<div class="quote"><i>TheSamaritanUknow wrote:
<div class="quote">RaptorNXT wrote:
It would be interesting if Samaritan were to do things different from what Greer's concept of a free, benevolent, logical leader would do... how would Greer react to that? <p>If Samaritan decides that humanity is 'Irrelevant', for instance... as The Machine 'cares', and Samaritan doesn't... or as Root so eloquently put, the difference between The Machine and Samaritan is that The Machine has Finch. </p> </i></div>
Greer never thought of Samaritan as a benevolent overlord: right in Deus Ex Machina, halfway through the data assimilation, Samaritan had over 3000 targets to eliminate and Millions of Deviants identified in the States alone. <p>Plus, i think Samaritan is more powerful. It has unlimited resources, it's backed by an internacional, faceless, multibillion dolar organization, has hundreds of human agents working for it, and the reason it failed when Arthur Claypool created it was because fast enough hardware didn't exist at the time. And last but not least, the Machine's care for human life doesn't let it take the necessary actions to protect itself or to kill competition, unlike Samaritan.
</p> </div> <p>With Samaritan so powerful, what will it take to take it down? </p><p>And what is the status of Samaritan's 'request' to Greer to 'Find The Machine'? </p><p>Holding my breath... </p>

<p>We all are... </p><p>I'm hoping the missile Mr. Egret stole will be put to good use. </p><p>And the Machine figured out how to fool Samaritan once so, who knows... </p>

<p>The Machine did try and prevent Samaratain from comming on-line. It gave the crew the senators number to take him out, but Finch did not want to. and subsequently left the team for a while. </p>

<div class="quote"><i>Quote:
The Machine did try and prevent Samaratain from comming on-line. It gave the crew the senators number to take him out, but Finch did not want to. and subsequently left the team for a while.</i></div>
<p>The Machine never told them it was a number to kill. That would have been a choice left to the team, as Finch always intended for the Machine to work, preserving our free will. With time they would have figured out another way. </p><p>But I got really scared when The Machine admited to Samaritan that it can't win the battle. I hope it was bluff... </p>

<p>I agree that the Machine did not tell them to kill Congressman McCourt. I really wish Finch would stop thinking that's what happened. Of course, I suppose Finch's experience with the 42 other malevolent AI's made him very suspicious, but still, the Machine did not ask them to kill McCourt any more than it asked them to kill ANY perpetrator they've encountered. The Machine continues to abide by its original mission: to identify threats, not dictate how those threats should be handled.  </p><p>The other question in this thread about whether Samaritan is more powerful is something I've thought about occasionally. I think it depends on what "powerful" means. To me, the fact that Samaritan requires faster hardware than the Machine does not necessarily mean it is superior. In fact, it could mean the opposite. Finch's software could be coded more efficiently, allowing it to run on less capable hardware. Samaritan, however, might be far less efficient and require far more computing power to do the same tasks. On the other hand, Samaritan apparently has supercomputing facilities spread around the world. It has so much more computing resources at its disposal that it must have more raw computing power than the Machine. Unless, of course, the Machine managed to order upgraded hardware for itself.  </p><p>But raw computing power may not be the only important factor either. The Machine has the advantage of several years of experience, compared to Samaritan. I'm not sure how that affects the balance of power.  </p><p>If you judge power by influence, Samaritan has unbelievably more power. Hundreds of agents, intelligent young programmers, gullible politicians... The Machine hasn't attempted to match that because it wasn't built to seek more influence for itself.  </p>

<p>nice works guys! </p>

<p>asset#2054: throughout man's history,there have been examples of much smaller forces defeating obviously larger/superior ones by the use of cunning/deception/strategy... I believe the Machine is setting Samaritan up for a fall... crashing the Stock Market(etc) will bring unwanted/unforeseen attention to the Machine's young/brash adversary's plans/intentions... </p>

<p>I wonder what became of Finch's 'talk' with The Machine (reference: Prophets)... </p>

<p>For those wondering where our Machine might be, and perhaps thinking it is in the wind to be discovered, consider that we already have a very subtle hint: Where are you! </p><p>As for how I think Samaritan will be defeated, I'll just say I love a bit of irony. Now isn't that ironic? </p>

<div class="quote"><i>CsPPP wrote:
For those wondering where our Machine might be, and perhaps thinking it is in the wind to be discovered, consider that we already have a very subtle hint: Where are you! <p>As for how I think Samaritan will be defeated, I'll just say I love a bit of irony. Now isn't that ironic? </p> </i></div>
<p>CsPPP, my mind is blown! </p><p>Nice theories!   </p><p>I have an addition: Since Decima has used a virus against The Machine, and if Finch were to deal with it in a similar way, it would have to be in a manner of something so fiendishly clever, that Samaritan's minders won't see it coming before it is too late!  </p>