elleldee Wrote:The phrase "or, the big red cylinder that he now looks like?" was as in, I'm not sure whether others consider the control chair inside the cylinder or the large cylinder itself to be the program.

I always assumed the MCP was actually the 'little man behind the curtain.' The beam and the massive face is just a projection of its power.

I also got the feeling that at some point in development, the MCP actually was a tower guardian, which is why its still able to communicate with Dillinger after all the other towers were shut down. The MCP has its own personal I/O beam (the cylinder) which it constantly sits inside of, the same way that Tron did to communicate with Alan.