World on a Wire (1973)

Klaus Löwitsch: Fred Stiller

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Quotes 

• Franz Hahn : I can imagine what Vollmer's shattering discovery was. I bet it had to do with his attitude towards the identity units we'd programmed in his computer. You remember how he called them "my children".

  Fred Stiller : He was only joking.

  Franz Hahn : You can't spend years feeding data into a computer that allows for the simulation of every aspect of human behavior without asking yourself if it might lead to the creation of something resembling human consciousness.

• Fred Stiller : The people in our simulation model think their world is the only real one.

  Franz Hahn : So?

  Fred Stiller : Who says this isn't also a computer? You, me, all of us, just electronic circuits. Identity unit 3,124,000, named Hahn. How does that sound?

  Franz Hahn : Drunk.

• Fred Stiller : The whiskey, peanuts, all artificial. Why are you gobbling them down? Nervous?

  Franz Hahn : No, I was thinking they taste good for artificial peanuts.

  Fred Stiller : Don't joke about it. You must have a screw loose.

  Franz Hahn : Yes, an artificial one.

• Fred Stiller : The contact unit! That's it! The contact unit. We needed a contact unit for our simulation model to work. Einstein. If we're the simulation model of a real world, there must be an Einstein here who knows, who's in contact with above.

• Fred Stiller : Here's a riddle I came across: imagine a drawing of a Greek warrior holding a spear looking to his right and taking a step. With a turtle going the same way. First, does that ring a bell? Ever seen such a drawing?

  Franz Hahn : Me? What's this all about?

  Fred Stiller : Vollmer left me this drawing. Does it mean anything to you?

  Franz Hahn : Bizarre, if you ask me.

  Fred Stiller : Bizarre, sure. Does it remind you of anything?

  Franz Hahn : Maybe.

  Fred Stiller : What?

  Franz Hahn : Zeno.

  Fred Stiller : Zeno?

  Franz Hahn : Yes. Zeno's paradox. Achilles and the tortoise. Achilles tries to overtake the tortoise, but cannot. By the time he reaches where it was, the turtle has moved ahead.

  Fred Stiller : What could the paradox mean to our work?

  Franz Hahn : I'm only the psychologist for the creations. But, as I recall, the paradox is meant to show that movement is an illusion.

• Einstein : He was on the verge of a breakdown.

  Fred Stiller : Why?

  Einstein : He knew.

  Fred Stiller : What did he know?

  Einstein : Somehow he'd found out - what he was.

  Fred Stiller : You can't just find that out. Did you say something?

  Einstein : You know my circuits prohibit it.

• Fred Stiller : What are the limits to the perceptive faculties of our identity units? Listen, suppose we were beings who had been programmed in a computer. We'd sit here, drinking whiskey. We'd perceive what is in fact our imaginary world as if it were the real one.

  Fritz Walfang : Of course, an electronically simulated environment would appear real to the electronic being.

• Fred Stiller : [Final lines]  I am. I am.

• Fred Stiller : Crazy. Yes, he is. Is he? Stop! Your cigarette! Are you sure that's a cigarette?

  Von Weinlaub, secretary of state : It's...

  Fred Stiller : The idea of a cigarette. You see? The real cigarettes are somewhere else. Where real people sit on real chairs. Is that a chair? Say, "It's a chair."

  Von Weinlaub, secretary of state : It's a chair.

  Fred Stiller : It's not a chair. It's the idea of an idea of an idea.

• Gloria Fromm : You're my type of man, well almost.

  Fred Stiller : You're exactly my type of woman

• Fred Stiller : Strictly speaking, it isn't a computer in the conventional sense, but rather an electronic simulation system with tremendous storage capacity. As Professor Henri Vollmer put it, with this system we achieved the qualitative jump to an autonomous computer. We've created an artificial miniature world out of circuits, switches, electronic impulses and reflexes. When fully functional, it will lead a life of its own according to our rules and with its own dynamics.

• Fred Stiller : You're not Fritz Walfang. You're Einstein. My God, what is this?

  Einstein : [Disguised as Fritz Walfang]  Let me go, please! Don't send me back. It's my only chance. I want to be a human being. And I will. This is the first step. I'll make the next one, too. Into the real world.

  Fred Stiller : What do you mean? This is the real world...

  Einstein : That's what you think. But the truth is this world, which you take for reality, is only a simulation model of the real world. Fred Stiller, the big computer boss. You're nothing but a mass of electrical circuits. The identity unit Fred Stiller. You're a number, like everyone here. A number in a research laboratory. Admittedly, in a highly advanced one. Professor Vollmer knew it. That's why he had to die. And now you know.

  [laughs hysterically] 

  Einstein : It can't be, Einstein. Tell me it's not true.

