Tech

Is tech in TV real?

April 2, 2020 /

There are a lot of misinterpretations in television and movies about technology. Some of them are small things that could happen, but are not created yet, while others are obvious and are downright comical. One of the things that is portrayed wrong in the shows, is scenes where the characters “enhance” the image, like in the example below.

These examples of law enforcement and other people trying to enhance images. This happens in the real world, but not to the extent that is in the video. There are limitations to the amount you can go with in, and it is not near this level.

But not all tv shows are incorrect about the technology that is used in them. Some of these examples are shows like Silicon Valley, and Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang Theory is fairly accurate when it comes to the theories they use, and even are fact checked by Amy, who is a neuroscientist, played by an actual neuroscientist. Mayim Bialik, the actress who plays Amy, has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.

Silicon Valley is another show that portrays most of a realistic view on technology, and the struggles that comes with it. The show is about a group of programmers, living in a startup incubator, where they create a powerful compression algorithm. Below is a video of what a network engineer does inside a company to keep all their information safe.

This algorithm blows all the competition away, making them the hottest company to invest in. They later turn their algorithm into a new decentralized internet, where everyone is free to do what they want. The show ends with the gang purposely failing their launch, due to the fact that the new internet could hack and take over any secure network it came into contact with.

With power like this, always remember……

With great power, comes great responsibility.

Uncle Ben

This is dangerous, because if this lands into the hands of someone who intends harm, the damage they could cause is unimaginable. This would be as if someone could crack the US launch codes in a matter of hours, and use it to attack locations with them. This is why some technology experts are against quantum computing. I was planning on doing a post about this in the coming future, but in a brief definition, quantum computing can take information that a normal computer would take hundreds of years to solve, and solve it in minutes, even seconds. Even though this will someday be the future, it is very dangerous and powerful piece of technology.

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