History Main / MasterComputer

* Grandmother, the MasterComputer of Japan in ''Comicbook/MagnusRobotFighter,'' is a rare ''good guy'' example. She's the [[RobotRomance girlfriend]] of Magnus's robot mentor, 1A. She also has a physical form as a giant FemBot. Yes, ''of course'' [[AnimeTropes Japan is run by a]] RobotGirl HumongousMecha.

* Grandmother, the MasterComputer of Japan in ''Comicbook/MagnusRobotFighter,'' is a rare ''good guy'' example. She's the [[RoboticSpouse girlfriend]] of Magnus's robot mentor, 1A. She also has a physical form as a giant FemBot. Yes, ''of course'' [[AnimeTropes Japan is run by a]] RobotGirl HumongousMecha.

* Grandmother, the MasterComputer of Japan in ''Comicbook/MagnusRobotFighter,'' is a rare ''good guy'' example. She's the [[RobotSpouse girlfriend]] of Magnus's robot mentor, 1A. She also has a physical form as a giant FemBot. Yes, ''of course'' [[AnimeTropes Japan is run by a]] RobotGirl HumongousMecha.

* Grandmother, the MasterComputer of Japan in ''Comicbook/MagnusRobotFighter,'' is a rare ''good guy'' example. She's the girlfriend of Magnus's robot mentor, 1A. She also has a physical form as a giant FemBot. Yes, ''of course'' [[AnimeTropes Japan is run by a]] RobotGirl HumongousMecha.

* Grandmother, the MasterComputer of Japan in ''Comicbook/MagnusRobotFighter,'' is a rare ''good guy'' example. She's the girlfriend of Magnus's robot mentor, 1A. She also has a physical form as a giant FemBot (of ''course'' [[AnimeTropes Japan is run by a]] HumongousMecha).

** Ironically, ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' presented the Master Computer as a dangerous, dehumanizing thing that would inevitably threaten human lives. In particular, the episode "The Ultimate Computer" made an automated starship ''Enterprise'' into an [[AIIsACrapshoot uncontrolled killing machine]]. However, by ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', the ship computer on the ''Enterprise-D'' is shown to be fully-capable of running the entire ship without a crew as early the first season episode "11001001". It and subsequent Master Computers would also function as general purpose science personnel, with crew members being almost as likely to ask the ship computer speculative questions and receive reasonably accurate answers as they would ask a fellow crew member. Or, the computer might technically '''be''' a fellow crew member. As was the case with the Doctor on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', who was technically a program running on the ship's computer until they acquired a piece of AppliedPhlebotinum that allowed him to go mobile. He could also be transferred into another starship's main computer, along with an automatic run command to start his program as soon as the download was complete.

** Amusingly this means the trope is so strong that the software reality of multiple instances is as nothing: zap one copy of the MCP and it is all over.
*** Can be TruthInTelevision; different programming languages are better or worse at it, but in many, dependencies across different parts of a program, or different concurrent instances of a program, can cause errors or crashes in one if another is shut down.

** Justified since the original book was written in 1969, and that's how computers were deployed back then.
* ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'' has a good example: Spock and the others find it 'obvious' that the machine intelligence V'Ger must have a single central computer (rather than a network). Also justified, as when the film came out the cutting edge of desktop computer technology was barely up to basic spreadsheet applications and peer-to-peer networking almost unheard of.
* ''Franchise/TheMatrix'':
** Averted with the Matrix, which itself appears to be a massive distributed simulation: it includes interaction with billions of humans across many farms in many different locations in the real world, and it is never suggested that the Matrix could physically be attacked.
** The "Zion mainframe" partially fills this role in the first movie, since Smith implies getting that one access code would somehow guarantee a machine victory over Zion, though its physical form isn't discussed besides calling it a mainframe. It may also be justified in that Zion doesn't have a lot of physical space over which to distribute its systems, and those are isolated from the rest of the world by necessity.
** The machine city seems to at least represent this trope in the third movie, as Neo has to physically go there to negotiate with what appears to be the authority for the entire machine civilization.

* ''EndersGame'' sequels - Averted with Jane, the interstellar sentient AI running in small pieces on every computer in the galaxy. [[spoiler:To kill her, the government has to disconnect every single computer from the intergalactic network, swap them out with new "clean" ones. And then she got better anyway.]]

