In the early 1980s Micheal Crichton developed and followed a strong interest in the emerging field of computing and programming. During his time he explored it as a new way to tell stories through computer games, and also reflected on it in a deeper sense, expressing his views and concerns about it in articles and interviews as well as through his storytelling, as in the short story Mousetrap, published in TIME. He even published the programming code from the story in the magazine Compute!, thus reinforcing that his fiction writing is deeply rooted in real science and technology.
Trivia: the technology described in Mousetrap is currently being used by sites like Coursera to identify users. It is called keystroke biometrics.
He also published a non-fiction book called Electronic Life.
Trivia: the technology described in Mousetrap is currently being used by sites like Coursera to identify users. It is called keystroke biometrics.
He also published a non-fiction book called Electronic Life.
It is interesting that his views included considering the programming of computers and artificial intelligence as part and parcel of human evolution, and idea fully developed later by many authors like the Wachowski Brothers in The Matrix (1999) and its sequels. Movies like Ridleys Scott's Blade Runner (1982) and Michael Crichton's own "Runaway" (1984) could be considered the first steps in this direction.
THE EARLY YEARS