The biographical drama 'The Billion Dollar Code' is a four-part mini-series that is now streaming on Netflix. It was directed by Robert Thalheim and written by Oliver Ziegenbalg. The story begins in the present day with a case deposition setting in a conference room where two Germans, Carsten Schluter and Juri Muller, recount their experiences during the early 90's when they first came up with the idea of Terravision. Carsten was a university art student with a preference for digital art, an art form that was way ahead of his time. He would often display his work at underground clubs that sprang up in those times, which is where he met Juri, a brilliant coder who was part of a hacker group called Chaos Computer Club. Juri helped Carsten out with one of his animations using an image of the earth to show the changes he’s made. While sharing a bite to eat from a food truck, Carsten recalls the animation of the earth and begins to envision an idea of a program where, with the help of a computer, one could zoom into the earth from outer space and visit any place they’d like.
With the specific need for a computer with an Onyx reality engine which cost quite a lot of money back then, they had only one option to turn to in terms of funding which was Deutsche Telekom, a telecommunications company that encouraged technological projects very often in the ’90s. The executives were interested in their idea but asked them if they would be able to get it ready in time for the technological conference in Kyoto the following year and despite knowing full well that they were attempting something no one had done before, they committed to the timeline and got their funding.
They began their work on the program which they had named ‘TerraVision’, with the help of a team of artists and hackers. Obtaining satellite images of every place on earth figuring out the interface and developing an algorithm for the whole thing were all part of the project. As they got closer to Kyoto, Juri still struggled with the development because the computers of old simply did not have the ability to process the amount of data they had collected in the way that they wanted. He then had a eureka moment after a hospital trip, because he collapsed due to a stress disorder, and figured out how to successfully run their program.
They left it late, but by the time they were in Kyoto and at the live conference, they managed to get TerraVision working and it was a huge hit also receiving attention from the US secretary of state.
The series is based on true events.
