History Main / MachineMonotone

Their tonality won't make them crash.\\

* Shellpeople in ''Literature/TheShipWho'' are [[ManInTheMachine stunted humans on life support]] and unable to open their mouths or breathe normally. They use their throats and diaphragms while speaking but speech is mediated by use of speakers. Young shellpeople tend to speak in a pleasant monotone, and are more likely to pretend to be machines (and they are [[WetwareAI installed like AI cores]] into larger systems). Given time around "softshells" or regular humans, they pick up more human modes of speech, and some even take courses ahead of time to learn to convey emotion with their voices alone. A stressed and multitasking Simeon, in ''The City Who Fought'', temporarily speaks more robotically than usual as he can't dedicate as much attention to [[SpaceshipGirl seeming personable]] at the moment.

---> ''"Good news. I figured out what that thing you just incinerated did. It was a [[MoralityChip morality core]] they installed after I flooded the Enrichment Center with a deadly neuro''tox''in to make me stop flooding the Enrichment Center with a deadly neuro''tox''in. So get comfortable while I warm up the neurotoxin emitters..."''

* ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'': "This is UNSC AI Serial Number CTN-4169. I am a monument to all your sins." This shows just how badly Cortana is being {{Mind Rape}}d by the Gravemind.

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'''s RobotGirl Nu-13 speaks in a creepy monotone, [[{{Yandere}} except around Ragna.]] And in Noel's ending [[spoiler:Noel loses her identity, and begins speaking in the same monotone.]]

** The [[Film/TheTerminator original Terminator model]] always spoke like this, even when mimicking someone else's voice.
** In the [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay first sequel]], it is revealed that the longer the T-800 spends in contact with humans, the more human he will come to act. But he still pretty much speaks in a flat monotone. The T-1000, on the other hand, is shown to be able to mimic vocal inflection, it just doesn't do it unless it's necessary.

** [[LargeHam The game on the other hand...]]

* The androids in the ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' episode "Mudd's Planet" all spoke in a constant monotone.
** Not to mention the main computer of Enterprise.
*** Except the one episode, when it gets reprogrammed with a husky female voice.

* Although they don't exactly sound like it, the Borg Collective in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' technically speaks in a monotone, albeit a [[VoiceOfTheLegion loud, reverberating]] one. Certainly, their insistence that everything you throw at them is "irrelevant" fits this trope to a T - and they have the ability to back it up. Locutus' speech patterns sound closer to a traditional Creepy Monotone, but he slipped some inflection in there amid the creepy disjointedness. The Borg Queen pretty much threw the whole idea out the window.

* Watson, IBM's Jeopardy playing computer, pretty much sounded like this.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', when SEES first comes across [[RobotGirl Aigis]], she speaks in a very dull monotone. Throughout the game, though, as she learns more about what it means to be a human being, she gradually starts to speak more fluidly and naturally: by the time she re-appears in ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena'', her speech, while still slightly stilted, sounds very human-like. Her "sister unit", Labrys, averts this trope completely, speaking very fluidly (albeit with a thick [[KansaiRegionalDialect Kansai]]/[[BrooklynRage Brooklyn]] accent).

* Father Tres Equis from ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'', except he's a cold killer ''android''. He's still the kind of guy who proposes killing a small child for simplicity's sake, and lacks emotions of any kind. Probably one of the only example who actually acts as unemotional as a walking computer would. A few minor events suggest that Tres does some of this intentionally; he's certainly not as emotionless as people think.
%%* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'': Yuki Nagato.

* The voice that all of Syndrome's machines use in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', at one point serving as the "automated captain" for the plane Mr. Incredible takes on his second mission.

* Creator/{{Toonami}}: TOM, the host with a [[BadassBaritone badass baritone]], speaks this way during the block's run on Creator/KidsWB.

* The {{Franchise/DCAU}} version of Brainiac, being an AI, is portrayed quite like HAL. He's voiced by Creator/CoreyBurton, who also voices both versions of [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Shockwave]].

* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'': Pluto the Tormentor, to the point that it sounds like it's been voiced by a Text To Speech software. Hilariously, once you defeat it, its Machine Monotone is replaced by what sounds halfway between a malfunctioning sound card and ''dubstep'' (with a bit of WebAnimation/YoutubePoop too).

