The Machine

The Machine's History

The Machine is a computer system built and designed by Harold Finch and Nathan Ingram for a secret operation within the United States government known as "Northern Lights".

As an artificial super intelligence, its objective is to predict and prevent imminent terrorist attacks and does so by analyzing immense amounts of surveillance data. The Machine analyzes feeds from domestic organizations such as the National Security Agency, as well as foreign entities like Interpol to predict terrorist attacks and modify intelligence reports to include "relevant" data that will allow the government to prevent terrorist activity. Combined with data collected from various other sources, such as video footage, phone calls (landline, VOIP, mobile), GPS, electronic transactions, e-mails and other social media, it is able to accurately predict violent acts without anyone knowing about its existence.