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Anthropomorphize computer programs and invent a BS way of injecting a real human into a computer and Tron is what you get. It's complete nonsense! However, if

by beloch 4y ago

Anthropomorphize computer programs and invent a BS way of injecting a real human into a computer and Tron is what you get. It's complete nonsense! However, if you can suspend disbelief, Tron is a seminal film that has echoed through all of cinema for decades and is a helluva lot of fun to boot. It is the 80's in a single film. It oozes style and is a groundbreaking technical tour de force that must not be missed by any serious fan of movies. The sequel is an epic Daft Punk music video that far surpasses "Interstella 5555" and, for that reason alone, is required viewing unless you absolutely hate Daft Punk. There's a cartoon series, Tron: Uprising, that is excellent even though it was cancelled after one season. (It stars Elijah Wood, in case you needed another reason to check it out...) Tron may not be the most commercially successful movie franchise of all time, but each instalment of it has been a truly novel treat. It's may be style without much substance, but what style! I eagerly await my next dose!

laumars 4y ago
The cartoon series is arguably the strongest instalment in the franchise. It's got the strongest story line and the most depth to it. It's a great loss Disney cancelled it
nazka 4y ago
> Anthropomorphize computer programs and invent a BS way of injecting a real human into a computer and Tron is what you get. It's complete nonsense! It’s true but some tech innovations now do stuff we thought dumb and/or impossible like in Blade Runner and the “enhanced” tech meme. Fast track to today, it’s not the full thing but we thought that even being able to “enhance” a picture even once was stupid. Now you have ML model doing just that and some companies selling this tools to photographs and stuff. It’s crazy
- yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
  Although, due to the way ML does that image enhancing it wouldn't actually work for any of the things it's used for in the show (since we still can't create information out of nothing).
  - nazka 4y ago
    Ya it’s true now there are some chances to do some tiny tiny steps forward to that by studying the light in the picture that is bouncing. I remember finding a video where they will beam lights against a wall and be able to generate a (very dirty) picture a hidden playing card by seeing how the light bounce (colors, angles, etc…). Maybe in a future where camera with a 100 times better image quality will be standard. If I find it will post it. It’s like reverse engineering the light.
  - bojo 4y ago
    I just imagined a Spaceballs-esque scene where they shout "Enhance!" and the resulting image is one if those crazy AI generated pictures where everything morphs into some semblance of a cat-but-not-really.
  - WorldMaker 4y ago
    I think a better example of really cool "Bladerunner enhance" tech has a lot less to do with ML and more to do with some of the interesting RAW formats our cameras today are putting out. It's easier than ever for the cameras to capture multi-frames at once even for a "still" shot between advancements in multi-frame compression and expansions in general purpose storage space. It's really interesting to see what Pros with pro tools can do to things like adjust lighting or focus/bokeh in an editing app days/weeks/months after a photo was "taken". ML is often involved with the non-RAW formats to make some of those focus/lighting adjustments for us non-Pros, but watching what Pros can do to enhance photos that ML cannot if they get access to the RAWs before the MLs toss those files is sometimes incredibly impressive today.
  - LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_sensing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_sensing ? Also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_field_camera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_field_camera , imagine they were using that.
    - nazka 4y ago
      Ah I think that’s what I was trying to find!
- mensetmanusman 4y ago
  That is a pseudo-enhance, because you can’t fix the thermodynamic issue of not having enough information to actually enhance.
jakeledoux 4y ago
Absolutely agree. Tron is in such a weird place for me in that neither movies were particularly great or rank very high in my list of favorite films, yet they both have had a profound impact on me. I quote and reference them all the time and they continue to inspire me artistically and thematically. I'm forever grateful for what they have contributed to pop culture and my life. End of line.
usefulcat 4y ago
As a kid, I loved it for obvious reasons. As an adult, I still love it because I really appreciate what how incredibly creative it is.
dahart 4y ago
Does Tron require more disbelief than any other mainstream sci-fi? I can’t think of any off the top of my head. Would be interesting to hear what sci-fi movies seem more plausible. 2001 is even stranger and also anthropomorphizes computer programs. In many ways 2001 seems like it was probably a large influence on Tron. I like your positive take on Legacy, I will need to watch again. Also thanks for the notes on Uprising, I haven’t seen it and now will watch. I did love the original and it’s why the sequel felt flat to me, even though it was absolutely beautifully rendered and the music was awesome. I’m probably being a hypocrite relative to my first paragraph, but one of the things that bugged me about Legacy was the added real-world physics in the computer world, e.g., recognizers blowing dust & smoke. This is a bit ironic, I know, but that cause me to have trouble suspending my disbelief during Legacy. The computer world in the first movie was a mysterious different place that operated on different physics, clearly it was all magnetics and light or something, right? Adding jet engines breaks the premise of the computer world and makes it less mysterious and therefore more boring to me. It does add visual detail, and as a former CG artist, the movie is gorgeous and took a lot of hard work, but just missed the mark for me in terms of why the first one was good. Oh, and the “now that’s a big door!” gag was eye-rollingly goofy, that one also pulled me right out of the movie.
- harpiaharpyja 4y ago
  > Does Tron require more disbelief than any other mainstream sci-fi? I can’t think of any off the top of my head. Would be interesting to hear what sci-fi movies seem more plausible. 2001 is even stranger and also anthropomorphizes computer programs. In many ways 2001 seems like it was probably a large influence on Tron. Than any other? For sure. There is a lot less room for imagination when it comes to the inner workings of a computer, something we as a society know a great deal about. It's not hard to think of sci-fi settings that require less disbelief, simply by virtue of taking place somewhere/somewhen very remote to us personally.
  - bsedlm 4y ago
    it depends on how much you already know about computers... I'm very very curious about the concept of 'suspend disbelief'.. which from my ongoing analysis, is all about how any fictional story is connected to reality. I just watched the Moonfall movie and the most impactful thing for me is just how bad it comes out. While it's clear they've studied what's supposed to make a story work; and the dialog and exposition waste NO time, it fails to get me to suspend disbelief. On the other hand, considering stranger things which does a better job, without being really good (it's just ok), still manages to get me to suspend disbelief much better than that awful movie. Anybody have anything on suspend disbelief from a narrative (the technique of storytelling) standpoint?
LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago
> Anthropomorphize computer programs and invent a BS way of injecting a real human into a computer and Tron is what you get. Isn't that just another 'rendering' of the transhumanistic upload concept? In this case by destructive laser scanning. Then the 'sample' is running virtualized on some substrate, which in turn can embed that sample into whichever environment it is capable to generate. Also, genetic algorithms, emergence, AI, yada yada...

