Notes for season 3 episode 12, “Alethia“
04:58 In the 1979 flashback, we can see that the prop used for Finch’s computer is a Commodore PET. (Although, while the PET is era-appropriate, I think the model used might be slightly anachronistic, from 1980 or later.)
19:20 The safe deposit box contains two LTO cartridges. Assuming this was a backup made in 2005, they’re potentially LTO-3, but more likely LTO-2. Which means Samaritan was backed up to 400-800 GB (LTO actual capacities are half what they’re advertised as, since they assume an average of 50% compression). The props themselves aren’t actually LTOs, they’re Sony’s proprietary Super Advanced Intelligent Tape (SAIT) made from 2003-2006 until superseded by LTO-4 in 2007. (As ever, the answer to the question of which storage format will have longevity is “not the proprietary Sony one”.)
27:11 If you can’t hear the high-pitch beeping in this scene, someone has lowered the frequency in a clip posted to YouTube.
29:30 We hear Finch compare AGI to nuclear weapons, and this is a comparison we hear someone make weekly. Behold this significant power we have harnessed. I also remember that the generation that grew up exposed to the idea of being killed in a nuclear war, by and large wouldn’t vote for a politician that opposed preserving the capacity to wage one. Perhaps once people can get away with comparing something to a nuclear weapon, it becomes unquestionable.
30:00 Claypool’s reticule flips to yellow.
36:56 The Machine makes a veiled threat against Control’s daughter, which is not conventionally considered a “good guy” trait.
39:15 The Machine plays one of those algo-generated “memories” videos that photo apps create, but creepily incorporating surveillance footage.
42:44 Apparently the Decima plan involved someone, at short notice, knowing they’d have to obtain a couple of specific 9 year old tape cartridges and swap them out during an unknown time window.