LOGIN | REGISTER NOW | SUBSCRIBE
 
Print

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


By David Gerrold


 David Gerrold
Email
July 20, 2012 —  (Page 1 of 5)
Previously, on The Trouble with Gerrold...

Science fiction is a unique kind of conversation. It’s not about what is, it’s about what might be. As a literature of the extraordinary, SF does three things well: it is prophetic, it is prophylactic, and it is prescriptive. It predicts the future, it warns against the future, and it suggests remedies for the future.

The computer, even before it was known as “the computer,” has almost always been imagined as the most powerful tool human beings could have. While all of our other tools have been about expanding muscle power, the computer is the only one that expands our brain power.

Expanding human intelligence and taking us to the next level of evolution has long been a staple of science fiction. As we saw in the beginning of this list, from the very beginning, speculative authors have been predicting, warning and attempting to cure the various possibilities of advanced computing technology.

Completing the list, here are the final 25 most memorable computers in science fiction.

Deep Thought. In “The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy,” Douglas Adams mordantly hysterical radio series from 1978 (and eventually a series of books), Deep Thought is the ultimate computer built to answer the ultimate question of “Life, the Universe, and Everything.” Deep Thought constructs the Earth to work out the results. The answer is 42. Unfortunately, the question is “What is 6 x 9?”—which explains why the universe is so screwed up.

Marvin, the Paranoid Android. Also from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy,” Marvin may very well be the single most useless—and annoying—machine in science fiction.

MU-TH-R 182 model 2.1 terabyte AI Mainframe/“Mother”. MU-TH-R is the shipboard computer of the spaceship Nostromo, in Ridley Scott’s 1978 movie, “Alien.” Known by the crew as “mother,” the script is by Dan O’Bannon and MU-TH-R is the literary descendant of Dark Star’s “Mother.” (2.1 terabytes?!! Is that all? Ha!)

KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand). From the 1982 TV series “Knight Rider,” KITT was the brain and operating system of a heavily modified Pontiac Trans-Am, voiced by William Daniels, who was simultaneously starring on “St. Elsewhere” and wisely asked not to be credited in this series. This series starred David Hasselhoff.

Master Control Program. “TRON,” from 1982, was the first motion picture to use computer-generated imagery throughout. A human programmer gets trapped inside a computer world and discovers that programs are self-aware. He must get to the Master Control Program—a gigantic operating system with a very bad attitude (no jokes please, we know what you’re thinking)—and disable it if he is to escape back to his own world.


Related Search Term(s): science fiction

Pages 1 2 3 4 5 


Share this link: http://sdt.bz/36816
 
Digg!  Digg
Reddit  Reddit
Slashdot  Slashdot
Share on facebook  Facebook
Share on Twitter  Twitter



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


close
NEXT ARTICLE
The Trouble with Gerrold: The 50 most memorable computers (and robots) in science fiction, part one
These computers were visionary looks into what we take for granted today, and were entertaining to boot Read More...
 
 
 




News on Monday  more>>
Android Developer News  more>>
SharePoint Tech Report  more>>
Big Data TechReport  more>>

   
 
 

 


Download Current Issue
JUNE 2013 PDF ISSUE

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Want to subscribe?


 
 
 
 

Events calendar tab
Mobile Commerce World
6/24/2013 to 6/26/2013
San Francisco
UBM TechWeb
USENIX Federated Conference
6/24/2013 to 6/28/2013
San Jose, Calif.
USENIX
Microsoft Build
6/26/2013 to 6/28/2013
San Francisco
Microsoft
Conf. on Big Data Security
7/17/2013 to 7/18/2013
Boston
MIS Training Institute
ACM SIGGRAPH
7/21/2013 to 7/25/2013
Anaheim, Calif.
ACM SIGGRAPH