World on a Wire Quotes

World on a Wire is a television show that was first aired in 1970 . World on a Wire stopped airing in 1970.

It features Peter Märthesheimer, and Alexander Wesemann as producer, Gottfried Hüngsberg in charge of musical score, and Michael Ballhaus, and Ulrich Prinz as head of cinematography.

World on a Wire is recorded in German and originally aired in West Germany. Each episode of World on a Wire is 205 minutes long. World on a Wire is distributed by Janus Films.

The cast includes: Klaus Löwitsch as Fred Stiller, Barbara Valentin as Gloria Fromm, Wolfgang Schenck as Franz Hahn, Margit Carstensen as Maya Schmidt-Gentner, Karl-Heinz Vosgerau as Herbert Siskins, Gottfried John as Einstein, Günter Lamprecht as Fritz Walfang, and Adrian Hoven as Professor Henry Vollmer.

World on a Wire Quotes

Margit Carstensen as Maya Schmidt-Gentner

• (Margit Carstensen) "Who's with you know?"
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "Where?"
• (Margit Carstensen) "At work."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "A woman named Gloria Fromm."
• (Margit Carstensen) "42-26-39."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "39 1/2. From all that sitting. You should know."

Karl-Heinz Vosgerau as Herbert Siskins

• (Karl-Heinz Vosgerau) "I must apologize for Professor Vollmer. He's been working day and night. His nerves have always been delicate. The line between genius and madness, you know."

Klaus Löwitsch as Fred Stiller

• (Klaus Löwitsch) "I am. I am."

• (Klaus Löwitsch) "The contact unit. That's it. The contact unit. We needed a contact unit for our simulation model to work. Einstein. If we're the simulation model of a real world, there must be an Einstein here who knows, who's in contact with above."

• (Klaus Löwitsch) "The whiskey, peanuts, all artificial. Why are you gobbling them down? Nervous?"
• (Wolfgang Schenck) "No, I was thinking they taste good for artificial peanuts."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "Don't joke about it. You must have a screw loose."
• (Wolfgang Schenck) "Yes, an artificial one."

• (Klaus Löwitsch) "How can a real person love someone who's not?"

• (Klaus Löwitsch) "I think, therefore I am. Right? Yes, I exist. I can't be alone in thinking that nothing really exists. Right. For Plato, reality exists in the realm of ideas. And Aristotle. He conceived of matter as passive non-substance that only becomes reality by thought."

• (Klaus Löwitsch) "Here's a riddle I came across: imagine a drawing of a Greek warrior holding a spear looking to his right and taking a step. With a turtle going the same way. First, does that ring a bell? Ever seen such a drawing?"
• (Wolfgang Schenck) "Me? What's this all about?"
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "Vollmer left me this drawing. Does it mean anything to you?"
• (Wolfgang Schenck) "Bizarre, if you ask me."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "Bizarre, sure. Does it remind you of anything?"
• (Wolfgang Schenck) "Maybe."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "What?"
• (Wolfgang Schenck) "Zeno."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "Zeno?"
• (Wolfgang Schenck) "Yes. Zeno's paradox. Achilles and the tortoise. Achilles tries to overtake the tortoise, but cannot. By the time he reaches where it was, the turtle has moved ahead."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "What could the paradox mean to our work?"
• (Wolfgang Schenck) "I'm only the psychologist for the creations. But, as I recall, the paradox is meant to show that movement is an illusion."

• (Klaus Löwitsch) "You're nothing. There's the rub. Because nothing doesn't think."

• (Klaus Löwitsch) "Crazy. Yes, he is. Is he? Stop. Your cigarette. Are you sure that's a cigarette?"
• (Von Weinlaub, secretary of state) "It's --"
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "The idea of a cigarette. You see? The real cigarettes are somewhere else. Where real people sit on real chairs. Is that a chair? Say, "It's a chair.""
• (Von Weinlaub, secretary of state) "It's a chair."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "It's not a chair. It's the idea of an idea of an idea."

• (Klaus Löwitsch) "My time's up. Good-bye, Einstein."
• (Gottfried John) "Come on, show me. Come on, show me. Come on, show me. I can't bear it. Please take me with you."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "You know that's absurd. I'll be back."

• (Klaus Löwitsch) "What are the limits to the perceptive faculties of our identity units? Listen, suppose we were beings who had been programmed in a computer. We'd sit here, drinking whiskey. We'd perceive what is in fact our imaginary world as if it were the real one."
• (Günter Lamprecht) "Of course, an electronically simulated environment would appear real to the electronic being."

• (Klaus Löwitsch) "The people in our simulation model think their world is the only real one."
• (Wolfgang Schenck) "So?"
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "Who says this isn't also a computer? You, me, all of us, just electronic circuits. Identity unit 3,124,000, named Hahn. How does that sound?"
• (Wolfgang Schenck) "Drunk."

