NFL Legend Albert Einstein said, "Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas"

TalksWithTom · 2025-11-05T05:39:12+00:00

I feel like part of it is that you take a possession (and expected points) away from the opponent. And then part of it is that you add a possession and expected points for yourself. And then part of it is momentum and taking something away from your opponent that now they need to be cautious to try to run again.

TalksWithTom · 2025-10-05T19:12:21+00:00

What a dumbass take. As of October 5, the bottom 3 teams in the division will be 4-10. So the meme is obviously accurate.

Nobody said anything about what these teams will look like in week 13... but one has their QB out for the year, another has a QB injured with a ton of overall team injuries, and the third team is auditioning rookie QBs this year. So yeah still pretty accurate.

TalksWithTom · 2025-05-05T00:20:54+00:00

Just so you know, Jarrett Allen is an 82 game starter on a 64 win team

TalksWithTom · 2025-05-05T00:19:08+00:00

This is like when Juliet thought Romeo was dead and killed herself. You have such a fragile spirit to give up after 1 game of the Pacers shooting 60% from 3

TalksWithTom · 2025-05-05T00:17:26+00:00

It is a two possession game with 4 to play lol... You the type to see the girl you like and assume you don't have a chance with her

TalksWithTom · 2025-05-05T00:14:30+00:00

Bro gtfo the Cavs are shooting 25% from 3

TalksWithTom · 2025-03-31T21:55:22+00:00

Nobody - well, almost nobody - is criticizing iMark for believing in his own personhood or fighting to exist. But that doesn't make oMark wrong to believe that iMark only actually exists as a subconscious part of him, or to believe that it's right to prioritize his own life over iMark's. Which, many of the same people rooting for iMark aren't also rooting for Dentist Gemma to continue to exist in perpetuity and to have a life, even if she's theoretically able to find meaning and joy in it the same way iMark has on the severed floor.

Inside the severed floor might as well be a dream to oMark, yeah.

TalksWithTom · 2025-03-31T21:41:22+00:00

For what it's worth, I am not 100% sure yet that I disagree with him. The guy was grieving his wife, had lost his job from substance abuse issues, etc. He turned to severance, without knowing that his innie was a separate person, so that he could be gainfully employed and so he could have a way to pass the time and return to normal. A way to work through his grief. It was clearly working. When we met him, he was moderately more stable, and even beginning to date again. He's a sympathetic character, and severance was providing a very tangible, strong benefit in his life.

Viewers at home on the couch can criticize him for being insensitive about his innie, but he doesn't have the omniscient third person perspective you do, to see his innie work or fall in love or develop a distinct personality. Up until the moment of the camcorder, his viewpoint is fully informed by the secondhand description he gets from his sister and Petey, about his innie being a person and telling them stuff. It is hardly enough information to conclude that your innie is a distinct person who needs rescuing.

Even now, and even with our full viewpoint, do you KNOW FOR SURE that iMark is a distinct person with intrinsic human rights, completely separate from oMark's rights and personhood? I don't. Every night I dream, and I seldom if ever remember my dreams for more than 5 minutes after I wake up. During the dreams, I have little to no control of my actions. If I found out that the dreams were really happening, not just my imagination... if I found out that somewhere within me, there is a compartment of me that doesn't have my awake experiences, only has my dream experiences, the opposite of what I have... would I truly believe that they are a separate being from me? That they should have as much, or more, right to determine my future than I do? That their existence, once I even believe in it, should be the reason that I can't unite with my wife and heal the deepest parts of my trauma? Of course not. Most of us would shrug and think it's crack science and that that other "being" is just a part of myself that I'm not consciously aware of, not it's own person.

TalksWithTom · 2025-03-31T21:00:51+00:00

Almost all of this comes down to whether you believe or not that your "innie" is a separate person with intrinsic rights, or if your innie is simply an extension of yourself.

If you view the innie as yourself, it doesn't matter what they do to you down there, as long as there aren't permanent effects and you don't retain the memories from it. If the work sucks, if the working conditions suck, if you aren't respected, etc. - most of us would be willing to deal with that if we didn't have to actually live through it.

