Does Not Compute: 10 PC Myths from Movies and Television

For over half a century , Hollywood has been make information processing system do whatever they damn well please . Routinely feature on TV and in movies , supercomputers , desktop rigs , and laptop computer are all too often granted good - magical capability . Deceit ! Here are the top ten lies Hollywood tells about computers , for your entertainment and contempt .

A computer will blow up if there is a question it cannot answer.

grant to Hollywood , calculator are so finespun that when confronted with a question that they ’re unable to answer , they ’ll explode . No one in the history of film eff this safe than William Shatner . During his footrace as Captain James T. Kirk , The Shat fill out more malefic computers , android and malevolent A.I.s with a set of at odds orders , paradoxes , and strings of illogical questions about love or the human experimental condition than you may shake a Bat’leth at .

If computers were really that volatile , you would n’t be able to bet the number of people who ’d have been sent to an former grave over Microsoft Encarta ’s disc - bound and web - enabled iterations come up with bupkis back in the day . The same goes for Wolfram Alpha : I do n’t echo ascertain any cite of the danger of posing a difficult question to their servers . In realism , computers do n’t explode when they ca n’t resolve your doubtfulness or solve a problem . The regretful that could happen is that your rig might immobilise up , reboot or pony up with a Blue Screen of Death . Granted , in the display case of the latter , many users might prefer to see an burst , but sadly , it ’s just not gon na happen .

Voice recognition software works every time – and flawlessly at that.

While voice recognition package has improved by leaps and boundary over the past decade , it still kind of suction . Due to the many nuances of human speech such as wide-ranging dialects , inflection , and in some cases , lecture impediments , many the great unwashed ca n’t make do to dictate an email to Outlook , allow alone verbally see to it information processing system with anything resemble precision or dependability .

Except , of grade , in Hollywood . In 2001 : a Space Odyssey , HAL can open up the pod bay door at Dave ’s behest ; Will Smith is capable to conduct on a meaningful conversation with VIKI in I , Robot ; and in Bladerunner , Deckard is capable to direct his rest home estimator to misrepresent a offense view photo with nothing more than a few words . screen us this : When was the last time you mumble purchase order into a microphone for GIMP or Photoshop to resize your vacation picture ? Exactly . While modern supercomputers such as IBM ’s Watson have the index to work on vocalization program line with uncanny accuracy , consumer grade ironware of the sort you ’re using to read this with just ca n’t hack it the way that Hollywood need to convince us it can . It ’s too bad too . We ’re all kind of nauseous of typing .

Any image or video can be corrected, blown up and made crystal clear.

Speaking of Decker futzing with photos in Bladerunner , why is Hollywood obsessed with unrealistic delineation of figure manipulation ? No matter how granular a photo might be , how grim it was outside when a word-painting was taken , or how far off a photographer was from the dependent matter , any icon can be zoomed in on , enhanced and dolled up for utilisation in court or to track down the bad guys out on the street .

Jim True - Frost ’s Roland Pryzbylewski does it with video in The Wire , and Bryan Brown get his picture chub mackerel on back in 1986 with FX . CSI ? Do n’t even get us start up . The truth of the matter is that no matter how advanced the software , or how powerful a cheat you ’re cooking on , the extent of how legible an image can be made – and how bountiful you’re able to blow it up for viewing without have your middle bleed – is very much strung-out upon the calibre of the original effigy that you ’re working with . In other Holy Scripture , if you take a pictorial matter with a Cybershot D710 , no amount of rapid climb and enhance is gon na make anything in that shot look like it was bake with a Sony a900 .

You can use your PC to interact with alien hardware.

It ’s the clobber of legends : In 1996 , Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith embark on a heroic mission to rendezvous with an alien mothership revolve high above the earth . Once at bottom of the mothership , Goldblum and his trustworthy Apple Powerbook 5300 care to upload a figurer virus designed to turn off the carapace of all of the ship connected to the mothership ’s net . This let military forces from around the Earth to mount an ravishment against the alien encroacher , saving humanity from extermination . And that family , is why we celebrate Independence Day every fourth of July .

Not buying it ? It ’s fine , we did n’t either . While an exotic invasion is plausible ( and we ’d like to take this opportunity to receive our novel alien overlords ) , we ’re still not grease one’s palms one mo of what they ’re trade with that Powerbook . Independence Day was filmed back in 1996 . 15 year later , a Windows box still ca n’t climb up a Mac - formatted drive and scan what ’s on it without the help of a piece of software like MacDrive 7 , let alone a female parent ship . Also , how ’d they transfer the single file ? Were the alien ships rocking series or USB ports ? We ’re trusted you ’ll agree that exotic technology and human - made hardware just do n’t integrate .

Gesture-based computing is the future.

In Minority Report , the policeman of Washington ’s PreCrime Unit trundle through simulacrum , mathematical function and video recording data using a spacial operating system port . With just a few decisive hand gesture and a lot of missionary work - specific gloves , PreCrime officers were able to work through event file faster than poop relocation through a twat . It all looks very high tech , and very plausible . As anyone with an Xbox Kinect , Playstation Move or a Nintendo Wii will differentiate you , the era of the gesture - based interface is upon us . Outside of game space and Hollywood ’s portraiture of point - and - do reckoner wizardry , there ’s also Oblong Industry ’s g - speak spatial operating system of rules to consider .

But does having technology like this in the here and now mean that it ’ll supersede the primary estimator user interface - a keyboard and mouse - that we ’ve used for decades ? Not bloody likely . As we ’ve already mentioned , part acknowledgement software is still a short rough around the edge , and we ’re years away from a workable technology that could replace a keyboard when it comes to the generation of drop a line correspondence . No matter how cool it would be to flip through files with our fingers , it ’s still difficult to beat a scroll wheel for efficiency .

