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Who is your favorite fictional techie?

Kevin McGinn on February 16, 2018

I'm leaving this a little broad on purpose, so all sorts of characters can be included! Books, TV, movies, comics, anything - who is your favorite fictional techie?

Kasey Speakman • Feb 16 '18 • Edited

Moss from The IT Crowd.

Stephanie Handsteiner • Feb 16 '18

Good choice. :D

Now I've got 0118999881999119725... 3 stuck in my head again, though.

Kevin McGinn • Feb 16 '18

Excellent choice! I really need to watch more of The IT Crowd;the few episodes I have seen are absolutely amazing.

Jake Varness • Feb 18 '18

I was gonna put Moss too lol. You found a much better picture than the one I was gonna pick, so thank you

Gordon • Feb 18 '18

Moss is awesome

Kevin McGinn • Feb 16 '18

I'm finding myself split between two characters with very different tones:

I am enthralled by the complex mental state of Elliot from Mr. Robot. Internal monologues and questionable holds on reality are my jam. And I haven't even finished the first season yet!

On the other hand, there is the deliciously snarky Gilfoyle from Silicon Valley. His combative relationship with Dinesh is comedy gold.

Rich Smith • Feb 17 '18

You are in for such a treat catching up on Mr. Robot!

Great choices!

Jithesh. KT • Feb 17 '18

<3 for Gilfoyle.

Ben Halpern • Feb 16 '18 • Edited

After seeing Black Panther last night, gotta give some love to Shuri!

CTO of Wakanda

Frank Carr • Feb 16 '18

In print Manuel Garcia "Mannie" O'Kelly-Davis from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

From Star Trek, Montgomery Scott for this quote alone...

Captain Kirk: Mr.Scott. Have you always multiplied your repair estimates by a factor of four?
Mr. Scott: Certainly, Sir. How else can I keep my reputation as a miracle worker?

aurel kurtula • Feb 16 '18 • Edited

(My choice could be categorised as an advanced AI specialists/tinkerer)

He is 64 years of age. He spend 17 years in a mental institution. He's brain damaged (parts of his brain are missing). His name is Walter Bishop, "an eccentric researcher specializing in fringe science". And, honestly, I'd love to be like him!

He has all the amazing qualities of children and amateurs. He's enthusiastic, innovative, curious and creative. In order to love what you do, says Paul Graham "you shouldn’t worry about prestige. Prestige is the opinion of the rest of the world", Bishop doesn't - and yet he is taken out of the mental institution because the world needs his expertise.

To illustrate his amazingness

In an episode the team needs to find a person of interest. Walter takes some pigeons, manipulates them in a way that their magnetic field is tuned with the said person's frequency. Once the pigeons are let loose, Walter is asked whether he's sure that this will work, that the pigeons will gravitate to the said person, Walter replies "of course not!"

Isn't that amazing attitude to have? Think about all the newbies that ask "which programming language is worth learning for the next 20 years". Why the hell should you care, learn one and then another when you need to.

After Walter has done this amazing thing to the pigeons (which works btw) he asks

Walter: "So, what do we do now?"
Astrid: "We gotta tie the gps to the mainframe"
Walter: "Genius"

How amazing is that? He manipulated the instinctive behaviour of pigeons and he still finds time to be amazed by few computer clicks!

On another episode, the head of the Fringe team (Phillip Broyles) is waiting for Walter to come out of the car. When he doesn't, Broyles goes to him. Meantime Walter is investigating the car seats and says to Broyles

I never seen a feature like this before - it warms your ass. Its wonderful. Have you tried it

Everyone, from the Stoics to Steve Jobs in his 2005 Stanford commencement speech advice us how important it is to love unconditionally what we do, to leave all distractions such as ego behind.

Walter Bishop for me has all the qualities that I think all these people talk about.

Chris Raser • Feb 17 '18

My top spot gets split four ways: Donna, Cameron, Joe, and Gordon from Halt and Catch Fire. Genuine, real-world techies failing spectacularly and breaking shit, and then picking themselves up and trying again. Doesn't hurt that I think this TV series is one of the best ever made, either.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Lisbeth Salander (from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Utter, utter badass. I think the only reason I don't put her in the top spot is because her powers are depicted as a bit "magical"-- she's a hacker without much explanation (or backlash) for how she does her work.