• (Klaus Löwitsch) "Still 42-26-39?"
• (Barbara Valentin) "39 1/2. You get fat, just sitting around."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "But every inch is precious."

• (Klaus Löwitsch) "You know about the sabotage during my hook-up. But that a cop who'd interviewed me once; forgot, and interrogated me again; that you don't know. Or, that the other night everything, the streets, lights, disappeared for a few seconds; that you don't konw. Nor can you imagine the dizzy spells and depression."
• (Wolfgang Schenck) "I see. A street vanished and then reappeared?"
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "Yes."

• (Klaus Löwitsch) "You have to imagine the inside of our simulation model; we call it Simulacron; as a reproduction in miniature of our society. At the moment, we have slightly over 9,000 so-called identity units, each of which has the faculties of perception, thought, memory, imagination, and so forth, of a real human being. With Simulacron, we have, in a word, a tiny universe identical to our own. Into this universe, we can introduce certain impulses which -- impulses which lead to highly specific reactions. Reactions that precisely replicate human reactions 20 years in the future. This means we can use Simulacron to avoid the mistakes we'd make in that period. For example, we can, to be extremely concrete, use the Simulacron to learn consumer habits 20 years from now, how housing needs will evolve, which transportation modes will become obsolete and which ones will be in use."

• (Klaus Löwitsch) "Strictly speaking, it isn't a computer in the conventional sense, but rather an electronic simulation system with tremendous storage capacity. As Professor Henri Vollmer put it, with this system we achieved the qualitative jump to an autonomous computer. We've created an artificial miniature world out of circuits, switches, electronic impulses and reflexes. When fully functional, it will lead a life of its own according to our rules and with its own dynamics."

Barbara Valentin as Gloria Fromm

• (Barbara Valentin) "10,000 people. They're people, aren't they?"
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "As you like. To us they're mere circuits. But to them -- They live just like we do -- build roads, listen to music, eat --"
• (Barbara Valentin) "And make love?"
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "That, too. Make love, enjoy life, have kids."
• (Barbara Valentin) "Exciting."

• (Barbara Valentin) "I'm one of his puppets. But, what's even worse is, I love it. At least at night."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "Want to sleep with me?"
• (Barbara Valentin) "Ya."

• (Barbara Valentin) "You're my type of man, well almost."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "You're exactly my type of woman"

• (Barbara Valentin) "The way you describe it is fascinating."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "You're fascinating."

• (Barbara Valentin) "I'm delighted to work with you."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "The pleasure's all mine."

• (Barbara Valentin) "How's the computer coming?"
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "Okay and how's working for Siskins?"
• (Barbara Valentin) "No, I mean it. I'm very interested in the Simulacron. Is it it true you've created an artificial world?"
• (Klaus Löwitsch) ""World" is an exaggeration. Currently we've some 10,000 identity units. That's all we need for now. The world in a nutshell, you see?"

Adrian Hoven as Professor Henry Vollmer

• (Adrian Hoven) "What do you see? Please, please, what do you see? Let me help you, Mr.?"
• (Von Weinlaub, secretary of state) "Von Weinlaub"
• (Adrian Hoven) "Alright. von Weinlaub. You are nothing more than the image others have made of you. That's all."

Wolfgang Schenck as Franz Hahn

• (Wolfgang Schenck) "I've thought a lot about you, Stiller. I believe with your new responsibility for the simulation model and the unusual stress of your job, you're overworked, psychologically unstable. Think about it. Everyday you reign like God over a miniature world you helped create and which you mistake more and more for the real world. You can add and delete people at will. This leads to feelings of guilt, depression and fear. You need to relax, forget it all."

• (Wolfgang Schenck) "I can imagine what Vollmer's shattering discovery was. I bet it had to do with his attitude towards the identity units we'd programmed in his computer. You remember how he called them "my children"."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "He was only joking."
• (Wolfgang Schenck) "You can't spend years feeding data into a computer that allows for the simulation of every aspect of human behavior without asking yourself if it might lead to the creation of something resembling human consciousness."

• (Wolfgang Schenck) "I want to find out who's crazy; us or everyone else."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "Well now, that's what I call a noble motive."

Gottfried John as Einstein

• (Gottfried John) "He was on the verge of a breakdown."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "Why?"
• (Gottfried John) "He knew."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "What did he know?"
• (Gottfried John) "Somehow he'd found out; what he was."
• (Klaus Löwitsch) "You can't just find that out. Did you say something?"
• (Gottfried John) "You know my circuits prohibit it."

Add or Update Quotes

If you have a quote to add or change and want to let us know, please fill in the form below. Include the time in the film/video if possible so we can find it.