Hacker News Reader

Comment by lawik | Hacker News Reader

I loved SE:L. But like many hacking-oriented shows (I'm looking at you, Mr.Robot) it felt a need to go out into weird philosphical "what is reality?" and psycological strangeness.

I would love to see something that stays with the stuff I actually like about them. Philosophy and psychological exploration can be fine but I would absolutely love to see a show like one of those that stays closer to the ground.

GitS is primarily cyberpunk as I see it rather than focused on hacking. Hacking is just an element. Lain is focused on philosophy, psychology and spiritual weirdness and uses technology for aesthetics and as a tool to explore the bigger themes.

I'd love something like a heist-movie that stays close to the keyboard, like the most techie and coherent parts of Mr. Robot.

View on HN

I don't think the technology in Lain was merely aesthetic. Sure, it did not behave literally like real world technology, but its dynamics within the show mirror its more subtle dynamics in the real world in a very exaggerated way. It's essential to Lain that technology and spirituality form an alloy. And beneath the lofty spiritual themes, there's Lain's """personal""" psychology, a glimpse into the mind of a technological super-intelligence.

Human societies and technological infrastructure are already complex enough to behave sort of like intelligent beings. They comprise humans and machines but are inhuman and more than mechanical. I find Lain to be one of the most thought provoking examination of the psychology of such super-intelligence that I've enjoyed.

I've been hoping for a while that we'd get this kind of movie. And I do think we're getting closer to it. There are a few recent movies that provide hints about how a film could successfully capture a hacking experience:

- The research scenes in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. - The texting scenes in Personal Shopper and House of Cards.

Does anyone have any other recommendations of close-to-the-keyboard style portrayals of communication, research, and hacking?

It's old, but i thought _Sneakers_ [1] did a great job.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakers_(1992_film)

Is this The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as in the american version? I haven't watched that, worthwhile? Being from Sweden I did read the books and see the swedish films :)

The philosophy of GitS is more around "what is human identity?" but it does so through the conventional framework of the cyberpunk genre, and so those explorations into the mind are linked to technological advancement, and so, hacking is central.

This is exactly what I miss from tech/sci-fi - so much of it becomes increasingly philosophical and abstract instead of delivering (what I think) is a good solid intriguing plot.

I don't know if you watched any of the GitS TV series, but one was unwatchable because they kept on quoting French philosophers while virtual reality. Half an episode was essentially watching people argue on chat about something young me cared nothing about. DBZ was more entertaining at that point.

I've watched them all except the latest Arise prequel series. And yes, they definitely delved into too abstract a lot. Probably my favorite anime show but a good 25% could easily be cut out.

Hackers got most of it right.

Indeed. I find the expression "Ugh, hardcopy.." very useful in my day to day life :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com