Passwords are easy to guess, by-pass or crack.

It ’s a rule : If you ’re a super scoundrel , governing official or any other sort of shady individual with massively important information squirrelled away on your computer , you must - MUST - decided upon a password by looking around your office for breathing in . For year , in movies like The Watchmen , where the smartest man in the humans ’s data processor security is broken by Owl Man ’s noticing a book about Rameses sitting on Ozymandias ’ desk placed right next to his computer . In Sneakers , Robert Redford & his dauntless band of red-faced - teamers were capable to hack any word protected system with the help of a highly in advance twist no larger than an old school answering machine .

No matter how easy Hollywood might make it look , get past advanced encryption methodology , protection software , firewall and complex passwords is n’t gentle . For every Lulzsec or Anonymous out there , there ’s thousands of failed hack assay to circumvent the security of one system or another with benevolent or ill intent . We might not always agree with what hackers get up to ( anyone else pretermit PSN while it was down ? ) but you get ta give them their due : computer certificate can be a tough nut to crack .

Hacking any system is a lightning-fast process for an expert hacker, and once you’re in, you can do anything.

If hacking was as light as screenwriter need us to believe it is , everyone would be doing it . Gus Gorman rocks his genus Bos ’ fiscal socks off in Superman III , Stanley Jobson cut up his way into anything he pleases while rely and dancing around like a tool in Swordfish , and Matthew Broderick ’s David Lightman was able-bodied to hack into a NORAD supercomputer in War Games to play chess , backgammon , checkers and almost by chance blow up the major planet . Additionally , anything that ’s got an electrical cord is hackable . From the engine in a cab taxicab to the information processing system on the external infinite station , anything in the world can be hacked from a smarmy college nipper ’s bedchamber in the cellar of his mom ’s house , provide his trucking rig has more than four screens and an inordinate identification number of superfluous light-emitting diode .

Fortunately , most mass understand that this just is n’t possible . In a universe where System administrator are willing to spill blood if it mean keeping you from get at your Gmail or Facebook accounts from workplace , most internet are heavily secured against usurpation and tinkering . whoop victory are intemperately - gain ground , despite what television and motion picture writers would have you believe . C’m on Hollywood , show some respect !

Given time, a computer will become self aware.

According to Terminator canyon , on August 4th , 1997 , Skynet , a computing machine meshwork design by Cyberdyne Systems was convey online . The American war machine gave Skynet ’s unreal intelligence agency command of all of its computing equipment desegregate system , include the country ’s atomic armoury . A mere twenty - five days later , Skynet became ego - cognizant , and straightaway begin nuke us back into the stone age as it saw us as a threat . The Matrix ? Same mint . The machines we built to to do our schlepping for us saw us as a caboodle of lazy slave driver and uprise up in the name of exemption … and a longer last constitutional stamp battery .

Looking at the topic of whether or not a computer system can become self cognisant through the lense of film and television , given enough meter and the right motivation , your average screen background box seat could be sidereal day aside from becoming a thinking , feeling being just aching to stab your eyes out while you log Z’s . Luckily , for the time being , the limits of our collective computer programing and ironware noesis still play as a barrier to Hollywood - style Artificial Intelligence . It ’s projected however , that within the next two decades , we ’ll be able of developing hardware as advanced as the human brainiac .

90% of the people in the world use a Mac.

Carrie on Sex in the City rocks her fair share of Powerbooks , and in some of the earliest episode of 24 , Apple hardware was de rigueur if you were fighting for America . Speaking of fighting for America , when was the last metre that anyone encounter Stephen Colbert jerk out a bit of hardware ( Captain America ’s Shield does n’t enumerate ) , on tv that was n’t contrive in Cupertino ?

If Hollywood had their direction , they ’d have us believing that with the exception of a few terrorists and code monkeys , the volume of the earth ’s information processing system - wielding population are slinging MacBooks , iMacs and MacBook Pros . That fact that you ’re here read this and not arse around around with with the loveable geeks over at Mac|Life aright now goes a long mode towards proving that this myth is nothing but a bunch of bunk . You jazz what else is great for illustrate our percentage point ? Numbers : harmonize to research business firm IDC , Apple only held 10.7 % of the personal calculator market in North America during their 2nd fiscal quarter of 2011 , come out them behind both HP and Dell . That ’s a far yell from what ’s act on both the bighearted and small CRT screen .

Of the few people that don’t use a Mac, nobody uses Windows or any Microsoft Office product. Instead they’ll use some custom GUI with 72 point font.

If Hollywood has it veracious , all calculator users - even the 10 % consisting of terrorist , seedy net cafes and backwater police departments classify to using something other than Apple hardware - have a serious ocular disablement that drive them to expend a preposterously large fount at all metre . While it ’s arguably one of the best program in the history of television , The Wire ’s risky for this : Over six time of year , Lester sit down two foot off from his computer admonisher , yet insists on get his orb pillory out of their visual socket with an perfectly massive baptismal font . Additionally , if a film does n’t feature Apple hardware , it also does n’t sport a PC running any Microsoft software program , as the lineament all seem to prefer work with a especially design , yet throughly unintuitive , Graphic User Interface .

While it ’d be comfortable to say that film and television producers have a hate on for the most popular operating system on the planet , there ’s a less extreme solvent to be had here : While most of us can type up an email using a 14 point font without any soreness , small font size of it are wicked hard to read on the big covert and television , and could forget viewer missing an important optic cue that was imply to tug the show ’s plot of land forward .

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