<story><title>Mr. Robot Killed the Hollywood Hacker</title><url>https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603045/mr-robot-killed-the-hollywood-hacker/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>craigyk</author><text>No, humans as batteries was a stupid plot device.  Still a neat movie, but instantly disqualified as a classic because of that unforced error.</text></item><item><author>darkarmani</author><text>&amp;gt; This started before Mr. Robot. Think Tron: Legacy.&lt;p&gt;Think The Matrix: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=0PxTAn4g20U&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=0PxTAn4g20U&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Using nmap to find a vulnerable ssh server for the SSH CRC32 attack.</text></item><item><author>bitwize</author><text>Hackers killed the Hollywood hacker. (Hackers as in people, not &lt;i&gt;Hackers&lt;/i&gt; the film.) Dominic Sena, in his director&amp;#x27;s commentary for &lt;i&gt;Swordfish&lt;/i&gt;, stated that the people who were likely to complain about the inaccuracy of the hacking shown in his movie were nerds who ultimately didn&amp;#x27;t matter. In this era where the internet response can make or break a film or TV show, the nerds &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt; matter and directors go the extra mile to please them. This started before &lt;i&gt;Mr. Robot&lt;/i&gt;. Think &lt;i&gt;Tron: Legacy&lt;/i&gt;.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>colordrops</author><text>It actually wasn&amp;#x27;t stupid.  As implied in the sequels, the &amp;quot;real world&amp;quot; either worked differently than our world, or was another level in the simulation itself, since Neo was able to stop the machines using some sort of magic ability.  So perhaps humans contained some special force or other essence that the machines harvested.&lt;p&gt;Even without that, batteries are a store of energy, not a source, and perhaps the machines had discovered some unknown laws of nature that involved intelligent biological creatures being the only way to store or transform some sort of energy currently unknown to man.  That is no more or less far fetched than the machines and ships using some sort of antigravity capabilities to fly.&lt;p&gt;There are plenty of ways to explain the technology in the matrix that isn&amp;#x27;t completely ridiculous.</text></comment>
<story><title>Mr. Robot Killed the Hollywood Hacker</title><url>https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603045/mr-robot-killed-the-hollywood-hacker/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>craigyk</author><text>No, humans as batteries was a stupid plot device.  Still a neat movie, but instantly disqualified as a classic because of that unforced error.</text></item><item><author>darkarmani</author><text>&amp;gt; This started before Mr. Robot. Think Tron: Legacy.&lt;p&gt;Think The Matrix: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=0PxTAn4g20U&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=0PxTAn4g20U&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Using nmap to find a vulnerable ssh server for the SSH CRC32 attack.</text></item><item><author>bitwize</author><text>Hackers killed the Hollywood hacker. (Hackers as in people, not &lt;i&gt;Hackers&lt;/i&gt; the film.) Dominic Sena, in his director&amp;#x27;s commentary for &lt;i&gt;Swordfish&lt;/i&gt;, stated that the people who were likely to complain about the inaccuracy of the hacking shown in his movie were nerds who ultimately didn&amp;#x27;t matter. In this era where the internet response can make or break a film or TV show, the nerds &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt; matter and directors go the extra mile to please them. This started before &lt;i&gt;Mr. Robot&lt;/i&gt;. Think &lt;i&gt;Tron: Legacy&lt;/i&gt;.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>3pt14159</author><text>The original script was that human minds were the most heat efficient computers, which is why they needed to be wired into the matrix in the first place, because just running humans as headless heat zombies should have been possible; but cloud computing human minds would need to have some sort of experience to be corporeal.&lt;p&gt;Apparently this concept was far too difficult for test audiences to understand so it was scrapped.</text></comment>