"Colossus" may have been the first in sci-fi to follow the theme of an ultra-powerful computer taking over the Earth. It was released to television as "The Forbin Project" or something equally Wonder Bread.
Many of these stories have been told now and "War Games" was the ultimate Clever Solution as of course one defeats an ultra-powerful computer by playing Tic Tac Toe with it. The premise isn't such bad sci-fi insofar as what else would kill a powerful computer than a problem which is impossible to solve. The execution in the movie was a wee bit less credible, tho.
"Colossus" was long before "War Games" and that machine was even more powerful as Colossus controlled all the military weapons and activity but also controlled and had access to everything else. Eventually the cleverness of man defeats the machine but then comes the punchline: the Russians have a Colossus as well.
Right now the gigantic NSA data center in Bluffdale, Utah, claims the right to harvest every piece of information in the world it possibly can. The rationale is that Some Terrible Thing will happen if they don't. The only Terrible Things we've seen have come from the people who run the computer so the rationale won't hold for much longer.
And that's when they unveil the Big Secret: the Russians have their own Bluffdale. Then the Big Spenders can use the tried-and-not-at-all-true approach of Bluffdale is necessary because otherwise the Russians will do it.
There's little chance of eliminating Bluffdale anyway but it will be impossible then. The only hope for real freedom anywhere is to burn the Bluffdale data center to the ground while there's still time to stop it from going any farther.
The best protection from Colossus remains unchanged: lose the cellphone, get off the Internet, and go cash only for everything. That makes you almost invisible. Don't forget the RayBans before you drop out. There's only one way to change a bad law: resist it.
Many of these stories have been told now and "War Games" was the ultimate Clever Solution as of course one defeats an ultra-powerful computer by playing Tic Tac Toe with it. The premise isn't such bad sci-fi insofar as what else would kill a powerful computer than a problem which is impossible to solve. The execution in the movie was a wee bit less credible, tho.
"Colossus" was long before "War Games" and that machine was even more powerful as Colossus controlled all the military weapons and activity but also controlled and had access to everything else. Eventually the cleverness of man defeats the machine but then comes the punchline: the Russians have a Colossus as well.
Right now the gigantic NSA data center in Bluffdale, Utah, claims the right to harvest every piece of information in the world it possibly can. The rationale is that Some Terrible Thing will happen if they don't. The only Terrible Things we've seen have come from the people who run the computer so the rationale won't hold for much longer.
And that's when they unveil the Big Secret: the Russians have their own Bluffdale. Then the Big Spenders can use the tried-and-not-at-all-true approach of Bluffdale is necessary because otherwise the Russians will do it.
There's little chance of eliminating Bluffdale anyway but it will be impossible then. The only hope for real freedom anywhere is to burn the Bluffdale data center to the ground while there's still time to stop it from going any farther.
The best protection from Colossus remains unchanged: lose the cellphone, get off the Internet, and go cash only for everything. That makes you almost invisible. Don't forget the RayBans before you drop out. There's only one way to change a bad law: resist it.
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