When we see an act of programming, screeds of code or other interactions with computers in movies, software engineers are likely to roll their eyes.
- When Chappie's coder has to write 'terabytes of code'
- When Ford's computer guy has to 'write a special program' to crack a password in one of the Jack Ryan movies
- etc.
I rolled my eyes at these.
But I also realize that these interactions are just symbols. They are place holders for 'someone doing some coding'. If we actually saw someone doing some coding, I think we'd roll our eyes for another reason.
This model probably works for any exposure of any technical area in a movie from coding to cooking to sailing to farming. Rather than criticizing the creators of the movie for lack of research, it is so much easier to recognize these moments as symbolic fillers with a dramatic twist.
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