Emergence 1.7: Piper's Real Mom

A fast-moving episode 1.7 of Emergence earlier this week.  I hope the rest of the season continues at this pace.

We learn a lot.  Emily is Kindred's daughter.  She created Piper - or, rather, got Wilkis to create her - to satisfy Emily's need to have someone who really loved her.  But, for reasons we still don't completely know or understand, the AI that is Piper wound up with a mind of her own.

But it's a mind vulnerable to what we would otherwise call hacking.  Emily can hack into her "daughter's" mind and get Piper to see and do all kinds of things.  But one thing Emily didn't count on is the feeling Piper has developed for Jo and her family.

And in episode 1.7, those feelings prevail.   And, whatever exactly Piper now is, she's now likely to stay at least somewhat free of the hacks.  Jo shoots out the master computer which contains and directs or whatever the code that is inside Piper.  Which means, if I understand that correctly, that no one can now put ideas into Piper's head.  She is what she now is.

But this doesn't mean she will stay that way.  Because, although she may be free now of outside interference, she's still evolving or ... emerging.  So now the title of this series becomes more clear.  It's about an AI in the body of a girl which is evolving into who knows exactly what.  Whether this was intended by Emily and Wilkis is not clear.  Perhaps her emergence was intended, perhaps it's an expression of the programming gone wrong.

A good puzzle, all in all, and more than enough to keep me watching.

See also: Emergence: May Just Make It ... Emergence 1.2: Cleaning Up ... Emergence 1.3: Robots and Androids ... Emergence 1.4: Android Child ... Emergence 1.5: Supergirl ... Emergence 1.6: The People Who Are Kindred





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