The computers tell the same story as the people.

Jan’s xBase workbench is a mature DOS developer environment: older than Gil’s production shell, but not primitive. Gil is one generation ahead, not modern. This makes the hierarchy legible before anyone explains it.

Jan’s whole chapter belongs to the CRT, not only his terminal. The tape shares the blue xBase workbench, grey DOS furniture, yellow emphasis and function-key grammar used in his repair scenes. Small interface copy uses a coarse 8-dot raster; large lesson headings use a denser 16-dot raster so they remain period-correct without becoming giant square blocks.

Gil’s stand-up, archive query and resource-policy change all occupy the same Windows 95 terminal dimensions. Commands type at the prompt, Enter creates the next row, and output prints in sequence. Cuts change the buffer, never the application language.

The agents do not suddenly invent a science-fiction display. Their communications view grows from the excellent comparison and topology tools the researchers already gave them. By the bank episodes, the same node grammar is faster, denser and operational.

The colour mode follows what the viewer is looking at. Workplaces remain bright and believable; darkness is reserved for machine state, evidence and danger. Reports return to light because a human is expected to read them.

These components carry exposition while the voices continue. They enter clause by clause, preserve a readable final hold, and reduce the need to stop the film for a full-screen explanation.

Morrowvale lets Samantha take a Mac home in week two so she can keep experimenting after school; she calls the office machines “wow tech.” Its restrained Mac OS chrome sits only one visual generation beyond Gil's system and hosts a retained Sitter client with intentionally coarse graphics.

Young researchers use contemporary macOS-like workstations: calm, readable and flexible. Dark evidence panes sit inside a bright physical environment rather than turning the whole film into science fiction.

The bank is newer but more conservative: squared application chrome, explicit audit ownership, pale document surfaces and graphite evidence panes. It should feel expensive, procedural and believable.

The graphic quality improves as the system scales, but Gil always keeps the same green body, wide-set eyes, small straight smile and yellow G badge. Viewers recognise him before they consciously know why.