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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 4 of 5)

The Matrix. From the movie of the same name, the Matrix is a gigantic virtual reality simulator that uses humans to power itself so it could create a virtual reality for the humans that power it. Not the most logical supercomputer, but at least this one didn’t want to kill everybody.

iFruit. In the “FoxTrot” comic strip, Jason’s iFruit computer is a self-aware machine resembling Apple’s godawful iMac series.

343 Guilty Spark. The Monitor of Installation 04 in all three Halo games. Appearing at the end of Halo’s sixth level, it asks Master Chief to help activate Halo’s defenses, conveniently forgetting to tell him that this will destroy all intelligent life in the galaxy.

A.I. From the 2001 movie of the same name, starring Haley Joel Osment—only this time he sees living people. Based on a Stanley Kubrick adaptation of a Brian Aldiss story, directed by Steven Spielberg. Osment plays an android boy who, like Pinocchio, only wants to be human, only wants to be loved. In this picture, humans are shown to be incapable of love, only robots know how. Not a feel-good film.

Red Queen. In the 2002 movie “Resident Evil,” the Umbrella Corporation has built a top-secret genetic research facility underneath Raccoon City. The facility is called The Hive and its purpose is to develop nerve gas, so obviously the best place to put it is underneath a city. The Hive is controlled by an AI called the Red Queen. When a vial of nerve gas breaks, it turns almost everyone into a murderous zombie. (Are these places designed to fail, or what?!) Milla Jovovich has to fight all these zombies to escape, only to discover that the gas has escaped into the atmosphere—thereby guaranteeing multiple sequels.


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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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