Imagine yourself in a world where software processes determine every aspect of your existence — what you think, where you go, whether you live or die. Imagine that each program in this computer world is the alter ego of some human programmer in another dimension. Imagine a world in which video games are live battles, where file manipulation is behavior control — where simulation is reality.
Some might argue that we are already approaching such a world. Computers are taking more and more functions away from human operators in the factory, in the marketplace and on the battlefield. It's becoming hard to tell where human supervision ceases and where computer control begins. But there's still room to fantasize about what really goes on inside the processor-minds of our computer colleagues. Can they outthink us? Do they ever wonder about us?
Walt Disney Productions, Burbank, CA, will give summer movie audiences the chance to ponder these questions when a futuristic adventure film, Tron, is released next month. Tron portrays computers in two domains: in a large communications company in the real world and in a micro-civilization existing within the electronic circuitry of a computer.
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