• Fred Stiller : Still 42-26-39?

  Gloria Fromm : 39 1/2. You get fat, just sitting around.

  Fred Stiller : But every inch is precious.

• Gloria Fromm : The way you describe it is fascinating.

  Fred Stiller : You're fascinating.

• Gloria Fromm : How's the computer coming?

  Fred Stiller : Okay and how's working for Siskins?

  Gloria Fromm : No, I mean it. I'm very interested in the Simulacron. Is it it true you've created an artificial world?

  Fred Stiller : "World" is an exaggeration. Currently we've some 10,000 identity units. That's all we need for now. The world in a nutshell, you see?

• Fred Stiller : You're nothing. There's the rub. Because nothing doesn't think.

• Gloria Fromm : 10,000 people. They're people, aren't they?

  Fred Stiller : As you like. To us they're mere circuits. But to them... They live just like we do... build roads, listen to music, eat...

  Gloria Fromm : And make love?

  Fred Stiller : That, too. Make love, enjoy life, have kids.

  Gloria Fromm : Exciting.

• Fred Stiller : Franz Hahn. A man who knew too much.

• Gloria Fromm : A living world in a box of microchips?

  Fred Stiller : We're alive. They're like people on TV dancing for us.

• Gloria Fromm : Good morning, Mr. Stiller. I'm a gift. Siskins thought you'd be pleased.

  Fred Stiller : Of course. Of course, I'm pleased. A sight to behold. Isn't that what they say?

  Gloria Fromm : Yes, they do.

• Franz Hahn : Still suffering from your delusions?

  Fred Stiller : Delusions? That's a good name for the baby.

• Gloria Fromm : I'm delighted to work with you.

  Fred Stiller : The pleasure's all mine.

• Maya Schmidt-Gentner : Who's with you know?

  Fred Stiller : Where?

  Maya Schmidt-Gentner : At work.

  Fred Stiller : A woman named Gloria Fromm.

  Maya Schmidt-Gentner : 42-26-39.

  Fred Stiller : 39 1/2. From all that sitting. You should know.

• Fred Stiller : What strike?

  Rupp, Journalist : A certain Fritz Walfang has been organizing the workers. To have you reinstated.

  Fred Stiller : Reinstated?

  Rupp, Journalist : It's great: worker initiative, solidarity. You should be proud.

  Fred Stiller : None of it matters anymore.

• Fred Stiller : I think, therefore I am. Right? Yes, I exist. I can't be alone in thinking that nothing really exists. Right. For Plato, reality exists in the realm of ideas. And Aristotle! He conceived of matter as passive non-substance that only becomes reality by thought.

• Franz Hahn : I want to find out who's crazy - us or everyone else.

  Fred Stiller : Well now, that's what I call a noble motive.

• Fred Stiller : My time's up. Good-bye, Einstein.

  Einstein : Come on, show me. Come on, show me. Come on, show me. I can't bear it. Please take me with you.

  Fred Stiller : You know that's absurd. I'll be back.

• Fred Stiller : How can a real person love someone who's not?

• Fred Stiller : You know about the sabotage during my hook-up. But that a cop who'd interviewed me once - forgot, and interrogated me again - that you don't know. Or, that the other night everything, the streets, lights, disappeared for a few seconds - that you don't konw. Nor can you imagine the dizzy spells and depression.

  Franz Hahn : I see. A street vanished and then reappeared?

  Fred Stiller : Yes!

• Gloria Fromm : I'm one of his puppets. But, what's even worse is, I love it. At least at night.

  Fred Stiller : Want to sleep with me?

  Gloria Fromm : Ya.

• Gloria Fromm : [Unexpectedly, Stiller finds Gloria Fromm waiting in a car outside of Franz Hahn's home]  Getting in?

  Fred Stiller : Quite a coincidence, isn't it?

  Gloria Fromm : It's no coincidence. Dr. Hahn phoned me. He thought I could take your mind off things. It was fine with me.

  Fred Stiller : Me, too.

• Fred Stiller : You have to imagine the inside of our simulation model - we call it Simulacron - as a reproduction in miniature of our society. At the moment, we have slightly over 9,000 so-called identity units, each of which has the faculties of perception, thought, memory, imagination, and so forth, of a real human being. With Simulacron, we have, in a word, a tiny universe identical to our own. Into this universe, we can introduce certain impulses which... impulses which lead to highly specific reactions. Reactions that precisely replicate human reactions 20 years in the future. This means we can use Simulacron to avoid the mistakes we'd make in that period. For example, we can, to be extremely concrete, use the Simulacron to learn consumer habits 20 years from now, how housing needs will evolve, which transportation modes will become obsolete and which ones will be in use.