Meanwhile in 1976... (Score 1)

In 1976, I went around upstate New York pitching for a tiny outfit that produced commercials. One of films I showed the prospective clients was for a production house which used Defense Department-type 3D computer graphics (done on mainframes) to make type rotating through 360 degrees and even a clear bubble! It was awesome. That being said, I think the most important lesson of Tron was the concept that computer programs and functions could be quantified as symbols (and people).... and manipulated. The Xerox (then Apple) GUI was understandable if you had seen Tron. We had been psychologically primed for all of this by reading about the symbolic ceremonies, parade and dances etc. in Herman Hesse's 'Magister Ludi', a very popular work of the 60's and 70's. When we saw Tron and the modern computer GUI, they were recognized instantly as a relative The Glass Bead Game.