Module 11: Film Review Essay

During this week, I watched “War Games.”  The movie starts out with a computer replacing men to launch nuclear warfare to the Soviets.  David, a high school boy who hacks into his high school’s computer to change his grade in biology, uses a dialup internet connection to communicate with the computer.  He also tries to access a video game company through the internet, but cannot access the computer because he does not have the proper credentials. 

David researches a game list that he finds on the computer of the inaccessible computer.  During his search, he learns about the inventor of that specific computer and finds out that the computer is a learning computer.  Based on moves by the players, the computer can learn what moves are best and how to win.

David searches and ultimately finds the access word of the maker of the computer.  After thinking that he is accessing the computer from the video game company, he plays a thermonuclear war game.  In all actuality, David would really be accessing a military computer and would be simulating an attack from the Soviet Union to the United States. 

The military bring David into custody for questioning.  While in custody, David finds out that the computer is still playing the game and has a time limit to when the game will end.  David spends his time finding the maker of the computer, describing him what is happening, and assisting in dismantling the game so that the United States do  not send a false attack to the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, the military see an imposing attack on the United States from the Soviet Union.  At one point, the military scramble a couple F16 fighter jets to inquire about incoming missiles, but the F16 fighter pilots do not see any missile at all. 

At the end of the movie, the computer learns that nobody wins in the game of tic-tac-toe.  Then, the computer learns too that nobody wins when the thermonuclear war game is played.  Ultimately, the computer halts any missile attacks and the DEFCON status is changed from one to five. 

In this movie, the film makers develop this movie to make is very conceivable for man to believe; however, some things in the movie seem impossible.  One of the impossibilities is that the computer can learn.  Some websites can track you with cookies and see what you are purchasing or viewing.  These cookies assist the originating entity to learn about what you are viewing and what else you may be buying. Later, the entity uses the information to direct consumers to other products that they may be interested in, based on other consumer’s searches, purchases, and views. Computers do not conjure a learning behavior out of thin air and do not learn on their own; programmers exist and are behind all of the smart technologies we have today. 

In the movie, the military replace men by a computer and rely solely on it to monitor and to launch nuclear missiles.  Of course this is absurd.  To completely replace reason with logic can be detrimental without some means of failsafe or fallback.  The people went 100% into the new computer system and learned after a game was being played that reality was merely fictitious.  Relying 100% on a computer system is a mistake that many make.  We always have computer issues, whether it is the hard drive, software, other hardware, or other issues; we cannot solely rely on the system, we must have some type of back-up.

A cultural issue that could have happened in this movie is a world epidemic of nuclear attacks; thus, possibly destroying the world and humanity.  If a person did not die from the initial blasts and explosions, then they would most likely die from the radiation exposure.