Tron
Films, Movie makers
[1983] Interview
with John Lilly
Tron is us. In it, the
computer grabs the character played by Jeff Bridges and
takes him inside, making him a program In the computer. The
Master Control Program revolts, takes over the computer, and
defies the users. So the users send in Tron, which is a
program to destroy the Master Control Program that is
preaching disbelief in the users.
Tron shows you things that are very, very spiritual. You can
think of yourself as a biocomputer or an intelligent
terminal, run by a cosmic computer in the Earth Coincidence
Control Office. The biocomputer contains certain wired-in
survival programs dealing with eating, reproduction, and so
on, which lower animals also possess. But when the
biocomputer reaches a certain threshold of complexity, there
are higher-level programs in the association cortex that
permit such things as making models, learning to learn,
choice, and so forth. We have short-term choices, but God
help you if you go against the Master Control Program. A
terminal cannot understand itself, because it lacks
sufficient space, but a replica of itself is in the cosmic
computer, which can understand it. At the highest level,
your true self (the "user" in Tron) is a cosmic game player,
with access to an infinite computer -- the ECCO computer.
That is metaprogramming, self-metaprogramming.