List of fictional computers

Computers have often been used as fictional objects in literature, movies and in other forms of media. Fictional computers tend to be considerably more sophisticated than anything yet devised in the real world.

Warning: Spoilers follow

Helpful / benevolent fictional computers

• AC, the ultimate computer at the end of time in Isaac Asimov's short story The Last Question The name is derived from "automatic computer", via MULTIVAC, from which it is descended (see below).
• The benevolent CC (Central Computer) in John Varley's Eight Worlds novels and short stories
• The Central Computer of the city of Diaspar in Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars
• The ship, hub and planetary Minds in Iain M. Banks' "Culture" novels and stories.
• Mycroft Holmes (aka Mike, Adam Selene), in Robert Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (Named after the brother of Sherlock Holmes)
• MULTIVAC, a supercomputer which features in a number of stories by Isaac Asimov
• The Machines, positronic supercomputers that manage the world in Isaac Asimov's short story The Evitable Conflict.
• The computer of the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek, based on the fictional LCARS computer architecture.

Harmful / malevolent fictional computers

• AM from Harlan Ellison's short story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
• Colossus, from
• HAL 9000, in (and sequels) in which the computer (HAL) starts murdering the crew when it discovers that they plan to disconnect its higher brain functions because of what they believe to be a problem. HAL's actions are later revealed to be the result of a logic conflict. Also, SAL 9000, HAL 9000's Earth-based twin system.
• M-5, an experimental computer featured in the Star Trek original series episode "The Ultimate Computer".
• Proteus IV, the computer self-programmed to rape in the film/novel Demon Seed
• Skynet, the malevolent fictional world-AI of The Terminator and its sequels.
• CABAL (Computer Assisted Bio-engineered Artificial Life-form) the computer of Nod in Westwoods "Command and Conquer 3".

Ambivalent / neutral fictional computers

• The unnamed computer from Fredric Brown's short story "Answer", which answers the question "Is there a God?" with "Yes, now there is a God."
• Deep Thought, the computer that found the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything in Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; Deep Thought is also the name of a non-fictional chess computer, named in its honor.
• Earth, the greatest computer of all time in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, bought and run by mice to solve the question to the Life the Universe and Everything.
• Eddie, the shipboard computer with artificial personality in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
• Magic Voice, the Satellite of Love's onboard computer on Mystery Science Theater 3000
• WESCAC (West Campus Analog Computer) from John Barth's Giles Goat-Boy

Uncategorized

• EPICAC XIV, in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Player Piano
• Extro, in Alfred Bester's novel The Computer Connection
• GWB-666, the Great Western Beast of Robert Anton Wilson's Schrödinger's Cat trilogy, published in 1988.
• Hactar, the computer that designed the cricket-ball-shaped doomsday bomb (that would destroy the universe) for the people of Krikkit, also in Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• Hex, from Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
• First Universal Cybernetic-Kinetic Ultra-Micro Programmer, from the Illuminatus trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson
• HARLIE, protagonist of When HARLIE was One by David Gerrold
• Holly, on-board computer for the space ship Red Dwarf in the BBC television series of the same name.
• "Joe" a "logic" (that is to say, a personal computer) in Murray Leinster's 1946 short story A Logic Named Joe
• Joshua, a subprogram that runs on the WOPR (War Operations Plan and Response), from the movie War Games
• Neuromancer, from William Gibson's novel of the same name
• The "Ox" in Frank Herbert's novel
• TECT, from George Alec Effinger, various books. Notice that there are several computers named TECT in his novels, even though they are unrelated stories.
• Wintermute, from William Gibson's novel Neuromancer
• Zen, Orac, and Slave, from the television series Blake's 7

Computers as Robots

• See List of fictional robots

Related article

• Artificial intelligence

External links

• http://newark.rutgers.edu/~hbf/compulit.htm

• http://www.computer.org/intelligent/homepage/x2his.htm
• http://technicity.net/articles/writing_the_future.htm
• http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade/mnbkfc.htm (a large set of reviews of fiction that bears on computers in some aspect)
• List of computer names in science fiction (note: also includes androids, robots and sundry aliens)

Referenced By