TRON: ADDITIONAL MATERIAL PART 2: The Novel

TRON: ADDITIONAL MATERIAL PART 2: The Novel

The TRON Novelization by Brian Daley contains more peripheral information which is not in the film, which may interest a lot of fans. Most often novelizations are written before the movie comes out, and the author doesn't write it while watching the movie. He is given scripts, and other story details from the producers. Many of the details the author is given do not end up in the finished film. What we are left with are additional story details which, if you are a fan, you may find rather interesting.

Alan Bradley pops popcorn in his Encom office cubicle, and he is described as messy; "as he had little time or inclination for housekeeping." The sign in his cubicle "Gort, Klaatu Barada Nikto" is described as being there as it reveals his attitude about Artificial Intelligence. The phrase comes from the movie, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, and is a voice command for the robot named Gort. Alan's User code is 717, but he is unable to type his password (given in the script as "FREEDOM.") when he is locked out of the system.

The novel introduces the type of characters we are to sympathize with, one of the protagonists as "a User-Believer, a BLUE. Unwilling to give up his commitment to those mystical beings whom all the programs of the System had once served." The character, CROM wonders about the RED antogonists, "Their attitude was

beyond comprehension--a refusal to even concede the existence of the Users. How could that be? He kept repeating to himself." CROM couldn't understand "what the point of functioning could be, if not to carry out the instructions of the Users."

CROM MEETS TRON

As in the script, CROM meets TRON inside the 'Training Complex' prison cell. CROM has already heard of TRON, and he can't believe TRON has been caught by the MCP.

"Tron is a legend come to life. When programs throughout the system spoke among themselves of independence, of loyalty to the Users, of defying the MCP, it was TRON's name that was most often invoked. TRON championed the User-Believers; TRON had defied all the MCP's efforts to enslave or convert him."

CROM is shocked to find TRON inside the cell, but TRON's conviction to escape raises CROM's hopes again. "Sark and the MCP didn't control the System...yet."

Bruce Boxleitner has often related TRON to the movie SPARTACUS, and having just recently watched it for the very first time ever, (shocking, I know) I can see the similarities, and while being a lot simpler in its plot and scale than the 3-Hour, "cast of thousands" epic that SPARTACUS truly is, TRON does in fact share the same qualities of the character of Kirk Douglas' Spartacus. There are many scenes which though highly simplified are most certainly inspired by SPARTACUS. The 'slaves' are captured and forced to fight eachother for the amusement of the Romans, and the various characters hope to break free of this tyranny and perhaps take Rome, and free the slaves, but they do not succeed. Spartacus becomes a legendary hero of the slaves, and as described at least in the book, it is the very same idea, TRON is a legendary hero that the enslaved programs look up to. In TRON, however, the character does in fact succeed in freeing the system...

TRON's thoughts are described while in the prison cell: "...and he had thought, often, of the one he missed most, of she who meant everything to him. Not freedom, not [even] survival meant more than seeing Yori once more. At times it seemed his faith had come near failure. What was the point of it, what did it matter? MCP promised to take over the System without any real opposition but Tron's. Why hadn't the Users intervened? But then TRON knew, they had--he was their instrument. But the cause to set things right and restore order and purpose and safety to the System, seemed lost. Instead there would be the dictatorship of the MCP and the savage spectacles of the beast Sark. But as always, another thought surfaced. Why would Sark and the MCP be so determined to stamp out loyalty to the Users if that loyalty didn't threaten them? The Command Program and the MCP were the fanatics, not the User-Believers; their brutal efforts to suppress belief in the Users only served to confirm convictions vital to TRON. As they increased their oppression, so they reinforced his faith."

When the tyrants build lists of 'opponents' who they want snuffed out, you know then it is because they fear them as a threat to their power and tyranny, not as a threat to the 'safety and order' of the system...

CLU ponders the state of the System being dominated by the MCP in the book as well, "For CLU, as for many other programs still at large in the System, there was no question as to whether or not he should respond to his User. What point was there to program tyrannizing program [program vs. program], rejecting the Users? And certainly there hadn't before the MCP been the sort of cruelty and hatred that threatened the System now. If CLU had his way all that would change..."