by beloch 4y ago

laumars 4y ago

The cartoon series is arguably the strongest instalment in the franchise. It's got the strongest story line and the most depth to it. It's a great loss Disney cancelled it

nazka 4y ago

> Anthropomorphize computer programs and invent a BS way of injecting a real human into a computer and Tron is what you get. It's complete nonsense! It’s true but some tech innovations now do stuff we thought dumb and/or impossible like in Blade Runner and the “enhanced” tech meme. Fast track to today, it’s not the full thing but we thought that even being able to “enhance” a picture even once was stupid. Now you have ML model doing just that and some companies selling this tools to photographs and stuff. It’s crazy

yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
Although, due to the way ML does that image enhancing it wouldn't actually work for any of the things it's used for in the show (since we still can't create information out of nothing).
- nazka 4y ago
  Ya it’s true now there are some chances to do some tiny tiny steps forward to that by studying the light in the picture that is bouncing. I remember finding a video where they will beam lights against a wall and be able to generate a (very dirty) picture a hidden playing card by seeing how the light bounce (colors, angles, etc…). Maybe in a future where camera with a 100 times better image quality will be standard. If I find it will post it. It’s like reverse engineering the light.
- bojo 4y ago
  I just imagined a Spaceballs-esque scene where they shout "Enhance!" and the resulting image is one if those crazy AI generated pictures where everything morphs into some semblance of a cat-but-not-really.
- WorldMaker 4y ago
  I think a better example of really cool "Bladerunner enhance" tech has a lot less to do with ML and more to do with some of the interesting RAW formats our cameras today are putting out. It's easier than ever for the cameras to capture multi-frames at once even for a "still" shot between advancements in multi-frame compression and expansions in general purpose storage space. It's really interesting to see what Pros with pro tools can do to things like adjust lighting or focus/bokeh in an editing app days/weeks/months after a photo was "taken". ML is often involved with the non-RAW formats to make some of those focus/lighting adjustments for us non-Pros, but watching what Pros can do to enhance photos that ML cannot if they get access to the RAWs before the MLs toss those files is sometimes incredibly impressive today.
- LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_sensing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_sensing ? Also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_field_camera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_field_camera , imagine they were using that.
  - nazka 4y ago
    Ah I think that’s what I was trying to find!
mensetmanusman 4y ago
That is a pseudo-enhance, because you can’t fix the thermodynamic issue of not having enough information to actually enhance.

