will eventually be regenerated, and the question will therefore be: is the new body the same thing as the old body, or something else? By then, the question (for Chase) will probably have been solved.
- Hm... watching the end credits solely to see if there will be a stinger. But the picture is puzzling me. I thought Miranda was sitting on the steps leading to the Field Museum... but what the heck is that big giant building behind it? It's like the Field Museum on steroids.
- Yep, still think Cammie looks batshit insane in that photo.
- Oh, yeah. There's a stinger.
- Oooh, Union territory. Does this mean we'll be seeing more of the Union side of things next series?
- So, on the street the soldiers are walking down, there are signs saying:
- Security Checkpoint (which they seem to have just come through)
- 'Identification Distribution'.
- 'Secure Area: All citizens are subject to search and screening. Resistence will be interpreted as a sign of insurgency.'
- The soldier that stops dead. Just as he turns to run off down an ally, there's a shadowed banner in the background where we can just make out the worlds 'New York'. So, now we know where we are. This is New York, under Union control.
- Okay, the lighting in those helmets are quite effective at creating the appearance of skull. My guess is that isn't an accident.
- And, yep. Sinclair is still alive. His hair is longer and shaggier than the fake Sinclair's, which is obviously a sign of how long he's been in his current situation. I guess we'll have to wait and see whether it's the real one, or has a brain that just thinks it's the real one (after all, the fake Sinclair seemed to be a clone — so Weller might not have been able to clone himself, but the Union does have that technology, paving a way for Chase to have his Ship of Theseus body. One day.
- I guess I'll eventually get two of my three theories then: Leon and Sinclair in the blue Holon... but not Val.
Edited by Wyldchyld on Mar 9th 2019 at 2:47:36 PM
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.

Except gen:LOCK is not a computer network and a brain isn't a computer? You're arguing that a system that was explicitly created from scratch from the ground up to make P 2 P communication works exactly the same as a standard network would. We know that the entire system was more or less Doctor Weller's brainchild and more to the point is still only in phase 1 of it's development. That the man who was against militarising the technology, wants to facilitate ease of connecting with each other with it and is a firm supporter of his pilot's right to chose did not design it with the built-in capability to block someone from said network is not an unreasonable assumption.