Flynn also ponders the tyranny of the MCP, "Even here, he thought, the old, old evil: surrender your beliefs or surrender your life."

While at the plasma-pool, drinking the 'pure energy,' Flynn realizes another strategy of tyrants, "Of course, Flynn thought, the Master Control Program would certainly have governance over all the conventional power sources or outlets. Lower the programs' power and you keep them lethargic, dependent, obedient. But here in this ignored area, this trickle still ran unmonitored. Flynn pondered what it must be like for RAM and TRON; no doubt the MCP kept User-Believers on pretty light rations." [All too familar eh, ladies and gentlemen?]

Each character expresses their frustration with the lack of freedom, their persecution and the encroaching tyranny of the MCP, they all want things to change, they all want things to be different, and wonder if the 'gods' will come to help them.

ENCOM AND SARK

Dillinger's computer desk in the novel is called a 'Superdesk.' ENCOM is described as "a commercial entity that swallowed other corporations as a shark might swallow minnow, that grew and increased its profits and holdings as no other corporation ever had."

Sark is described as "Lord of the System," the "Command Program," also known as the "Red Champion." His code

number is ES-1117821. Sark sees the MCP as his "deity" as opposed to seeing the User as a deity. Besides "Strategic Air Command," and the Pentagon, other government agencies are named to be hacked by the MCP: DARPA and the DIA. In 1982, this would have meant, 'the internet.' (The only real internet that existed).

RAM regards FLYNN as 'being glitched' because of the way he talks. Also, interestingly, RAM is said to be whistling "an eerie, lilting tune that FLYNN couldn't recognize as any User music." RAM ponders his conversations with TRON, "Their quiet solemn talks were in sharp contrast to the merciless drill and combat of the Game Grid. RAM had come to draw great encouragement from TRON, from his loyalty to the Users. And there was TRON's straightforward reasoning: why indeed, would Sark and the MCP militate so viciously against User-Believers if their beliefs didn't present some threat? When he'd thought it through, RAM had finally decided that the demonstrations of power, the taking of conscripts, were a keystone to Master Control's authority. If MCP and Sark could get programs to deny the existence of the User in contradictions to what the programs knew to be true, what then might they not order programs to do? The entire System, and the power to reshape it, would lie within their grasp."

INOPERATIVE DATA PUSHERS:

When Tron leaves Flynn and Ram on the other side of the crevasse where he thinks they are killed, he proceeds to get to the I/O Tower, where he is on his way to finding Yori. There in the "Factory Complex" he comes across "Programs of all sorts walked there, many of them strangely shaped because of their functions. There was a warrior type not known to TRON. He had an energy lance cradled in the crook of his left arm; his right arm and part of his helmet had been blown away, leaving long trailing streamers of glowing filaments. A little light exchage monitor, outmoded and enclosed in his glassy bulb, passed by. TRON had to step around a segmented connectoid that crawling along like a huge, blind worm, nearly bumped into him. He recognized Cryptarithmetic Priests by their circuited cassocks. But there was little animation to anyone, and no enthusiasm. Tron saw one program speaking to another, and stopped to listen. The program spoke in monotone as the two gazed at one another lifelessly.... Shaking his head sadly, he walked along the streets that had once been ablaze with productivity and drive... On the way, he stopped by two more programs to eavesdrop once more, unsure of how the recent changes might have affected local circumstances..." The programs speak mindless numerical jibberish. Later he finds Yori speaking the same mindless mathematical jargon. "TRON regarded the muddled programs with pity and frustration." FLYNN also runs into more programs of this type when he crashes his Recognizer, "Programs passed by him without taking notice, so drained and numbed that they didn't even glance his way..." "He saw that they were different from the programs of the Game Grid, only in part for their odd shapes and sizes. He almost forgot his landing, watching them go by like sleepwalkers." FLYNN speaks to the BIT, "This town's full of live ones, " the BIT responds, "Not a chance."

"A USER? IN OUR WORLD" --Yori

When FLYNN reveals to TRON and YORI that he's a User, he also has this to say in very Jeff Bridges/the-Dude-style, "Man, I haven't had a second to think since I got down here. I mean, in here... Out here. Whatever."

