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The other factor is that the central plot element (not really a spoiler here) involves a system for finding prime factors of large numbers which, 20 years later
by luma 5y ago
The other factor is that the central plot element (not really a spoiler here) involves a system for finding prime factors of large numbers which, 20 years later, would still be ground-breaking technology and would almost certainly have several 3 letter agencies chasing after you.
- hammock 5y agoI mean there are plenty of time travel or space travel movies you could say the same thing about.
- RodgerTheGreat 5y agoGiven our current understanding of mathematics and physics, it is much more plausible that a mathematician (or small team) could achieve a breakthrough advance in prime factorization than that an inventor (or small team) could achieve time travel or an FTL drive. Plausibility is not essential in speculative fiction, but it improves the sense of being grounded, and tends to make ideas age better.
- basementcat 5y agoLeonard Adleman (the "A" in RSA) was a technical consultant for the film. https://molecularscience.usc.edu/sneakers/ https://molecularscience.usc.edu/sneakers/
- ecairns 5y agoI studied computer science at the University of Washington in the mid 90s. One of my professors there would tell a story about how Adleman was notorious for answering email days or weeks later, but one time he sent him an email asking a question about the movie and got a response five minutes later.
- tootie 5y agoThere's a decidedly cheesy B movie call The Travelling Salesman about a crew of computer scientists who prove P=NP and sit around a conference table trying to decide what to do with the proof. It's fairly accurate without ever actually trying to posit what the proof looks like. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1801123/ https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1801123/