Memba JAG? (1995, Donald P. Bellisario). If you liked it, then you will love The Code (2019, Craig Sweeny and Craig Turk). S1:E5 (Maggie’s Drawers), tells us a proper coding related story. A new weapon system kills two Marines during a test. After the Ooops moment, Anna Wood (Captain Maya Dobbins), Luke Mitchell (Captain John ‘Abe’ Abraham) and Phillipa Soo (Lieutenant Harper) investigate what happened and try to Columbo out who should spend the rest of it life in jail. How does this relate to computing? It is, in fact, quite apropos. With all the new self-driving vehicles the industry is rushing to push to the market, there will be casualties. And when the bodies start piling up, someone will be designated as accountable. Will it be the HW manufacturer? The SW developer? The FW developer? I find that the writers handled the story pretty well in the episode. They even went the extra mile and show code (likely C++), with excellent references to swarm systems, GPS, etc. Cool and credible. Unfortunately, the episode keeps it safe and avoids answering the question of autonomous systems’ responsibilities. Instead, a Hungarian descent Marine officer is found to be the culprit (and yes, he is a native Hungarian speaker ;-)). I stayed hungry. But at least, the writers brought the episode to closure the right way. Indeed, Harper and Abe learn from SW experts that every coder has a style that is a fingerprint. For the needs of the show, they make it pretty simple (lame?): the word apply spelled applz in a comment reveals who the killer is. (no, it is not Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick).