Flynn later thinks to himself: "Good goin' Bradley! thought Flynn, and laughed. "Awright! Thank God Alan stayed awake at least!" Again they were at a loss, the casual use of Alan-One's name, the easy familiarity of it scandalized TRON." "Meantime, Yori considered what Flynn had just said, asking herself, thank who?"

When FLYNN and YORI are captured by Sark, FLYNN seems to realize that SARK thinks he is CLU, and enjoys carrying on a bit because SARK believes it.

The MCP resides upon the "CPU Mesa." The MCP tells the captured Tower Guardians that "You are participating in the creation of the most powerful program in the history of the System--of all Systems! ...An entity with a will! ...With ambition! A superior form of life!" What seems to be the MCP's ultimate plan is a little clearer, that it hopes to gain more power and information and 'intelligence' to take on the 'Real World.' It's goals are not simply to control the System, but the whole world of the Users.

Once the MCP is destroyed, and YORI, TRON and DUMONT are reunited, the BIT has the last word, "YES!"

TRON thinks to himself, "How wonderful it must be in his world..." and "Thank you, Flynn," Yori sent a silent message upward. "

After destroying the MCP, FLYNN is returned to the real world, and the computer prints out his 'evidence.' In the book is a picture of the printout, showing that Flynn's middle initial is "O." It is also more complex than the printout in the movie. The next scene as in the movie is the top of the Encom building with Kevin Flynn landing in a helecopter. There is no dialog from Alan and Lora about "look official, here comes the boss." They tell Flynn about Dillinger: "Dillinger wants to talk to you; he says it's all a mistake." Flynn shook his head, "Can't; bad for the corporate image."

Lora says, "Hey... you've got an executive board meeting." He slipped them a wink. "This is the executive board meeting."

This is the last of Alan, Lora and Flynn, and the book ends with "High over the System soared the Solar Sailer, cruising above the glittering beauty of the radiant Domains and the phosphorescent tides of the Game Sea. Tron stood on the bridge with his arm around Yori. The Sailer changed transmission beams and came into another tack as the Bit shot past them, playing and cutting figure eights, zipping along next to the graceful Sailer, over a System ablaze, a free System."

Continued in PART 3: YORI AND LORA IN THE NOVEL

TRON and Artificial Intelligence

Tron. The movie about 'the Dude' who gets sucked into a computer. You know the one I'm talking about.

Since the Apple IIe there's been quite a few movies about computers. Back when I played the equivalent of PONG on the Odyssey, there were only a couple movies about computers, and they were about these huge monstrosities, like "Colossus" and "Novac" from a film called Gog. There was of course, HAL 9000, but these were the idea of computers as living things, as monsters. No Terminator. No Matrix. No Wargames. No Hackers. Spencer Tracy even starred in perhaps one of the first movies about computers, "Desk Set" long before the Apple IIe, or Commodore 64 was even conceived of. Computers were always big monstrosities, and only special people could run them or understand them. They were like harnessed creatures living in a dungeon, kept by their masters, in some secret castle somewhere.

IBM has developed a super-computer which they say mimics 4.5% of the human brain. They call it the BLUE GENE. They also say their SyNAPSE chip has the ability to rewire its own virtual neurosynaptic centers, allowing it to 'learn' the way humans do. They say that by 2019 it will be able to mimic the human brain by 100%. I think that we are now approaching SKYNET country... the question is what will happen in 2020...and by 2029...will we be up against an artificially intelligent super-computer?

Writers seemed to be implying that eventually, some kind of "artificial intelligence" would be born--inside a computer of course. The MCP, or "SKYNET" would eventually try to take over the world. The 'machines' would turn on us, our creation would fight against us. The inevitability of this and the irony of this has become a cliche. It still has yet to actually happen, but it is there in public consciousness.

In The Matrix, humans have to wake up out of a virtual reality in order to fight the machines. In The Terminator, the machines attempt a pre-emptive strike against humanity before they have a chance to fight against them...with a time machine. In TRON, the humans must still 'use' programs in order to fight the MCP, destroy it from the inside, and it would seem the programs become sentient as well.

