Thoughts on Tron: Legacy

(Warning: the following contains some spoilers.)

Tron: Legacy is a visually spectacular movie with strong links to the original and an interesting story. Sine a majority of the movie takes place inside a computer (in a place called the Grid), one would expect that the rules of life would be different from the real world. And indeed, it is, with light-cycles and aircraft being from a handlebar to programs regenerating lost limbs. However, some rules would still have to apply to both the Grid and the real world. The movie acknowledges this, primarily when a discovery made in the Grid was spoken of as potentially having an impact on science and religion for humans. Because of this connection, an examination of the events and characters in the movie can reveal interesting implications and comparisons to the real world.

There were three types of beings in the Grid: users, programs, and isos. Users is the name given to humans in the Grid. Programs are literally computer programs, but in the grid, they exist as a physical body. Isos are also programs living in the Grid but they were not created by humans. Rather, they arose spontaneously when conditions in the Grid were just right.

The relationship between the users and programs was a key element in the movie. Many times, the users were granted almost deity status because they created the Grid and the programs. Yet, the ruler of the programs, whose name was Clu, was in rebellion against the users because Clu was designed to create a perfect environment. However, Kevin Flynn, the original creator of the Grid and the creator of Clu, was fascinated by the isos when they showed up, because their existence challenged man’s understanding of reality. The isos were not perfect, so Clu regarded them as inferior, as not belonging in the Grid, so, he sought to destroy them which led Clu into rebellion against Kevin Flynn, his maker.

The creature being in rebellion against the creator is not a new concept: that is the natural state of man toward God. However, the similarity of Tron: Legacy to Christianity ends there. Unlike God who is infinite while His creation is finite, the users were in no way infinite compared to the programs. The users had some abilities that the programs did not, but in almost every other way (such as in strength, knowledge, power, and mortality), they were equal to the programs.

Not only is the equality of users and programs significantly different from Christianity, it is contrary to logic. Can a created thing be equal, much less superior to, its creator? No, it can not. As the Bible illustrates, what right or ability does a pot have to say to the potter, why have you made me so? (Isa.29:16, Rom. 9:9:20-21) But what about other things man has created? Many machines are far faster, stronger, precise, and have a higher endurance than any man. But man did not create the physical body of these machines: man took pre-existing parts and rearranged them into a new pattern. So the physical properties of a machine are not an ex nihilo (“out of nothing”) creation. Man can not claim to have created the physical matter of a machine. However, the design of a machine is ex nihilo. The design of a machine may copy a previous design and it may utilize physical properties of matter, but ultimately, the design is an arbitrary arrangement for an arbitrary function. No human creation comes close to matching the complexity of a human and none have genuine intelligence or creativity like a human has. So in terms of its design, all human creations are vastly inferior to humans.

Programs are an interesting type of human creation. A program must exist in a physical medium (usually, a circuit board) but a program itself is almost pure design: it is nothing more than a complexly organized series of commands. Programs can run through a series of commands faster than a human can, but their activity is limited to the commands given to them by people. So of all human creations, programs should be the most inferior to humans since programs involve very little rearrangement of pre-existing matter. The only way a program could be superior or equal to a human would be if a program were capable of improving its abilities beyond the capabilities a human gave to it. Such a self-improvement would be impossible since that would require a program to spontaneously generate new information in the form of novel commands that confer new functions on the program. This is an impossibility because information is ultimately arbitrary: while information has a function and purpose, information is only generated when an outside entity decides to make a change to something or someone else.

Returning to the movie, the only way Clu could prove to be a challenge to Kevin Flynn would be if the Grid existed in a world where new data was spontaneously generated. This is consistent with the origin of the isos, as they were living things created by spontaneous generation. So the Grid is a world that can not exist, as it allows the generation of information out of nothing without an outside entity. Furthermore, since the Grid must exist within the real world, the real world of Tron: Legacy must also be an impossibility. Thus, in the movie when Clu shouts, “Where are you, Kevin Flynn?” in mockery of the users’ power, there should be an impression of irony, for while that challenge may mimic the mockery of an atheist, Kevin Flynn is nothing like God. While God was incarnate, He still have power over His creation. Kevin Flynn, however, exists in a world where his equals can be created out of nothing with no cause. In such a world, nothing is a more powerful entity than any being.