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The Trouble with Gerrold: The 50 most memorable computers (and robots) in science fiction, part two


By David Gerrold


 David Gerrold
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July 20, 2012 —  (Page 3 of 5)

Max Headroom. First appearing on British TV in 1985, then in an American television drama, Max is a super-stylized artificial intelligence, visible only on TV screens. Max exists in a surreal universe of his own and speaks in staccato and sometimes incomprehensible raps. A visionary show, at least a decade ahead of its time.

Holly. “Red Dwarf” was a BBC comedy series from 1988 set on a huge 22nd century mining ship, six miles long. A radiation leak kills everyone on board the Red Dwarf except David Lister, a technician held in suspended animation. Three million years later, after the radiation has died down, the spaceship’s computer, Holly, finally thaws him out. Holly also resurrects his former bunkmate as a hologram. The rest of the crew is evolved from the offspring of Lister’s pregnant cat during the three million years that Lister was in stasis.

Ziggy. The unseen computer from “Quantum Leap.” Voiced by co-executive producer, Deborah Pratt, Ziggy runs the project and tries to figure out the purposes of Sam Beckett’s (Scott Bakula) weekly leaps. Ziggy was finally revealed in the fourth season.

Solace. Hugo and Nebula award-winning author Spider Robinson has published multiple science fiction stories and novels taking place in “Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon,” noteworthy as a nexus for bizarre aliens, mirror-world realities, lost time-travelers, and other displaced entities who need help and healing. Solace is a distributed intelligence, accessible via a possessed Mac. (Yes, we know that last part is hard to believe.)

Emergency Medical Hologram. From the 1995 TV series “Star Trek: Voyager.” Played by Robert Picardo, the Emergency Medical Hologram is known as The Doctor, and functions as the starship’s own McCoy.


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Comments


07/28/2012 05:29:06 PM EST

Hey, I enjoyed the list. I think I've encountered almost every one of those AIs. If you get a chance, check out Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers. The AI at the center of the book, Helen, is built from the ground up in a series of generations. The idea is that she will compete against a human graduate student in a university's comprehensive graduate literature exam, and judges will try to pick which bluebook came from the human and which from the computer -- quite a specialized Turing test. The book is heartbreakingly beautiful. Some critics say Powers is too cerebral for his own good, but I can't resist his dazzling sentences. Talk to you soon. JDH

Serbia & MontenegroJ.D. Hildebrand


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