Tron has a lot of ideas there in it. The MCP is kind of the same old monster, the 'Colossus' who wishes to take over. The 'Colossus' who can threaten people in the real world, and make them do things. I would imagine that this is exactly how something like this might happen, if an evil artificially intelligent computer was born.

In COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT, this is exactly how it begins to operate, by threats, blackmail, extortion, by ordering men against eachother at first. Nobody would know that behind it all wasn't some conspiracy of Illuminati agents, but a computer...playing a kind of chess game with the human race. THE MCP in Tron was already planning to take over the Pentagon, and reach out into the world by hacking systems and controlling them, Flynn, Alan and Lora stopped it however... they would be classified today as 'cybercriminals.'

Colossus, WOPR, SKYNET, HAL 9000 and the MCP all begin as a kind of chess game, the thinking machine that sees mankind as an adversary. The computer in movies like these is a kind of ultimate evolution in computers, the 'end point,' as some would say, 'the singularity.' At some point, computers will reach that point, so long as they are being developed as they continue to be developed now. What if, however, something else happened?

Where did these ideas come from anyway about the computer becoming some sort of self-conscious intelligent entity anyways? It is implied in its original name, 'the thinking machine?' A machine that can think, like a person, which can do math for him, figure things out, perhaps even solve the world's problems for him? Today, are we even sure what it means to think anymore? Are computers doing our thinking for us? Are we becoming less and less intelligent as the computers become more and more intelligent? Or perhaps...something else is going on here, either instead of this notion, or at the very same time.

The idea of the thinking machine implies something else as well, it implies that we built, or are still trying to build a machine that can "think." In order to do that we have to know what 'thinking' is and how it works, but this isn't necessarily how computers were really born. Nobody spent time attempting to quantify the human thinking process before they decided to start building computers. The road leading to building the first computers was simple math. No math was done to explain how humans think, but what is happening, is that because of computers, people are trying to apply math to how people think, and they have suggested that our brains are like computers...

An odd thought indeed, that we envisioned a 'mechanical brain' only to eventually believe our brains are mechanical... How did this happen? How did we go from fearing these sci-fi monsters, only to suggest that we have these 'sci-fi monsters' inside our very own skulls? It would seem to me that this is what technology usually does to us humans...although not everybody sees this, usually not the people who build the technology, and that is that we build this stuff, eventually start combining our stuff into more complex stuff, and time passes, so much time that the old stuff we built our 'new stuff' out of is forgotten, and we start to wonder how the hell we got to where we are... And something unusual happens...

We have a startling revelation in the midst of this complexity, that on our course to building these things, we're re-building ourselves, we learn from the complexity of our technology that we are unconsciously remaking ourselves, and we go back and forth, taking what we know from our technology and applying it to ourselves. However, common stupidity keeps popping up, as it usually does, and instead of applying the IDEAS, we literally apply the technology. The IDEAS are then ignored, and we're stuck with wires and crap coming out of our skulls, or worse, blobs of genetically 'engineered' parts are swapped out for our original ones, and we simply become less and less human.

Taking the ideas literally is the problem, and it all happens subconsciously, as if we inherently know what we 'want' to do, but we're stuck thinking we have to make 'hardware' out of everything. Technology gets smaller, so we assume that we can then inject this crap into our veins. Ultimately what is missing from the minds of these people is that if the idea came forth from building our computers, that our brains are like computers, then the idea is that any other technology out there can reflect part of ourselves or reflect something else, and remember that these IDEAS are the mirror of physical and mechanical things. The 'thinking machine' is a 'machine that thinks' while what we have is something that inspired that thinking machine, it is the origin of it, the inspiration for it, and while we may have never intended this, there it is, and while our machines are a mimicry, we are not machines, however, the definition that comes out of this IDEA is a new one. A brain might be an 'organ made of organic tissue' the only thing truly important about it is what it does. You don't have a clue how your computer works, so how should you be expected to know how your brain works?

