Westworld

Whenever I see a move made before the discovery of Microsoft I’m amazed at what passed for futuristic technology in the olden days.

For example I was watching Westworld (made in 1973) on Channel 55 last night. The movie is about an Old West style amusement park populated by realistically human robots. If you’ve ever been to Disney World think Hall of Presidents with six-guns.

Behind the scenes there is a computer center that controls all the robots, robots so realistic you can’t tell them from real humans (“…except the hands. They haven’t perfected the hands”). This control center is equipped with monochrome terminals that look like Etch A Sketch prototypes, magnetic tape drives spinning back and forth, and lots of flashing lights. I’ve spent some time around computers and I’ve never seen one that lit up like a Christmas tree the way movie computers do.

I remember seeing this movie when it came out and thinking how advanced everything looked. Now I realize that my laptop has more advanced technology than Westworld could ever hope for.

In the end the robots start attacking the tourists after some internal glitch gets into the computer. The scientists are incredulous that something “…almost like an infection…” could spread from computer to computer, anonymously and seemingly on it’s own.

Of course something that diabolical could never really happen.