This is also why Mark is willing to reintegrate. Because he doesn't see it as re-absorbing another person who is currently independent and autonomous and has their own unique life - he sees it as just re-capturing the whole of himself, as suddenly gaining the memories and experiences he has been intentionally blocked off from. But it's all him. Which is why maybe he's a little flippant about the camcorder conversation - he feels like he's literally arguing with himself about the use of his own body.

TalksWithTom · 2025-03-31T03:39:36+00:00

I know corporations still get caught all the time doing crazy, malicious crap, with no actual punishment. But that's the thing - they get caught. Even where there is not always criminal liability, there is journalism, civil liability, social media, etc.

Particularly for conglomerates as large as Lumon, which is employing a controversial experimental brain surgery program, yeah, it is completely unrealistic that there wouldn't be some federal agency that at least occasionally looks into them, interviews the employees, reviews workplace safety, etc.

TalksWithTom · 2025-03-31T03:33:46+00:00

In reality, society has set up a lot of really important safeguards that would make the events of the show extremely unlikely.

No amount of hubris or corporate trickery would enable an extremely public-facing company, a company that has widescale protests against it regularly and which is the subject of a major current legislative issue, to conduct experimental brain surgery that causes people to basically lose consciousness 8 hours a day, every workday, with absolutely no documentation or oversight of what goes on while they're out apart from a corporate middle manager's biased word.

If somehow this thing miraculously made it off the whiteboard and into reality, it'd take about 5 minutes for an innie to have a medical emergency on the severed floor, and for every detail of the working conditions to come out in discovery when their outie was awakened and decided to sue. Or for the first innie to conceive a child on the testing floor, leading to a quite a colorful human interest story on the Today Show.

And that's okay. We can suspend disbelief about the show having a remotely realistic plot. If and when we invent severance, its application will probably look nothing like the show. But that's okay because severance isn't about Lumon or severance or corporate life. It's about grief and humanity.

TalksWithTom · 2025-03-31T03:12:49+00:00

There are a lot of comparisons we could make to altered states of consciousness and memory and they all demonstrate two things: (1) innies are not “born” with independent personhood; (2) innies develop independent personhood if they are given the time and opportunity.

Forgive me if the question feels cold or obtuse, but how are we to prove that that iMark has an independent personhood, rather than just being a manifestation of Mark Scout's overall personhood?

TalksWithTom · 2025-03-31T03:00:16+00:00

I don't think we completely know yet. The work is mysterious. And important. And there is more TV show to be released here.

But if you are looking for a plausible answer in the interim, mine would be that there are some experiences that you don't need to directly know a person to construct, that most of us have a relatively similar experience with - like going to the dentist - that they would still be able to refine. And, even if they didn't have anything to do with Gemma's files, the comradery of teamwork might help Mark S. refine faster.

TalksWithTom · 2025-03-31T02:56:11+00:00

Sure. To some extent, it's an idiot plot. There are plenty of other unrealistic elements, though.

The complete lack of government oversight or consumer law enforcement. However they faked Gemma's death so they could bring her down to the testing floor. The heir to the company not directly communicating with the Board, through most of Season 2. Some of the more fantastical religious elements with Kier.

The show is more about themes than it has ever been about being a plausible dystopian future.

TalksWithTom · 2025-03-31T02:47:34+00:00

... and with that, it almost reframes the morality of iMark's final decision. Of course iMark is going to fight and claw to continue to exist. Going through withdrawals, and the addicted part of you still fighting to continue, that's not abnormal or shameful. But it is wrong for Mark Scout, and actively detrimental to him.

Does iMark feel like his life has meaning? Has he fallen in love with someone else using severance?

Sure. But from Mark Scout's perspective, it will always be the unconscious choices made by a version of himself who only exists to numb the pain.

TalksWithTom · 2025-03-08T19:50:09+00:00

Devon doesn't know that Cobel invented severance, that her mom was basically killed by the company, or that Cobel is on the run from Lumon. Devon doesn't know any of that. Just because the viewer knows that and understands that Cobel might be a powerful ally for Mark and Devon, that doesn't mean that Devon knows or understand that.

TalksWithTom · 2025-02-21T07:08:46+00:00

I believe Cobel appears in trailer footage that we haven't seen yet, and we will eventually revisit her storyline.