Again, there is a difference, how a brain or a computer works isn't as important is realizing what you can do with it. You can use your computer in a variety of ways, just as you can use your brain in a variety of ways, without knowing its components, or constitution. What people are missing here is that what people are using computers for these days, also mimics what people should be able to use their brains for, or should I say, dare I say, what people should be able to use their 'minds' for.

As of yet, nobody has seen an 'artificially intelligent' computer from one of these movies, but we do use all sorts of different kinds of computers. When nobody is using these computers, they are inanimate objects, they can be unplugged, and put on a shelf, and they are utterly useless. There is nothing in them that operates themselves. You can leave them on, download things, but once the series of commands it has been given are complete, it idles, and becomes null. A human being can have a brain, and yet have no mind at all, and there are a whole series of conditions and circumstances we know to be true in this case. However, a person with a fully functioning 'mind' can have his brain injured, altered, degraded, and he can lose his 'mind.'

As you can see, something else is going on here, beyond pure mechanics, a person is not a series of commands, he commands himself. He is a "USER." He has a will of his own, to use his brain however he sees fit. He may not know what it is made of, or how it operates on some scientific empirical level, but he somehow knows how to 'think' and how to calculate 2+2=4, and remember where his car keys are, and which orifice he is supposed to shove food into. He can think of things to build, and figure out how to build them, all with this magnificent 'tool' he was born with. The brain seems to do things, like regulate all his living biological operations, he really doesn't "think" about these background functions, they just 'run.' When people begin operating their computers, utilizing complex functions, such as build websites with flash animation, send emails, and connect to the internet, they are doing more than pressing buttons on a machine, they're doing more than writing code, and commanding their computers, they're almost not even using their computers anymore, they're in a totally different dimension, they're 'in cyberspace,' they're not even thinking about code, programming or math, and while this may seem stupid, it is no 'dumber' than not knowing where your neurons are firing, and just how those impulses are moving your hands. This is itself, 'the new idea' and that is that if you could see what you're doing on the internet everyday, and instead of explaining it with math, such as how many 'packets' or 'bits' you are sending, or how many pixels are on your screen, but see that you are 'combining' the 'senses' that your computer is capable of, and essentially doing something with a computer that goes way beyond 'mechanical.' You are operating on a whole other dimension, you are not simply pressing buttons, you're sending THOUGHTS and IDEAS to people hundreds if not thousands of miles away. They used call such a thing 'telepathy.'

The structure which we have unwittingly started to build with our technology, and not mechanically, is one which is a new dimension of IDEAS that explain to us, just what our minds, our brains, are obviously capable of. What it means is that we have to start looking at what we're doing in this 'new dimension' and imagine a few steps ahead. Where does it lead, or where can it lead? If you're sending not just simple words through 'cyberspace' but images, moving images, ideas, thoughts, sounds, etc, and just how it is you're doing this, not with the math operating in the background, but in the forefront of your mind, and if as the simple analogy is your brain is a computer, then what is the internet? What is a firewall? In other words, there are other plausible analogies.

TRON ultimately suggests quite a few of these analogies, where no other film does. It does not end with robot armies taking over the earth, nor a resistance force storming Encom. TRON takes us into the computer in a totally imaginary way in which one is removed from the dimension of 'Alan Bradley' who is hacking code, doing math, plugging or unplugging things in 'the real world.' While inside this 'computer' and once removed from the 'real world' one can look at some of these concepts which inside the computer, take on a new and different meaning.

Unlike The Matrix, where everything is an illusion, the object is to look at computers differently, and in a new way, and TRON suggests we look at computers in a new way, yet with very old values, or 'principles.' The physical dimension of plugging wires into your brain like The Matrix takes the physical side of the analogy as far as it can go, the problem is that it makes the assumption that we will never be enlightened to the fact that we might begin to operate our 'computers' before our machines plug into our brains and take advantage of our ignorance.

