Tech Film Noir - A Technology and Film Podcast
May 14, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · 42 segments
This week on Tech Film Noir, we plug ourselves into the strange, synth-soaked world of **Electric Dreams** — the gloriously weird 1984 cult sci-fi movie where a socially awkward architect, a spilled…
Lianne PotterHostJeff WatkinsPanelist
Uh, do let us know in the comments or wherever you're listening to this of what you think of Electric Dreams, if you've seen it yet.
He is a structural engineer, and he gets convinced to buy a computer, 'cause they're all the rage in 1984.
And when he does, he decides, "Oh, it'll help me design some better bricks for when an earthquake happens." And he decides, in his infinite wisdom, to be able to work from home, which we all love to do, I'm sure, and he connects this computer to the work mainframe, and decides to download everything from the work mainframe.
[laughs] But it, the computer goes haywire because it's only got two floppy drives, so it can't take all that memory, and he decides to pour champagne all over said computer, which causes-
I know when I have a bit of champagne, my magic increases by 10 HP points, for sure.
So a little bit of magic happens, and then the computer becomes sentient and then becomes Edgar.
The poster for this and, and all the artwork that went with it does make out like it is one of those films where it's, it's kinda screwball comedy.
But actually, the, the way the AI works is... or Edgar, the sentient computer, it is really dark, 'cause he starts falling in love with the main character Miles' love interest, and, yeah, becomes quite obsessed with her.
Uh, do let us know in the comments or wherever you're listening to this of what you think of Electric Dreams, if you've seen it yet.
He is a structural engineer, and he gets convinced to buy a computer, 'cause they're all the rage in 1984.
And when he does, he decides, "Oh, it'll help me design some better bricks for when an earthquake happens." And he decides, in his infinite wisdom, to be able to work from home, which we all love to do, I'm sure, and he connects this computer to the work mainframe, and decides to download everything from the work mainframe.
[laughs] But it, the computer goes haywire because it's only got two floppy drives, so it can't take all that memory, and he decides to pour champagne all over said computer, which causes-
I know when I have a bit of champagne, my magic increases by 10 HP points, for sure.
So a little bit of magic happens, and then the computer becomes sentient and then becomes Edgar.
The poster for this and, and all the artwork that went with it does make out like it is one of those films where it's, it's kinda screwball comedy.
But actually, the, the way the AI works is... or Edgar, the sentient computer, it is really dark, 'cause he starts falling in love with the main character Miles' love interest, and, yeah, becomes quite obsessed with her.
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