"The movie's plot is based on the true story of a group of young computer hackers from Hannover, Germany. In the late 1980s the orphaned Karl Koch invests his inheritance in a flat and a home computer. At first he dials up to bulletin boards to discuss conspiracy theories inspired by his favorite novel, R.A. Wilson's "Illuminatus", but soon he and his friend David start breaking into government and military computers. Pepe, one of Karl's rather criminal acquaintances senses that there is money in computer cracking - he travels to east Berlin and tries to contact the KGB."
A bunch of dorks get online and talk about fandom stuff and it's all just playing around until Pepe contacts the KGB. So... uhh... that like... actually happened.
Reality generally requires surrealist fiction to capture. It's too weird for conventional narratives.
William Gibson put it nicely: every time one of these things happens, the job of sci-fi writers gets harder.
And now Psychedlic Warlord of the Cult of Dead Cow is running for President - but people are worried he's too mainstream and boring to elect. No wonder Gibson is writing recent-past stories these days.
Right? Thirty years ago, Bill Clinton smoking pot was still a major moral question and Beto was a teenager writing weird short stories on forums. Now he's a bland mainstream candidate, his drugs-and-crime teen handle was about a three-day news story, and a former federal prosecutor candidate is making up stories about smoking pot to sound cool. "This makes my job harder" indeed...
