Yeah, when we were rewatching it, we were kind of amazed at how well it holds up, all things considered.

I think what makes it likable for me is that it's all on the cusp of believability. Obviously LLMs weren't quite mature enough to do everything Joshua did back then (and probably not now), but the fact that the "hacking" was basically just social engineering, and was just achieved by wardialing and a bit of creative thinking makes it somewhat charming, even today.

With the advent of LLMs being used increasingly for everyone, I do wonder how close we're going to get to some kind of "Global Thermonuclear War" simulation gone awry.

i still love the phreaking scene trying to make a phone call where he uses the can pull tab to ground the phone. it was more of a phreaker vibe than trying to whistle into the phone or social engineer an operator or just happening to have a dialer on him.