Hollywood and Computers

[ziloo]

Now that we are done with the global warming issue, I like to ask
our VC comrades to present their own theory about something we have
all seen in every other Hollywood movie that has a computer and a
computer nerd in it.

The good guy is sitting behind the computer (notebook, laptop,
desktop doesn't matter) and the bad guy has either put a virus on
the computer or sends some kind of a nasty command through the net,
and all of a sudden something zapppps inside the computer and then
you see huge bluish electric sparks jumping out of the computer and
electrocuting everybody and everything in the vicinity. How many
thousands of volts do you need to make a spark that long that even
makes Tesla's hair stand on his skull? And then the computer just
blows up into pieces!!!

There are just so many dumb cliche scenes about computers (and
pseudo-science in general) on the silver screen.....

[dongfeng]

It's always so amusing to watch Hollywood's computer destruction as it is always so visual! I guess a blue screen isn't so exciting :)

[atari2600a]

Lets not forget, today's powerful mainframes can also understand casual Enlish, & the really powerful mainframes simulate the sound of a dot-matrix printer! :p

Plus, an LCD screen is so bright that it can project the image right onto your face!

[DimensionDude]

My favorite is the "noisy" monitors. You know the kind, every time a character appears on the screen it makes a sound like a teletype.

Hmm...the only example I can think of offhand is "Max Headroom." Showing my age, eh?

Kent

[bbcmicro]

I always wondered what was up with that, typing would drive you potty.

Another thing, when a computer starts up, it goes bweeEEE, and when it shuts down, it goes BWOoooo.

And there are always completely useless lights all over everything. And pretty graphs on the display that illustrate nothing, NOTHING!

[ziloo]

My favorite is the "noisy" monitors
One early notable example was the movie "Alien" where the monitor
makes a very loud teletype sound :lol:.

And there are always completely useless lights all over everything

In the same Alien movie you see the Mother computer as a white
room with blinking lights all over the walls :idea: :idea: :idea:!

And pretty graphs on the display that illustrate nothing,...

I like this scene in the movie where one of the crew (Ripley) is
looking at the monitor and there is row after row of 1's and 0's
scrolling down at fast pace, and she is analyzing the output :wow:.

By the way "Alien" is one of my all time favorites. If you haven't
seen it for a while, check it out.

Does anybody remember those sci-fi movies of the sixties with
gigantic mainframes in the background and their magnetic storage
reels that were continuously rotating forward and backward and sometimes out of sync :biggrin:!

[dongfeng]

How about the movie "Hackers"? Everyone knows that your data is kept in a hugely visual 3D "city" :D

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9821/data20bt.jpg

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/9316/fichiercorbeille2ia.jpg

[bbcmicro]

Oh, and we always have a spinning wireframe animation of the main article of the film!

[Terry Yager]

I think audiences just enjoy seeing things blow up, mit spitzensparken, etc. Has anyone ever seen a car crash in a movie where the car doesn't explode inna huge fireball? How often does that happen in real life (not counting '76 Pintos & vintage Chevy pick-ups)?

--T

[bbcmicro]

Films also bend logic when it comes to violence.
not meaning to be macabre here, but a well aimed puch could kill someone. However, if hollywood were to be believed, we could get hit multiple times in the face, stomach, legs, arms, and assaulted with pipes, bars, etc. etc. for the length of an entire fight scene, only to walk away after defeating a myriad of foes.You wouldn't even crawl away. I don't really agree with this, because in this instance it is dangerous. It gives people the idea that humans are pretty hard to kill, when they're not. Just as well this is in the rants forum!

[USSEnterprise]

http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~mbanda/hal/hal.jpg

[ziloo]

Alright Enterprise, so you are saying that you don't believe in AI ever
getting there. I followed AI for a while, but I realized that Artificial
Intelligence is just too Artificial !

[USSEnterprise]

Alright Enterprise, so you are saying that you don't believe in AI ever
getting there. I followed AI for a while, but I realized that Artificial
Intelligence is just too Artificial !

No, I believe it will eventually happen, provided all AI devices are bound by the three laws. I don't think AI will ever maliciously kill someone, unless something goes very wrong.

[Terry Yager]

Oh yeah, and how 'bout when somebody gets shot, and they go flying thru the air for 10 or 12 feet? I mean, I've never shot a man, or even seen someone shot, but I have dropped large game with both shotgun and HP rifle, and they never fly thru the air...

--T

[atari2600a]

No, I believe it will eventually happen, provided all AI devices are bound by the three laws. I don't think AI will ever maliciously kill someone, unless something goes very wrong.

...Until they evolve & destroy all humans!

[USSEnterprise]

...Until they evolve & destroy all humans!

I'm serious. If there ever are intelligent robots/computers, they should be bound by Asimov's three laws.

[bbcmicro]

What if they become intelligent enough to develop Asimov's zeroth law? Long term, I suppose its a plus, however, if you were an evil genius your robot may pop you clogs!

