Basically Blair programmed the computer to figure things out about how long it would take for The Thing to infect everyone, but that was a really smart computer for the early 80s it seems.
But the computer actually had these life form pictures on infecting other lifeform pictures. If the computer is smart enough to do that, then what was it originally made for, with such a program?
That computer was pretty crappy , but mine was better, I had the Alienware tower setup and it was made about 1981, hooked up to the 70 inch curve 1080p, but internet was really cheezy back then and my Wi-Fi was pretty slow but it blew the hell out of that one he has. My sister had the Xbox One when it first came out in 1985.
shareIT's a bit of a stretch but the team quite credibly has computers that can use data to project or simulate the spread of contaminants or organisms in different ecologies given certain conditions and factors. The alien organism has replaced the contaminant.
The graphic representation is an embellishment but that's ok.
"Who can't use the Force now?! I can still use the Force!" - Yarael Poof
The narrative needed to show that Blair had worked out that if the Thing reached inhabited areas then the human race would be essentially doomed. The only other way to do that to the audience would be for him to have a conversation with another member of the base or a voice over. The former would have spoiled the tension, the second would have been out of place in the movie.
Yes it was a stretch for a 1982 PC to be able to crunch those kind of numbers from that data but its still a haunting scene and tells the audience everything it needs to very well.
You actually don't need a very sophisticated computer to simulate a model of an epidemic, but you do need a reasonable guess for what the contact/infection rate among individuals is, the population density, etc. If you had those as input parameters, estimating how long it would take for an epidemic to spread is something that computers in the 80's could easily do.
What was unrealistic was the way in which the computer was presenting the output: Blair would type a question, it would give an answer (the cartoon graphic of the two cells merging in the beginning didn't help either). A more realistic scenario would be the computer generating a table of numbers and a voice-over of Blair interpreting the results (or speaking them into a tape recorder like MacReady).
It was about fifteen years before I noticed the hold and tracking issues on the video display, betraying the fact that the graphics are being played off a tape (probably VHS judging by the quality).
Blair would type a question, it would give an answer
Edward's explanation makes the most sense.
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One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces.
That's what I mean though. Blair would just ask a question and a computer would give an answer, and it came off as far fetched. I didn't really find it haunting, but found it to be an eye brow raiser. I mean this computer seems to be as advanced as the computer in Alien (1979), and that computer was suppose to be in the future, in that movie.
I think it would have been a much more convincing scene, if Blair just worked it out through mathematics and science with a pen and paper, and using his own brain, rather than relying on a computer to have the answers for him, the smart one, in comparison.
This is a science fiction movie. I tend to just suspend disbelief and assume in the Thing's universe, the US government had access to computers that were more advanced than what the general public would have had at the time.
Requiescat in pace, Krystle Papile. I'll always miss you. Justice was finally served.
I also agree with EVD's assessment but let's not forget Mac's chess scene. Obviously it was two different computers but it still set up the scene with Blair perfectly. It was The Thing's way of saying check mate: I win in the end.
shareI can accept the suspension of disbelief in technology, if it helped the plot, but I don't feel the computer added anything in this case, and Blair could have easily figured this out himself, in a different way.
shareIt was big scientific mainframe computer, small images worse than an Intellivision graphics would be no problem for it. You had complex games like Ultima and Utopia out then on basic consumer equipment, so advanced simulations were definitely not uncommon.
Also take into account Blair is a scientist.
Listen, do you smell something? -Ray Stantz
But that is what I am saying. Blair is a scientist, so why not use his intelligence to figure things out, rather than relying on a piece of artificial intelligence to do it for him?
shareBlair was a biologist, not a mathematician. Why waste time crunching numbers when the computer can probably do it in seconds? Time is a precious commodity when dealing with infection.
Seize the moment, 'cause tomorrow you might be dead.
Well I just thought it was phony how the computer was able to use words like 'population' and 'infected', and 'assimiliation', and cell.
If the computer just did the numbers only it would be more plausible and convincing perhaps.
Program the computer to accept variables and present results in terms of the variables.
You been able to do that with an excel spreadsheet for decades.
Computers in movies have almost always been used for narrative clarity, not to look like realistic raw data machines.
"Who can't use the Force now?! I can still use the Force!" - Yarael Poof
Well I just thought it was phony how the computer was able to use words like 'population' and 'infected', and 'assimiliation', and cell.
If the computer just did the numbers only it would be more plausible and convincing perhaps.
The computer extrapolation that Blair used was really just a plot device to impart to the audience the nature and dangers that the Thing presented for the human race.
You can't palm off a second-rater on me. You gotta remember I was in the pink!