It’s no secret that science fiction has influenced the trajectory of technological development for decades, with classics like “Star Trek” and concepts like Warp Drive giving researchers something to aim for. However, science isn’t the only thing that fiction can influence in real life; the right movie, seen by the right person at the right time, can also have a surprisingly large impact on government processes, as was the case when Ronald Reagan saw the movie “WarGames” in 1983.
“WarGames,” which was one of actor Matthew Broderick’s first notable roles, follows David Lightman, a teenage hacker who stumbles upon a backdoor leading to a secret military computer housing advanced weapons control AI. Thinking that the AI’s training modules are just video games, he runs a simulation of a thermonuclear war, only for the AI to confuse the simulation with reality and begin preparing real missile launches targeted at the Soviet Union. If David fails to find the creator of the AI and correct his mistake, World War III will begin.
Technology was not as much of a societal concern in the early 1980s, with laptops and computers being prohibitively expensive during the Reagan years. The depiction of military AI in “WarGames” in particular was deliberately exaggerated, because at least at the time, AI could not have such control over the levers of war. This depiction, however, frightened President Ronald Reagan enough to prompt relatively rapid legislation aimed at keeping the American people safe in the digital age.
After seeing WarGames, Reagan called for cybersecurity research
Former Hollywood star Ronald Reagan was a personal friend of the author of “WarGames,” and on the weekend of its theatrical release in 1983, the president had a private screening of the film at Camp David. According to the book “Dark Territory: The Secret of Cyber War” by Fred Kaplan, Reagan felt a notable fear reaction to the film, particularly its depiction of vulnerable government computer networks. In the film, Broderick’s character is able to hack into the government network quite easily with nothing more than a dial-up modem, an acoustic coupler, and a regular landline phone.
At a White House meeting the following week, Reagan asked his cabinet, “Could such a thing really happen?” » His team informed him that not only was such a hack possible, but that the current state of U.S. government cybersecurity was even worse than depicted in the film. That led to a whirlwind of legislation, including congressional hearings on the issue of cybersecurity, during which clips of “WarGames” were shown to the assembled lawmakers. After a little over a year of deliberations, the Reagan administration adopted the first-ever presidential directive on cybersecurity, NSDD-145. About a year later, this would evolve into the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the first official federal Internet policy in the United States, which directly prohibits intentional access to any computer system without direct authorization and serves as the basis for most cybercrime laws.