jakeledoux 4y ago

Absolutely agree. Tron is in such a weird place for me in that neither movies were particularly great or rank very high in my list of favorite films, yet they both have had a profound impact on me. I quote and reference them all the time and they continue to inspire me artistically and thematically. I'm forever grateful for what they have contributed to pop culture and my life. End of line.

usefulcat 4y ago

As a kid, I loved it for obvious reasons. As an adult, I still love it because I really appreciate what how incredibly creative it is.

dahart 4y ago

Does Tron require more disbelief than any other mainstream sci-fi? I can’t think of any off the top of my head. Would be interesting to hear what sci-fi movies seem more plausible. 2001 is even stranger and also anthropomorphizes computer programs. In many ways 2001 seems like it was probably a large influence on Tron. I like your positive take on Legacy, I will need to watch again. Also thanks for the notes on Uprising, I haven’t seen it and now will watch. I did love the original and it’s why the sequel felt flat to me, even though it was absolutely beautifully rendered and the music was awesome. I’m probably being a hypocrite relative to my first paragraph, but one of the things that bugged me about Legacy was the added real-world physics in the computer world, e.g., recognizers blowing dust & smoke. This is a bit ironic, I know, but that cause me to have trouble suspending my disbelief during Legacy. The computer world in the first movie was a mysterious different place that operated on different physics, clearly it was all magnetics and light or something, right? Adding jet engines breaks the premise of the computer world and makes it less mysterious and therefore more boring to me. It does add visual detail, and as a former CG artist, the movie is gorgeous and took a lot of hard work, but just missed the mark for me in terms of why the first one was good. Oh, and the “now that’s a big door!” gag was eye-rollingly goofy, that one also pulled me right out of the movie.

harpiaharpyja 4y ago
> Does Tron require more disbelief than any other mainstream sci-fi? I can’t think of any off the top of my head. Would be interesting to hear what sci-fi movies seem more plausible. 2001 is even stranger and also anthropomorphizes computer programs. In many ways 2001 seems like it was probably a large influence on Tron. Than any other? For sure. There is a lot less room for imagination when it comes to the inner workings of a computer, something we as a society know a great deal about. It's not hard to think of sci-fi settings that require less disbelief, simply by virtue of taking place somewhere/somewhen very remote to us personally.
- bsedlm 4y ago
  it depends on how much you already know about computers... I'm very very curious about the concept of 'suspend disbelief'.. which from my ongoing analysis, is all about how any fictional story is connected to reality. I just watched the Moonfall movie and the most impactful thing for me is just how bad it comes out. While it's clear they've studied what's supposed to make a story work; and the dialog and exposition waste NO time, it fails to get me to suspend disbelief. On the other hand, considering stranger things which does a better job, without being really good (it's just ok), still manages to get me to suspend disbelief much better than that awful movie. Anybody have anything on suspend disbelief from a narrative (the technique of storytelling) standpoint?

LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago

> Anthropomorphize computer programs and invent a BS way of injecting a real human into a computer and Tron is what you get. Isn't that just another 'rendering' of the transhumanistic upload concept? In this case by destructive laser scanning. Then the 'sample' is running virtualized on some substrate, which in turn can embed that sample into whichever environment it is capable to generate. Also, genetic algorithms, emergence, AI, yada yada...