I find it awesome every time a Tron writer (official or fan) takes inspiration from real-life computer science and twists real elements just a little bit to fit the world of “anthropomorphised programs” in creative ways you might not expect. But it’s especially cool when they creature-ify them.
I mean things like glitches, malware, bugs. I never watched Uprising so I don’t know much about what’s going on in that show, but I do know Evolution and its take on computer viruses being some sort of corruption/zombie plague. Absolute banger of an enemy threat, I’m still emotional about Abraxas (whose name is a reference to a real life computer virus, also known as Abraxas5)! But then there’s other malware, like worms. I just read a fic describing them as these toothy creatures living in the Outlands, somewhat reminiscent of the sandworms of Dune, and now I’m kind of vibrating in my seat because ohmygosh that’s so COOL. Maybe they appear like that in an official Tron publication, maybe it’s a fanon thing I somehow missed till now, but I am so enamored with the idea.
And of course, I can’t forget Bit from the 1982 movie. Loved that little guy :)
All of this!!!!
I think I read the fic you’re referring to, and yeah I’m pretty sure that author made up the creatures all on their own! There are “code worms” in Uprising but they are small and parasitic (extremely disturbing episode, yeahhhh)
(There are probably other creatures in the videogames, but I haven’t heard of any worms in those.)
Anyway YES I LOVE creative explorations of how IRL computer science could apply to the Tron universe, and seriously, canon does NOT have enough Creatures.
(got a fic idea on a back burner about a program who tames and trains gridbugs as a side job. I figure, pest animals are often the ones most easily domesticated, because they’ve already acclimated themselves to living around people… Soooo imagine a program who gets a call to deal with a gridbug infestation and goes in all Pied Piper of Hamelin playing a song of reprogramming, and next thing you know the bugs are doing your housework for you)
Would bring a new meaning to the expression “it’s not a bug, it’s a feature”.
<3 <3 <3
Ohhhh I just thought of something…
So, there are a few different reasons why Pest to Pet can be a pretty easy transition. Some of the reasons have to do with the fact that the domestication has already partway happened– the most successful domestications, after all, are the ones where animals and people just shared space and resources for enough centuries that they gradually figured out how to make the arrangement beneficial to both.
But there’s also the fact that, if an animal is successfully living wild in your city, there’s a good chance it was a domestic animal at one point. Invasive species are often invasive because they were imported for human use. You can raise a wild pigeon from the streets and make it your pet because pigeons were bred to be pets and working animals, long before they were wild in most cities.
Translating that to the Grid: What if some Grid “pests” began as the sort of… extra junk that’s included on many of the electronics and software we buy? I mean the stuff that’s not really malware, we promise, it’s got a purpose, it’s important for the thing you bought, we swear, just mostly not in ways that’ll ever be beneficial to YOU…
and of course when it gets introduced to a place like the Grid or the Encom system, it becomes a hell of an invasive critter, because its code is more about just surviving than helping any of the Programs or Users there.
And yet. It did begin life as a domestic creature, designed to do something for someone. Maybe just to spy on you and send your data to its true User– but still, it is capable of that, capable of loyalty to a user, even if that user is now nowhere to be found.
And maybe, maybe, like taming a wild pigeon, maybe someday those instincts could be turned around. Maybe the bug can become a feature… can find a new purpose, someone new to be loyal to.
Maybe all it takes is a little love.