X-Files: FPS

Watching the X-Files episode "First Person Shooter", I learned a number of things:
1. Computers do not have plugs. When a program is out of control, you can't just unplug the computer, you have to find the secret code that shuts it down. Even hitting it with a hammer won't work, you have to find the code.
2. Programmers in TV shows take Linus Thorvalds' quip "Real men don't make backups" far too seriously. When they finally learn the code (Alt-Shift-Bloodbath), it erases the entire game program and it is lost for ever.
3. Computer game skills translate flawlessly into real life skills. Darryl Musashi handles a pair of machine pistols just as well as a game controller.
4. The best way to win a FPS game is to stand still and shoot straight in front of you.

Compared to all that, the idea of a created game character evolving a mind of her own, hopping into another program and using it to kill people in real life sounds almost believable.

Update: I've just found out that this episode was written by William Gibson.

That Well-Lost Potential

I once said in class (during a discussion of American Beauty) that the reason I wasn't having a mid-life crisis was that I was still having problems coming to terms with puberty. Nevertheless, I am now at the age when you start to worry that you haven't achieved anything in your life. True, I've done a little bit of a lot of things, but although I've been described in one online publication as a "renaissance man", there are few job offerings for renaissance men. I suspect it wasn't that good for them even in the renaissance: Leonardo was always losing money because he couldn't stay on task and finish commissions on time. On the other hand, when I look back nostalgically at that time in my youth when life seemed full of unlimited potential, I should consider what would have happened if I had actually realised some of that potential. If you make your mark on the world when you are young, the world will make its mark on you; it is possible to reinvent yourself at any time in life, but it's very difficult if you are labouring under the weight of your own success. Think of Lemmy. If he had retrained as an opera singer, I bet that on his opening night at La Scala, someone in the audience would still shout out "THE ACE OF SPAAAADES!"