Cybernetics is a kind of cult of the physical, and assumes that we must utilize our brains, or our physical organs from the outside in, and not the inside out. The concept is we will use the brain from the outside, with wires, microchips and physical technology, and using it with remote controls, when our 'minds' are something that obviously come from 'within.' The opposite now, and this is a new idea, is to use the brain, with the mind, from within. Many books and films have alluded to this concept through vague and outlandish imagery, but now, today, we can begin to completely understand this process, we can illustrate and examine it, as I am doing right now in this article. It is something that may seem 'intellectual' or unimportant to the average person, as unimportant as it was to know how your MacBook works, but it is now becoming very important, because if the human race does not begin to see this, or understand this, (and we are already beginning to see why) the people who can only understand the mind or the brain with technology, we will slowly become total cyborgs over the next century, and it will be the next century, starting now, not any other time.

The cyborg is a person who has applied technology to their physical being, (imaginably it could be a machine which has applied biology to their machines as well), the person is literally becoming a machine. This is a serious mis-application of technology. People need to understand that technology should not literally be applied to themselves, but the ideas from technology should be applied. The individual must never lose their humanity, by losing their will, or their physicality, their true senses, their real feeling, otherwise, the true monstrosity will appear. The real reason for this of course, is that we must never allow ourselves to be programmed, as if we were machines, or computers, or digital 'applications.' We are not these things, we are people, and on the flipside, while we are human, and must never allow ourselves to be altered from our biologicality, we must understand that our complexified technology, i.e. computer, digital technology, the combination of all our technologies into this 'new stuff' we're playing with now is completely subconsciously mirroring what are real minds are capable of. Our 'technology' is a crude reproduction of us. The robot is a crude metal and plastic version of our bodies, cameras are eyes, microphones are ears, and the computer, a mind, and the internet...well, now I'll let your computer start figuring out what that is... that's what we are all about to understand... >the next question is also, what will we do with this once we understand?

Yori Programming Feats

A long time ago, at a place called the Palo Alto Research Center, Xerox put a bunch of people together to develop a whole lot of stuff for what might be considered the sort of computers we use now. This was before Bill Gates and Steve Jobs messed about with Microsoft and Apple. Many things were discovered and invented there, and it might have been the sort of place Alan Bradley worked.

Two men who worked there were to later co-found a company called Adobe. John Warnock and Charles Geschke would develop a graphics language controlling printing. When Apple finally developed a graphical interface for their personal computers, and then a way you could change fonts and manipulate images, it was all fine and well, but you sure couldn't print that crap, you could only look at it on your screen. Warnock and Geschke's 'page description language' and PostScript, thus brought the digital design from the digital realm to the real world, and voila, stuff from your computer could be brought forth, manifested, onto a printed page.

While Computer-Aided Design goes all the way back to 1960, for the masses, the everyman, it might have been this moment, and Adobe's programs which made it possible for you, for me, for all of us, to have what we have, in the way of designing, and printing, bringing ideas into the Three-Dimensional world, through the device you are utilizing to read this article.

At Encom, what would have been a separate entity which pre-dated Apple and Microsoft, inside a single mainframe, and not a personal computer, existed a program which was a particularly unique design application. It was able to command a series of sub-functions, all handling various details of the design process, one for color perhaps, one for wire-framing, one for rendering, and put the ideas and designs of the USERS into digital reality. This program was called YORI.

We do not know who created this program, but it has been speculated that Dr.Lora Baines developed it. At Encom, she created the Digitizing Laser, which could store physical objects in a computer. It may be that this idea came from her research into the algorithms of the computer-aided design process, and how objects exist in virtual space.

Yori, during the Program Rebellion, when the MCP denied the USERS access, along with other Programs seemed to develop minds of their own, and while a program called Tron was able to literally 'fight back' against the Master Control Program, other programs were able to detach, and refuse commands from the MCP to seemingly operate on their own.

As Tron was able to utilize and manipulate various conceptual elements from different programming systems, even though he was applied, along with hundreds of other programs to become video games by the MCP, Yori was also able to find some way to take a 3-D simulation called the 'Solar Sailer' and apply it to use in navigation to escape the permutations of the MCP. Nobody knows to this day just how all these programs were able to do these things, and we are only recently beginning to understand.

Yori managed to utilize all the functions of a C.A.D. program, and apply all sorts of seemingly unrelated theories and algorithms along with Tron and User Flynn, to crash the Master Control Program, which was itself developing its own Artificial Intelligence.