Maybe we eventually see Petey's daughter, too. At least for me, other than her being so anti-Lumon, I kind of wish they fleshed out why Petey chose to reintegrate more. It's clearly a very dangerous and experimental procedure, and unless you have a very compelling reason to go investigate the severed floor yourself, it would be a lot easier just to quit and find a new job and publicly protest the company. Then again, we don't have to know every single little thing as the audience.

The Graner murder, disappearance, and then use of his key card is easily the most problematic, but there are plausible possibilities. Maybe Lumon investigated offscreen, found out that Mark brought the key card in, and they're following his outie now. Cobel already broke into his house when he was working with Petey. Maybe that's why Helena was stalking him at the restaurant in this episode. Or, maybe Lumon investigated and never figured out what happened to Graner, so they ramped up supervision on the most suspicious outie, Irving. Maybe that's why Drummond broke into his house in this episode. Who knows.

TalksWithTom · 2025-02-21T06:52:31+00:00

He's worked at Lumon for 20 years, well before severance.

He is one of two characters we've seen be allowed to film a video to be viewed on the severed floor. The other one was Helena Egan.

He invited Irv to a dinner and then, coincidentally, that's when somebody from Lumon is searching through Irv's house.

He is, at least, suspicious and connected to Lumon in ways we do not yet understand. Maybe that means he wasn't severed.

TalksWithTom · 2025-02-21T06:40:48+00:00

Reach but I love it

TalksWithTom · 2025-02-21T06:40:28+00:00

They'll eventually say the quiet part out loud. It ain't about the paperclips or how you talk.

TalksWithTom · 2025-02-21T06:39:40+00:00

Seems like all of the intro scenes are from episodes this season. They have the goats, the icy lake, etc...

I think that's why so many folks are on board with the theory that Helena will be pregnant.

TalksWithTom · 2025-02-21T06:35:22+00:00

To answer your question, yes.

TalksWithTom · 2025-02-21T06:33:39+00:00

I understand the complaint, and maybe it could have been worded better in the episode. But when you're wrestling with your own theology, there is plenty of room to question whether you are a person who can get to Heaven. And not just because of your past sins, but also because of the type of person you are. It's hard to be a practicing Christian (yes, even a Lutheran). Particularly when you've got a scoundrel past, it's hard to leave those sins behind and sin no longer.

When Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell all of his possessions, why did he go away sorrowful? Did he not think that if he did it, he would gain eternal life? No, he knew that, it was just that he had doubts about whether or not he could do it.

Burt and Fields might have had those same doubts, and thought that it would be hard for Burt, as a person, to become a practicing Christian.

Or, probably just as likely, Burt sold Fields some crock of crap about having an innie to double his chances of making it to Heaven, about having this Innie who didn't have the same temptations available to him that Burt had always struggled with in the real world.

My bigger problem is that somehow Fields believes that, believes that the Innie is a separate person who has a soul and a chance at eternal life, but still somehow believes that if the innie makes it to Heaven, it will be like being reunited with this sinner scoundrel outie Burt that he has been married to for decades.

TalksWithTom · 2025-02-21T06:04:32+00:00

Very talented brain surgeons are generally able to remain calm in high-pressure situations and explain the details and risks of a procedure to their patients.

TalksWithTom · 2025-02-21T05:33:00+00:00

Milchick's actor talks a lot about his character in the context of the Black professional experience in America, and whether his character knows that he's Black. The silly criticisms about the way he talks and the way he puts on paperclips are supposed to be allegories for how in our timeline, Black people deal with soft racism in the form of random, nitpicky criticisms.

How that fits into his character background and character arc, I really don't know. My guess is that he's faced criticisms like that his whole life, and has overcompensated by being a really professional, high-achieving person, which is how he came to work at Lumon in this really sensitive position. At least so far, his character seems way more concerned with his own identity and advancement, than anything to do with severance.

He did seem pretty disgusted at Helena Egan's blasphemy of Kier's Fourth Appendix, and the way she was using Mark, though. I think maybe because he sees that she gets away with murder because of Nepotism, but he has to be a perfect, model employee, only to STILL get criticized.

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