[Terry Yager]

The zero law haz it's problems too. An AI system could conclude that sacrificing 600.000,000 humanz (200,000,000 Americanz, and an equal number of Chineze & Russianz) to nuclear warfare could save the other 5-billion people on the planet...

--T

[Terry Yager]

Alright Enterprise, so you are saying that you don't believe in AI ever
getting there. I followed AI for a while, but I realized that Artificial
Intelligence is just too Artificial !

...and not very intelligent either,


If I hadda write daLawz the first would be sum'n like: 'Artificial Intelligence shall never excede the intelligence of it's creator'.'

--T

[Mad-Mike]

Only i a movie/tv show/music video/yougetthepoint....yes, I know some of these have not happened, but you get the point.

- can an IBM PC 5150 display Alf in high resolution true color with smooth scrolling and digitized sound on a 12" MONOCHROME screen with low Dot-Pitch.
(see this youtube link for this) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqiiYA7tYAk.

- can the mainframe talk to people, and has a need for 32 pointless LED lights.

- popular fast food restaraunts have computers in them to look up internet sites

- a computer can take on the form of a 12-16 year old girl and bake cookies and rip the door handle off an 80's Ford Taurus with ease.

- does an Atari 2600 look like a Super Nintendo, sound like a Colecovision, and has a Jak's Pacific Arcade joystick and a Sega Genesis gamepad for controllers, and has the capability of having Mario make a cameo appearance in the game via the soundtrack.

- a rich preppy kid owns a basic model IBM PC Jr., yet we never seem him actually USE it for something.

- someone's home computer gets a personality from having wine spilled on the keyboard, just to fall in love with the cello player downstairs.

- does a governement owned computer not have 3 gazillion security interlocks and protection features, sounds like it was named by Burger King, and is being hacked by a teenager with an 8-bit hobbyist computer that probably cost more than his parents could afford to build anyway.

- does an E-mail program use size 48pt font, an arrow as big as the mouse moving it, and has the ability to take your picture from the monitor.

- a computer dances and sings a song about becoming obsolete to a toaster, a microwave oven, a vaccum cleaner, a dishwasher, a lamp, a radio, and a television that displays in brown and white.

- one person can make an entire neighborhood go black just by plugging in their parallel cable backward.

- does this mean anything? "I recentrilized the neutral-wave software port to the desktop redirector, and then it crashed, so I hit CTRL+SPACEBAR+DEL, CTRL+F, and then it rebooted the network distiller to allow me access to the internet and the corporate intranet via the ultra neuberwave generator"

The misconceptions hollywood has about computers, and apparently still has, shocks me to no end.

[Terry Yager]

Ultra nuberwave generator? ROFL! Soundz kinda like the ol' 'Nth Complexity Infinite Binary Loop'...(Just what is the Nth degree of infinity anywayz?).

--T

[Terry Yager]

And, of course, a 12-year-old can re-task a gov't killer satelite using only a standard, unexpanded GameBoy!

--T

[Mad-Mike]

And then of course there's Ghostbusters II, with a bunch of "Paranormal Specialists" manning the Statue of Liberty with a huge coat of Pepto Bismol and a NES Advantage joyrstick.

[USSEnterprise]

Lets not forget Terminator II, where a kid is able to hack an ATM machine with an Atari Portfolio.

[bbcmicro]

The topic of artificial intelligence used to worry me. However, I need only remember one thing to help ease my worries about future robot domination.

Eliza.

Don't you feel so much better? ;)

[ziloo]

Thank you BBC. I did n't know about Eliza, the cybershrink. After
five minutes of exchanging prose..., my goodness...I am cured :biggrin:!

[bbcmicro]

I discovered something about eliza. If you copy exactly her last reply, she becomes very confused!

[sbrown]

This, as i have had the bad luck to find out, applies to some humans as well.

Reminds me of the Barnum (?) quote about fooling people.

[ziloo]

Very recently, I watched the movie "Red Planet". If anybody has not
seen the movie, it is the story of visitors from earth that their
expedition ship crashes on Mars, and ... . I just couldn't figure out
what happened to AMEE the dog/robot of the spaceship that, upon setting
foot on mars, simply freeked out and started developing a taste for human's
internal organs. Maybe the crash landing had seriously damaged its
hard drive, or solar flares had corrupted its eproms, or it was simply
looking for alternative food supply to recharge its batteries. Can you
imagine spending millions of dollars developing AI programs for a dog robot,
and the first thing that it does is to bite you in your assets!? I was
amazed at those martial-art moves AMEE was doing (NASA has established
that all robotic automatons must have Kung-Fu proficiency in defence and
offence).

But it is scary that we are all sitting here thinking that the two Mars rovers,
Spirit and Opportunity, are just obeying orders and continue on their
marathon search of the silent planet, while by now, they might have both
been turned into merciless murderers developing sophisticated algorithms
on how to deal with future visitors from earth! Aren't you a bit
suspicious that two robots, that were expected to last only 3 months,
have been fooling around the planet for more than two years.....oh my!!

:biggrin: