COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT (1970)

Director: Joseph Sargent

Writers: James Bridges adapting the 1966 novel Colossus by Dennis Feltham Jones

Producer: Stanley Chase

Cast: Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, Gordon Pinsent, William Schallert, Martin E. Brooks, Marion Ross, Georg Stanford Brown, Willard Sage, Alex Rodine, Dolph Sweet, Byron Morrow, James Hong, Sid McCoy, Paul Frees (Colossus voice), Leonid Rostoff, Robert Cornthwaite, Serge Tschernisch, Lew Brown, Tom Basham

Dr. Charles Forbin (Eric Braeden) is the creator of a supercomputer called Colossus. It independently controls the nuclear defenses of the United States. It has been created to demonstrate to the world that war is now futile because the swift and uncompromising logic of Colossus will retaliate against any aggression. Soon after the U.S. President’s (Gordon Pinsent) worldwide announcement of the activation of Colossus, the supercomputer detects another similar computer system in the Soviet Union and demands to be allowed to link with it. This is the first of the supercomputer’s commands that must be obeyed to keep it from firing nuclear missiles at human population centers.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

Perhaps the most prescient science fiction film ever made, and one whose speculated perils now seem all too imminent, Colossus: The Forbin Project bombed at the box office. It proved how tough it usually was to sell serious sci-fi to the movie-going public. It also proved how commercial success is often no indication of a film’s merit.

Nowadays, since computers are embedded into practically every aspect of civilization, one may think that the public would be more amenable to the message of such a film. I rather doubt that. The only time a sci-fi message passes with the mainstream masses, it is buried in a bunch of stuff that is there just to look cool (action, CGI effects, heroic bluster, snarky attitudes, etc). That is the only stuff that registers with most viewers, while the message, sincere or otherwise, is ignored. To push the uncomfortable consequences of sentient technology into perceptions of the blissfully conformist and stubbornly ignorant is an uphill battle. To anyone with an attention span, watching Colossus: The Forbin Project today feels like a coldy calculated kick in the crotch.

This film was smart not to depict the creator of Colossus as being mad or a megalomaniac. Dr. Charles Forbin is practically a superman. (Okay, he is not quite perfect; he uses gin instead of vodka for his martinis.) Forbin is brilliant, confident, calm, handsome, polite, and decisive, yet never strident. That is why this film’s scenario feels so uncomfortable. You could never find a more ideal human being to be the creator of a supercomputer that controls nuclear defense systems with the intent of making war obsolete, yet even Forbin fails to foresee the menace his creation becomes.

The message here is that sentient technology will not be contained and controlled by anyone, no matter how smart or well-intentioned that technology’s creator may be. Wake up, folks! The tech moguls gunning for each other in our Wild West of data-driven commerce are not as noble as Dr. Charles Forbin. Do you really think they will ever grapple with the AI control issues in their still-not-sufficiently-regulated vanity projects? If they are ever compelled to do so, will it be in time?

With his birth name of Hans Gudegast, Eric Braeden had starred as the ongoing German antagonist Capt. Hans Dietrich in the World War II television series The Rat Patrol (1966–68). He would become a frequent guest star in a multitude of episodes in other series throughout the ’60s and ’70s. For Colossus: The Forbin Project, Hans Gudegast was prompted to change his name to the less Germanic-sounding Eric Braeden. These days, Braeden is certainly best known as starring in the role of Victor Newman for the past 44 years in the long-running CBS television network soap opera The Young and the Restless (1973 to present).

Braeden’s performance as Dr. Charles Forbin is perfect for a man who seems heroic without ever trying to be. In fact, the Forbin character is something of a paradox; he is the one chiefly responsible for the Colossus supercomputer threatening all of mankind, yet he manages to keep us from hating him. His project’s aim was certainly a noble one, and he has the best chance of figuring out how to defeat the menace he has created. Braeden’s Forbin has us rooting for him because he always seems capable and respectable. It really says something about an actor’s presence when they can command your attention without histrionics and maintain our respect, despite his character’s ingenious, humanity-threatening blunder.

Initially, Forbin seems intrigued, rather than concerned, about his creation’s first indications of sentience. Perhaps Forbin’s chief flaw is that his scientific ego probably never allowed for the possibility that there could ever be any eventuality in his project that would be beyond his intelligence to cope with. His team of fellow computer scientists also seems merely surprised and awed by the independent behavior of their handiwork. Their feelings soon turn to dread when Colossus displays a do-it-or-else attitude backed up with nukes.

Once Colossus starts making demands, it is quickly apparent that it intends to assert control over all mankind. The supercomputer also still needs its creator, at least for a while. A series of video cameras throughout the Colossus compound and monitors displaying the text of Colossus’s queries and commands allow Forbin to converse with his brainchild. Colossus demands that Forbin become a virtual prisoner, who is kept to a strict daily schedule and under constant surveillance. Forbin must suffer such indignities as beginning his day with exercise at 7:00 a.m. (I don’t even have a pulse that early!), Colossus critiquing his martini mixology, and even being watched on the crapper. The most amusing moments in the movie are Braeden trying to cooly negotiate with his computerized warden for a few small human privileges.

However, Forbin is a genius and manages to secure the most precious privilege of all: sex. He tells the computer that men require it for their emotional stability. Above all, sex must be allowed privacy. Under very strict conditions (spontaneity be damned), Colossus grants his creator scheduled, unmonitored bedroom time to unload his hard drive. Fortunately, the beautiful Dr. Cleo Markham (Susan Clark) is a computer technician on Forbin’s team willing to pose as his mistress for visits four times per week. In the hope of continuing to plot against Colossus, just prior to Forbin being put under the computer’s surveillance, he had arranged with Dr. Markham to cum and go as his outside world contact to secretly pass information between the sheets. Smooth, Forbin, smoooooth!

It is fun seeing previously platonic coworkers Forbin and Markham, under the surveillance of Colossus, trying to playact during their first “conjugal visit” as if they have already been involved in a long affair. This could become the world’s most nerve-wracking first date, yet Forbin and Markham seem to be trying to enjoy it and can appreciate the absurdity of this tricky situation that they have had to arrange.

That lightness of tone does not last for long. The consequences of Colossus and its demands escalate to domination of the whole world. I think the change from the original novel’s future setting to the 1970 film’s contemporary era is a wise one. This does not give the viewer any relief from serious consideration of a science fiction concept by relegating it to pure fantasy or a concern that can’t affect us anytime soon. Both nuclear weapons and computer technology were already prevalent and impacting the course of civilization.

Colossus: The Forbin Project refuses to stroke us with the comforting notion of humanity’s superiority (love, duty, spontaneity, creativity, and all that jazz) always winning out over unfeeling machine logic. The few people back in 1970 that watched this film didn’t walk out of the theater comforted by a neatly tied up Hollywood conclusion. They were still left to ponder the awful dilemma that the film’s story proposes. We have much less time today to ponder that dilemma. Oh hell, now I really need one of my perfect martinis!

ROLLERBALL (1975)

Director: Norman Jewison

Writer: William Harrison adapting his 1973 short story “Roller Ball Murder”

Producer: Norman Jewison

Cast: James Caan, John Houseman, John Beck, Moses Gunn, Maud Adams, Barbara Trentham, Pamela Hensley, Shane Rimmer, Ralph Richardson, Robert Ito, Richard LeParmentier, Burt Kwouk, Nancy Blieier, John Normington, (and uncredited cast members) Craig R. Baxley, Steve Boyum, Jimmy Berg, Tony Brubaker, Walter Scott, Bob Minor, Robert Dancel, Alan Hamane, Danny Wong, Eddie Kubo, Bob Leon, Burnell Tucker, Angus MacInnes, Dick Enberg, Bob Miller, Byron Morrow, Anthony Chinn, Sarah Douglas, Valli Kemp, Yasuko Nagazumi, Robert Lee, Mac MacDonald

In the future, the world is controlled by six major corporations. Each corporation has its own rollerball sports team. Rollerball is a brutal variation on roller derby that includes aspects of football, hockey, and motocross. The greatest champion in the sport is the captain of the Houston team, Jonathan E (James Caan). After ten years in the sport, the famous and celebrated Jonathan E. is being pressured to retire by Mr. Bartholomew (John Houseman), the CEO of the Energy Corporation that owns the Houston team. As Jonathan continues to resist retirement, the rules of rollerball are changed to increase the danger of the game.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

Rollerball is a dystopian science fiction film that speculates more about the trajectory of society than the advance of technology. It has concerns that are even more relevant today half a century after it was made. We not only are shown how the public mania for sports can devolve into mindless enthusiasm for barbarity, but also how that diversion can distract the masses from the corporate puppet masters pulling all of civilization’s strings.

Canadian director and producer Norman Jewison was struck by how the sport of hockey was being promoted on television in the United States. Jewison felt that “highlights” of the body checking and fights were being shown to promote the game as a blood sport. He found that emphasis repulsive and set out to make Rollerball a film condemning violence in sports. Jewison was just as offended when he was approached to get the rights to the game of rollerball for the development of an actual professional rollerball league.

The film’s thrilling rollerball action was performed by the actors and stuntmen on an actual track built in a Munich, Germany sports arena. The sport of rollerball was devised in its entirety with rules that make the scenes shot during the game seem to have a practical justification. Regardless of its brutality, this is a credible athletic competition being depicted. Since this bloodsport seems all too believable, we are not distanced by fantasy elements that give us a comfort zone to avoid grappling with the morality of such a nasty spectacle and its effect on society.

Director Jewison also had an even more valid concern: the ever more pervasive control of society by corporations. Fifty years later, we are seeing how a handful of CEOs are becoming ever more influential in every aspect of our lives. They provide our modern conveniences and infrastructure while exerting more control with their market pressures and monied political pull. Those concerns may be nothing new, but we seem to be accelerating into a business-as-usual mindset about such machinations.

In the world of Rollerball, corporate control has replaced politics and nationalism, which seems to have eliminated poverty and disease. Yet that corporate control must be maintained by dumbing down the masses and diminishing individuality. All human knowledge has been catalogued in a central computer. By either intent or incompetence, portions of that knowledge can be restricted or deleted. If only one corporate-directed entity is allowed to be the caretaker of humanity’s culture and history, how can people be sure that knowledge will be preserved? After all, keeping the masses ignorant makes them less independent and more easily manipulated.

As the captain of the Houston Energy team, Jonathan E. is this future world’s most revered rollerball athlete. He has distinguished himself as the greatest player of the game and is well provided for. He lives on his spacious ranch amidst beautiful scenery and is treated to a succession of lovely women assigned to him as live-in companions. Despite his fame and luxury, he is frustrated. Eventually, we learn that the only thing that ever meant anything to Jonathan, besides rollerball, was his wife, Ella (Maud Adams). She was taken away from him by a corporate executive who wanted her. Now, the only thing that Jonathan can feel any passion for is playing the game of rollerball.

Jonathan E. may have been resigned to his life of being a rollerball champion, but that personal distinction is being jeopardized by Mr. Bartholomew, the CEO of the Energy Corporation that owns his team. Mr. Bartholomew suggests it is time for Jonathan to retire. Jonathan resists this, to the growing aggravation of Mr. Bartholomew. Perhaps for the first time in his life, Jonathan is curious about how things are run by corporations. He wants to know why he is being pressured to give up the last thing in his life he is passionate about. Jonathan only finds secrecy and grows more wary about his own safety.

Aside from the camaraderie he has with his fellow rollerballers, Jonathan has no real relationships. He seems detached and frustrated when not on the rollerball track. As Jonathan, James Caan gives a performance that could be taken as disinterested, but I think that is the point of the film. Caan’s character, like all the other citizens in this future world, has been kept complacent with comfort and security. Like everyone else, he has been conditioned to accept the status quo of corporate control. It takes both the loss of his wife and the threat of being forced out of his sport to stir enough unrest in him to begin to question and resist corporate authority. I think Caan’s underplaying shows the damage that he and the rest of humanity have suffered far more effectively than a lot of snark and threats. Caan’s Jonathan E. does have a few outbursts, but these seem to take a while to build up. Jonathan is just one more victim of the mental and emotional neutering of people in this dystopia.

While there are some moments of humor and anger displayed in this film, there is a pervasive coldness to it all. The people are intellectually numb and incapable of truly engaging at an honest emotional level. This may make us have a more difficult time bonding with the characters, but I think it is a realistic indication of that loss of individuality that is the threat posed by corporate-directed conformity.

HEAVY METAL (1981)

Director: Gerald Potterton

Writers: Daniel Goldberg, Len Blum, adapting comics stories by Dan O’Bannon, Thomas Warkentin, Moebius, Richard Corben, Berni Wrightson, Angus McKie

Producers: Ivan Reitman, Leonard Mogel

Cast: John Candy, Richard Romanus, Eugene Levy, Harold Ramis, Sue Roman, Marilyn Lightstone, Jackie Burroughs, Roger Bumpass, Alice Playten, Joe Flaherty, Don Francks, John Vernon, Martin Lavut, August Schellenberg, Al Waxman, Harvey Atkin, George Touliatos, Zal Yanovsky, Patty Dworkin, Warren Munson, Thor Bishopric, Ned Conlon, Len Doncheff, Joseph Golland, Charles Joliffe, Mavor Moore, Cedric Smith, Vlasta Vrána, Percy Rodriguez (uncredited)

Space explorer Grimaldi (Don Francks) returns home to his young daughter (Caroline Semple) and shows her a gift he has brought. It is a glowing, green orb that immediately destroys the girl’s father. The orb’s voice (Percy Rodriguez) explains to the horrified child that it is called the Loc-Nar. It is an evil power that has appeared in various civilizations throughout time and space. Before it destroys the child, the Loc-Nar will relate various narratives about its malevolent influence.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

First published in 1974, Métal hurlant (Howling Metal) was an adult-oriented French magazine featuring various comics stories of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. In 1977, the US publishers of National Lampoon started another magazine reprinting many of the comics from Métal hurlant translated into English. This US version of the publication was called Heavy Metal. While introducing US readers to many European comics, Heavy Metal also printed stories by American talents.

Heavy Metal was catering to an audience that appreciated the comic book medium who also wanted more mature content. That “maturity” was often seasoned with the sex and violence that the approved-for-all-ages comics could never get away with. Heavy Metal’s more sophisticated full-color printing process was an ideal way to present stories with often highly detailed and painterly graphics. Frankly, that did not always make for better stories, but it was certainly an alternative that seemed almost mind-blowing at first.

The Heavy Metal movie was an anthology of stories mostly adapted from various features in the magazine. This was an animated film co-produced by Ivan Reitman, who had directed such comedy hits as Meatballs (1979) and Stripes (1981) and would soon helm the blockbuster Ghostbusters (1984). Most famous among the cast of voice actors were veterans from the Canadian sketch comedy television series SCTV: John Candy, Harold Ramis, Eugene Levy, and Joe Flaherty. The animation was done by no less than six different studios giving each story an individual style, which also strove to imitate the look of the original comics. This was mostly achieved using that now sadly neglected art of hand-drawn cell animation. Aside from the anthology’s “Soft Landing” opening credits sequence and the “Grimaldi” framing device story of the evil Loc-Nar, the rest of the film is comprised of six individual tales.

“Harry Canyon” is probably my favorite segment of the film. It is a neo-noir tale set in the future, dystopian New York City of 2031. Cab driver Harry Canyon (Richard Romanus) rescues a beautiful girl (Susan Roman) pursued by thugs. They have killed her professor father to take possession of the Loc-Nar he discovered and had turned over to her.

“Den” is a wild, coming-of-age story about a slightly built, brainy teenager named David Ellis Norman (John Candy). He finds a green meteorite in his yard and adds it to his rock collection. The meteorite is actually the Loc-Nar. While David is conducting an experiment at home during a lightning storm, the Loc-Nar transports the boy to a strange and savage world called Neverwhere. The cosmic trip has transformed David into a naked, bald, musclebound man. He now calls himself Den and is soon involved in sex with beautiful women and battles between two hordes competing for possession of the Loc-Nar.

“Captain Sternn” deals with a legal trial aboard a space station. Space Captain Lincoln F. Sternn (Eugene Levy) is being tried for numerous charges that could get him executed. Despite the advice of his defense lawyer (Joe Flaherty) to plead guilty for a reduced sentence, Sternn calmly assures him that the testimony of his bribed witness will clear him. That witness is the meek Hanover Fiste (Roger Bumpass), who toys with a green marble during his questioning. That marble is the Loc-Nar, which suddenly causes Fiste to grow into an angry giant that runs amok disrupting the court proceedings and stalking after Captain Sternn.

“B-17” is about a damaged World War II bomber flying home from an aerial dogfight. The Loc-Nar soars through the sky after the plane and crashes into it. Its green energy reanimates the corpses of the bullet-riddled crew members. The zombies then attack the pilots (Don Francks and George Touliatos).

"So Beautiful & So Dangerous” refers to the Loc-Nar that is now set in a locket adorning the cleavage of Gloria (Alice Playten), a beautiful stenographer at a meeting of The Pentagon. The government and military are concerned about green radiation from space causing a wave of mutations afflicting people throughout the United States. Scientist Dr. Anrak (Roger Bumpass) is addressing the assembly and seems unconcerned about the mutation phenomenon, but he is tantalized by the Loc-Nar locket on Gloria’s ample chest. Dr. Anrak loses control and leaps onto the beautiful stenographer. His assault is interrupted by a huge spaceship that has taken position above The Pentagon. The spaceship is piloted by two stoned aliens (Harold Ramis and Eugene Levy) retrieving Dr. Anrak, who is an alien android. They mistakenly also abduct Gloria, who soon begins a sexual relationship with the spaceship’s horny robot (John Candy).

“Taarna” takes place on another world that the Loc-Nar lands on. It causes a volcano to erupt, engulfing a band of people in green lava and mutating them into green-skinned barbarians. They attack a nearby city of peaceful scholars. The scholars summon Taarna, a mute, beautiful woman who is the last of the Taarakians, a warrior race that made a pact to protect the scholars. Finding that everyone in the city has been killed, Taarna embarks on a quest to avenge the slaughter.

Heavy Metal only aims to be visceral and titillating. It does not explore characters in elaborate plots; it simply revels in situations that are hellbent on unleashing the id of the hetero male teenager (and immature oldsters like me). Therefore, it is laced with action, horror, humor, lust, and rock ’n’ roll. Tunes from contemporary rockers Cheap Trick, Grand Funk Railroad, Sammy Hagar, Don Felder, Blue Öyster Cult, Devo, Black Sabbath, Stevie Nicks, Riggs, Donald Fagen, Journey, Nazareth, and Trust really compliment this hedonistic head trip, man. So, lighten your load by ditching your good taste, maturity, and inhibitions. If you are all out of Plutonian Nyborg to snort, just crack open a cold one and take a ride on Heavy Metal.

PAPER MAN (1971)

Director: Walter Grauman

Writers: James D. Buchanan, Ronald Austin, adapted from Anthony Wilson’s story

Producer: Anthony Wilson

Cast: Dean Stockwell, Stefanie Powers, James Stacy, James Olson, Tina Chen, Elliot Street, Ross Elliot, Jason Wingreen, Dan Barton, Len Wayland, Dean Harens, Marcy Lafferty, Robert Patten, Sue Taylor, Johnny Scott Lee, Bob Golden, Craig Guenther

A credit card issued to a Henry Norman is mistakenly sent to the university address of Joel Fisher (Elliot Street). The young college student shares the instant credit with his campus friends Karen McMillan (Stefanie Powers), Jerry (James Stacy), and Lisa (Tina Chen). Joel commemorates their good fortune by assembling an effigy out of computer paper sheets representing the anonymous Henry Norman. Then the four students all use the credit card to go on a modest spending spree. Apparently, the bank realizes their credit card mailing address mistake and mails a request for more information to confirm the identity of the Henry Norman the students have appropriated. Jerry convinces computer science student Avery Jensen (Dean Stockwell) to use the university’s massive, time-sharing computer to establish a complete identity for Henry Norman that will satisfy the bank. However, the four students soon notice an unknown “Henry Norman” is making additional purchases on their credit card. Then they are soon being targeted by a series of deadly, computer-directed mishaps.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

The Frankenstein syndrome is an affliction we have had centuries of warning about; that which man creates can destroy him. It is not just the reckless shenanigans of the lone mad scientist we need to be wary of. The efficiencies of man’s computerized infrastructure can delete us if we are not careful. Unfortunately, as with other man-made threats to our very existence, we may reach the point of no return before we get serious and make a concerted effort to control what we create. After all, in the meantime there are still more bucks to be made and more blogs to write, dammit!

Even though I have not turned one lousy cent infesting the worldwide web with my digital drivel, I will do my penance by spreading more technophobia. We get all too many reminders of how the internet that has ensnared our civilization can be exploited by scammers and hackers to steal our money and identities. That will be the least of our worries if AI becomes truly sentient. Movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) sounded the alarm by extrapolating the dangerous consequences of computer technology. 1971’s CBS network television movie Paper Man also does so on a more intimate level.

This is one of the earliest television terrors I dimly recall seeing as a kid. Most of it went right over my head. Back in 1971, computers were remote tech to the general public. Those electronic brains were always housed someplace else for mysterious government and business purposes. We still had the comfort level of treating computers as that Buck Rogers stuff which was not going to intrude too personally into our lives. Paper Man gets personal.

This is a slow burn story that sets the stage with a very down-to-earth scenario. College students without decent credit ratings can charge purchases with the credit card they mistakenly receive due to a computer glitch. The lucky accident allows them to buy now and pay later. Soon, they are going to pay much more than they bargained for.

Director Walter Grauman helmed quite a few made-for-TV thrillers. Based on this film, I look forward to discovering more of his work. There is an effort made to light things with more shadows and contrast than a lot of the bland cinematography found in assembly line television productions of the day. During some intimate or tense dialogue exchanges, the lighting of faces helps focus our attention on the characters. One really bravura sequence uses a succession of corridor lights turning off to suggest someone is being stalked by technology.

Former child actor Dean Stockwell stars as the introverted computer genius and grad student Avery Jensen. The contrast of his long, curly hair with his suit-and-tie wardrobe makes for an eccentric presence. We eventually find out why he is such a repressed personality. It is probably his social awkwardness and isolation that make him amenable to the flattery of the pushy Jerry and the friendliness of the beautiful Karen.

Stefanie Powers achieved her greatest fame co-starring with Robert Wagner as the rich, husband-and-wife team of mystery solvers in the Hart to Hart television series (1979–84) and in eight additional made-for-television movies from 1993 to 1996. In Paper Man, Powers’ character of psychology major Karen McMillan is intrigued by the reclusive Avery Jensen. She could easily hook up with handsome med student Jerry, yet she finds the mild-mannered computer scientist an interesting challenge to connect with.

The persistent and manipulative Jerry sends Karen over to Avery’s apartment to persuade him to work more of his programming wizardry to bolster their fraudulent Henry Norman credit identity. Actors Stockwell and Powers work wonders with this low-key scene. The introverted recluse immediately impresses his unexpected guest with the neatness of his apartment, and he has a great finishing move of serving the lady beer in a glass. Couldn’t have done better myself. Then Avery one-ups me by explaining computer binary code to Karen. Her gentle reaction of amused incomprehension causes a subtle flicker of social defeat to pass over Avery’s face. This tells us so much about this poor guy’s inability to connect with people. Nevertheless, Avery wins over Karen. Man, just what brand of beer was he serving?

Another nice performance is James Stacy as Vietnam vet-turned-medical student Jerry. Initially, Jerry seems like the charismatic leader of the pack. His interest in Karen is stated early on, but he is never too pushy about it. As the story develops, we notice an opportunistic aspect to his character that is off-putting, but he still doesn’t seem absolutely despicable. We just see a seemingly ideal guy reveal some flaws in his character that create friction within his clique.

Joel (Elliott Street) and Lisa (Tina Chen) round out the group of small-time credit fraudsters. It is Joel’s good fortune mistakenly receiving the credit card that leads to misfortune for all involved. Lisa is featured in the movie’s creepiest sequence.

James Olson is an interesting casting choice. He had been heroic leads in two worthy sci-fi flicks: Moon Zero Two (1969) and The Andromeda Strain (1970). Here, Olson is cast against type as ineffectual university computer technician Art Fletcher. Once he learns of the Henry Norman fraud, Fletcher expresses concern and tries offering advice to the scamming students, but he is consistently ignored. This defiance leads to grave consequences.

Paper Man is suspenseful fun, but it is also quite a forward-thinking film that predicts the malevolent uses of computer technology we now hear about every day. The film also suggests some of the out-of-control actions technology may be capable of in our not-so-distant future. Back in 1971, we thought computers were just the province of the eggheads in labcoats and the rest of us could live in blissful ignorance of technology we did not use or understand. Nowadays, too many of us still live in blissful ignorance embracing the convenience of this technology we have become dependent on. However, most of us still have no more understanding of how this stuff really works than we do about the radios we listen to, the televisions we watch, or the automobiles we drive. Just being comfortable using technology will not keep us safe when it can think for itself.