"Computers don't call people, David..."

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A computer calls me three times a bloody week in spam calls.

What phone records are you suggesting existed? The data of what calls were made probably wouldnt have been kept by a computer at NORAD...so lets talk about phone calls through Ma Bell which would have been the phone company at the time...Those records would have been kept on giant tape recorders and tapes....It would have taken a long while to get to that data....So sure in the end i guess it would have been possible to get the official answer...but in the time frame we're talking and the overall ignorance the military had of its WOPR....Its a fair thing to believe that David did all of the calling.

I think a bigger goof about that is that David says: "Joshua called me", and McKittrick immediately understood David meant 'computer'.

What?

Shouldn't he have asked, "Who is Joshua?" instead of assuming "Joshua" means 'computer'? Also, if he knew 'Joshua' is WOPR, then wouldn't he rather ask how does David know WOPR's real name, etc..

That whole thing doesn't make sense. For David to even call it 'Joshua' and expect McKittrick to understand what he's talking about is already strange and illogical. David didn't know the computer's name was Joshua until he realized that must be the password Falken would've used, because Falken's son was called Joshua.

It's a big leap to assume the FBI interrogator knows this computer system so intimately, that a secret, Falken-installed backdoor-password about Falken's son is obviously the computer's real name, somehow.

Since when is a PASSWORD the name and identity of a computer (or a whole computer system, like WOPR) anyway?

The more I think about it, the more idiotic and thoughtless this scene seems.

Besides, no one and nothing really calls 'people'. It's all 'phones calling other phones', or 'modems calling other modems', or rarely, 'modems calling phones'. Or to be more exact, 'modems calling phone lines' or even more specifically, 'phone numbers'.. maybe switches and extensions?

Hm, now that I think about it, I don't know the official term for -what- a phone calls, when it calls a phone number. Line? Number? Extension? In any case, why would they think 'computers don't call people'? Computers do whatever they're programmed to do, and THEY KNEW they had an experimental, sophisticated ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE in there.

They knew they had a powerful A.I. that's trusted to handle defence response - why the heck would it be so difficult to believe this trusted, powerful A.I. could also make a simple phone call, since computers can do that anyway when they're connected to modems?

Someone really didn't think while writing

Also, you got the quote wrong.

It's.. "David, machines don't call people."

Otherwise, all my points still stand.

McKittrick was very ignorant about computers. He had no idea on wardialing?? He was the one who insisted that WORP manage the country's nuclear defense. Crazy!