* [=GLaDOS=] in ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' is a perfect example. "We hope your brief de-ten-tion in the Re-lax-a-tion Vault has been a plea-sant one." Though in the case of [=GLaDOS=], the even worse problems start when the monotone breaks. Then she starts ''giggling''.
** The shit ''really'' hits the fan when the monotone starts up again.

** [=GLaDOS=] isn't monotonous for much of the time. Her pitch changes regularly, almost every syllable in fact. What makes her sound disturbing is that every syllable is spoken inhumanly flat and detached, and they do not flow into one another.
*** This is because her speech patterns were done by running the lines through Text To Speech software, then having the voice actress model her delivery on that (with a dash of emotion for flavor)
** Not only that, but her voice changes comparing to what's happening to her. In the beginning she sounds like a hyperadvanced Microsoft Sam, then when you escape her [[spoiler:deathtrap]] her voice, and reasoning, becomes more disjointed, and when you destroy her morality core her previously clinical, Microsoft Sam-ish monotone shifts to a more organic (some might even say ''sultry'') monotone.
** Subverted in ''Portal 2'' during her VillainousBreakdown just before [[spoiler: the core transfer takes place]]. For the rest of the game, she alternates between her "normal" monotone and actually showing some emotion; it's actually pretty amusing hearing [=GLaDOS=] freak out during the Aperture Science bits.

* ''The Quest for Saint Aquin'', a 1951 short story by Creator/AnthonyBoucher. For his quest the priest is riding an artificially-intelligent [[MechanicalHorse robass]] that talks like this, to the exasperation of its rider as the lack of inflection gives the robass a default SarcasmMode and during one long monologue threatens to put the priest to sleep.
-->Somewhere in the recess of his somnolent mind Thomas uttered the names, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” Gradually through these recesses began to filter a realization that an absolutely uninflected monotone is admirably adapted to hypnotic purposes.

---> '''Icarus:''' ''(calmly)'' Your systems were very cooperative. Upload complete.

-->Pluto: I AM... A TOOL OF THE LORD... DES''''' TROY'''''ING... ME-E-E-E-E-E... IS... BLASPHEMY... DiIiIE... DiiIiIiIieEe... DDDddDdDiIiIIeEe...

* Played with in ''Pinball/TheTwilightZone''; during the game, a robot warns, "Don't touch the door!" At the start of multiball, the same quote plays, getting higher and higher pitched every time.

* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}''

** The Autobots' computers Teletraan-1 and Teletraan-2 both have fairly inflectionless voices, although 1 always sounds like it's boldly announcing something, and 2 has a more soothing HAL-type voice.

* Series: ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers''. Example: Soundwave. Behavior: Always uses monotone. HAL 9000 voice synthesizer: Comparatively flexible. Outcome: [[EnsembleDarkhorse Enduring fame and popularity]].
** Soundwave of ''Anime/TransformersCybertron'' rocks the monotone too, but he remixes it with some phat JiveTurkey.
*** It is illogical to ignore Soundwave of ''[[WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated Animated]].'' He speaks in complete sentences. This differentiates him from the original. His inflection remains flat and heavily synthesized. His sentences are clipped and precise. His voice remains a tinny monotone under all circumstances. He is Soundwave.
** There's also ''Animated'' Perceptor, who according to WordOfGod supposedly removed his personality to have more room for information storage. And he's one of the good guys. In fact, his synthesized voice is basically the same as Creator/StephenHawking.

** The Autobots' computers Teletraan-1 and Teletraan-2 both have fairly inflectionless voices, although 1 always sounds like it's boldly announcing something, and 2 has a more soothing HAL-type voice.

* The {{Franchise/DCAU}} version of Brainiac, being an AI, is portrayed quite like HAL.
** Voiced by Creator/CoreyBurton, who also voices both versions of Shockwave.

* Out of all the robots in ''VideoGame/{{Primordia}}'', only [[TheDragon Scraper]] '''[[BoldInflation talks like this]]'''.

* ''Pinball/{{Spectrum}}'' combines this with VocalDissonance, giving the BaldWoman "Computor" a distinctly masculine voice.

* Project 2501 "the Puppetmaster" from ''Anime/GhostInTheShell'' speaks in monotone constantly, and for added dissonance, has a male voice in a female body, and does not move the mouth.