The actress playing Anita is absolutely brilliant.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think the story is set in the future, rather that it's supposed to be an alternate reality, so the use of current/common car and IT devices is used to reinforce this, and in some ways add to the creepiness!

It is an interesting and enjoyable show.

Of course the theme of artificial consciousness is constantly being dramatized in science fiction. Is there any difference between a machine made from meat (our brains) and a machine made from electrical components (their brains)? At present it looks like the writers are suggesting there isn't, with the machines quite capable of exercising a range of emotions from compassion to murderous anger.

I'm not getting that from it. I can't see the synths as human at all - they're missing so much. The only one that is getting close is the policewoman - and it's entirely possible she's not a synth but a crap actress.

Or possibly a very good one

I think all the synths are well acted. Rebecca Front is definitely good as a stern synth.

And the Niska synth does deranged well.

The hair cut doesn't help. Very synth like.

Exactly. The hair, the eyes, the movement. There is also a burn on her neck - I've been googling to see if that is the actress rather than the character but I can't find anything either way.

It's an alternative present.


There's more technology in your mobile phone than was in the entire computer system which sent Apollo to the moon.

It's all a bit Stepford Wives isn't it?

Yes I wasn't sure if the burn on the neck was significant or not.

I don't think it shows if she is a synth or not. It doesn't really look like burnt plastic.

The interesting idea that Niska raises, is that whilst some synths are more human than others, even without the group of synths who are much more human, its possible that some are more human than others, in that some react to the more human feelings they have, better than others.

I suspect you are overestimating the quality of my mobile phone.

I was just using the moon landing as an example of something that happened at a time when most people were still washing their clothes by hand ie the fact that one thing can be done doesn't mean that all the other technology, or people's access to it, suddenly speeds up.

its not impossible to believe that if a company had focused on the creation of syths, its not impossible for us to have synths today. The biggest difference between the machine workers of this world, and those in the show, is that they appear human, whilst the robots who build our cars are not built like that. Lets not forget we are on the cusp of self driving cars.

Yes I agree. Most of the synths seem very robotic. It is just Niska, Anita and the other synths that seem to have more human like emotion, and I believe that is because they have been created using human memories or personality transplant.

The way it comes across to me is not so much that they are saying there is no difference, but that there isn't a clear line between the two, deliberately muddying the waters.

If I am the sum of my experiences, what is the difference betwen me and a machine that has my brain copied into it? I have no illusions about my own integrity, I think if I woke up to find myself smarter, faster, stronger etc with super observational skills and a calculator brain I'd be off to the casinos with some cunning disguises... erm I mean off to save the world for the betterment of mankind...

I didn't understand why Mattie didn't go straight to her mum after Mia came out while she was hacking Anita. She knows that Laura is very suspicious of Anita.

Leo and Max had some conversation about scanning for Mia when they got to that warehouse place. I think they said something about 'base code' and Max said that would only work if someone *technology burble* so I didn't understand it but what I took from it was that whatever they were scanning for was something that would have been unaffected by the reset/personality wipe.


She tried after the accident but used the most flimsy examples, that could be easily dismissed as her being paranoid. What she should have said in her argument was how Anita is not supposed to be able to touch the children without checking with an adult user, and furthermore Laura had given her a direct order to not touch Sophie, and yet she found Anita hugging Sophie. She could also have mentioned that Anita is not sharing with other synths like she is supposed to. Both of those things are objective faults that would at least warrant Anita being checked by a technician of some sort. Although maybe not to the moron father.


I can't understand why George thought that was a better thing to do with him. Surely he will very quickly run out of power? And we've already seen that once he shuts down it's incredibly difficult for him to start up again.


Unless I've completely misunderstood something then as far as we've been told/shown at this point it is only the specific 4 or 5 synths who are "much more human" that have feelings at all. The rest of them do not, and are not even particularly good at recognising emotions in humans.

Yes I'd need to check what they said but I think that was one of those things that just needed to sound technical and be noted to exist so they could search for it. Maybe a strange thing noted by a human checkout operator (there must be some left!) at the local supermarket and posted on e.g. a 'nutso customer demanding a single custard-flavoured chamomile teabag today' thread.


I think he just wanted to make sure he was nowhere near the accident scene but maybe expected to get back there sooner?

Anita demonstrates empathy and compassion by understanding that she is disempowering the mother in the course of performing her duties. So she arranges for her to tell the bedtime story.

Was that compassion or her trying to stop the mother from being too suspicious about her being 'human'?

Yes I agree they are deliberately trying to blur the lines but often in a way that elicits sympathy for the synthetic humans.

The conditional 'if' is crucial to your second point because you are not just the sum of your experiences. You live in the present as a physical entity in relation to a physical environment and dependent on it in many respects. People overestimate their own autonomy in all kinds of ways. In that respect I agree that becoming more autonomous (smarter, faster) might make one less human but given the laws of physics pretty much any organism is going to be dependent on some external source of energy.

Well we shall see but in the script Anita told the mother the child had changed her mind and it was the child who revealed that Anita was behind the change of heart.

I think a medical synth would need that kind of strength for the reason we saw. Imagine if an ill person was in the bathroom then collapsed. If the medical synth couldn't get to them they wouldn't be much use. I imagine it's in their programming that they're only allowed to cause damage to property if they feel their patient is in direct danger, which Rebecca Front clearly did when she ripped the door off.

Yes but as far as Anita was concerned she was just telling the mother that the child had changed her mind, she didn't know that the daughter would tell the mother that Anita had asked her to choose the mother instead.

If the daughter had said nothing, then it would have just looked like Anita was passing on a message. But now, with the daughter saying what she did, it will look even more like Anita has a better understanding of how human emotions works.

I thought it was because mum told her not to hack into Anita. I also think she wants to find out what it means and knows full well her mum can't answer that so it makes more sense to post it on the forum.


Didn't George say before that Odi knows things so he can't just be recycled as it will let out secrets (presumably about what George and Elster where up to with modifications). George knows Odi is broken but he can't bring himself to 'kill' him because he's anthropomorphised him - so the next best option is for him to power down somewhere where no one will find him (unlike in the house where he will be found).


There is a big difference between doing something and feeling it. I don't think she feels it. I do loads of things at work every day that look good/kind but I deliberately don't feel them - I wouldn't be able to do my job if I invested emotionally in the lives of the people I work with/for. That's a choice I make - I don't think Anita is choosing not to take on the emotion - she just doesn't have it because she's a machine.