Second, Ari Rapkin, a computer graphics software engineer at ILM, introduces an amazing paradox: What the special-effects crews are doing is often not emulating physics but tweaking it--because storytelling is better served by showing the audience what it expects, not what would actually happen if a 3-foot-tall creature drew his light saber.

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"When I'm out doing these trips I feel I'm doing something useful, " says software engineer Thomas Davis , 52, a cofounder of Silicon Graphics, who retired two years ago.

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