* In Creator/RobertWestall's ''Literature/FuturetrackFive'' Britain is maintained and monitored by a supercomputer named Laura; named after the dead ex-girlfriend of her creator, the Tech Idris, the Chief Analyst. The protagonist eventually comes up with a plan to destroy her after her fidns out what Scott-Astbury was up to. [[spoiler: [[DownerEnding It doesn't work.]]]]

* ''Series/BlakesSeven'' had the Federation's Star One, which somehow manages to be this for an empire that stretches across several dozen solar systems and controls almost ''everything''. This is almost certainly an InvokedTrope on account of the Federation's paranoid megalomaniac tendencies, and when the thing finally gets blown up the consequences are ''not'' pretty; on the ApocalypseHow scale it ranks as Class 2, but is on the low end of ''Galactic'' in scope.

* ''Series/AForAndromeda''.

* ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' has SHODAN. Originally artificially constrained by its (presumably GenreSavvy) programmers, at the start of the first game it gets hacked into and the constraints are disabled. SHODAN becomes sentient, and [[AIIsACrapshoot the predictable happens]]. Although SHODAN is confined to the space station the game is set on, the player must make their way (eventually) to the bridge of the station in order to attack SHODAN's "main system" and kill the AI completely, thus implying that SHODAN is a master computer-type with fully control over the station's systems. In addition, one of her plans is to [[spoiler: download herself to the Earth computer network, thus gaining control over the entire world and also circumventing the master computer weakness]].
** And subverted, because [[spoiler: in ''System Shock 2'' it turns out that the processing components on one of the parts of the space station the protagonist from the first game jettisoned are enough to form a new incarnation of SHODAN. Seems like she was into redundant systems after all...]]
** Actually, you don't go blow up the computer. [[spoiler: You go to fight SHODAN core program.]] Which is more plausible, since she most likely didn't made "backups" of herself that much.

* Mother Brain, and later the Aurora Units, from the ''{{Metroid}}'' series. Mother Brain runs both the Space Pirate organization and the entirety of the planet Zebes, while the Federation is utterly dependent on its Aurora mainframes for its military planning. The failure and destruction of these devices is a recurring theme throughout the games.\\
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Note that these computers are [[OrganicTechnology organic]]- essentially giant, genetically engineered brains, hence a single master system is kind of a necessity.\\
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The trope is played with in ''MetroidOtherM'' [[spoiler:, where MB ''used'' to be one of these, but had her [[AIIsACrapshoot AI]] downloaded into a RidiculouslyHumanRobot.]]

* [[DefiedTrope Defied]] in ''Franchise/MassEffect''. Since AIIsACrapshoot, no computer is ever designed with more than rudimentary "virtual" intelligence (shown to be little better than a modern software assistant), and most information flows through a galactic Internet-like network. Naturally, when machine sentience does turn up ([[EverythingTryingToKillYou and try to kill you]]), it's almost always structured around massively parallel processing (the rogue VI on Luna, the geth, etc.).\\
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The trope is used straight as well: [[spoiler: The AI funneling funds from the Quasar machines is housed in a single "quantum blue-box" in the back of The Emporium shop.]]

* At first it appears to be averted in ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' -- the Aquinas protocols allow the Daedalus, Icarus and later Helios AIs to run a fraction of their processing power on every single internet connected device in the world.\\
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However, later Helios seems to be physically localized in the Aquinas Hub, the center of all communication systems on the planet.
* {{Rez}} has Eden, who controls the flow of every single piece of data over the K-project computer network. All by herself. Needless to say, things [[GoneHorriblyWrong go bad.]]

** [[TheGreatCrash *Whistles innocently*]]

* The WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) computer in the movie ''WarGames''. Not initially (and not designed to be) a Master Computer, but becomes one after the events in the movie's introduction.

* The Master Control Program from ''{{Tron}}''. "[[VerbalTic End Of Line.]]"

* ''EagleEye'' has [[spoiler: ARIIA, the signals-intelligence computer that skirts the line by being DangerouslyGenreSavvy enough to try to upload herself to a satellite backup.]]
* ''AndromedaStrain'' had all of Wildfire's computer terminals connected to the main computer on level one. Computations were conducted by the main computer on a timesharing system.

** Multivac in the early short stories.
** In ''The Last Question,'' (readable [[http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html here]]) the story takes place over an indeterminate length of time, where people ask the same question (how to prevent the heat death of the universe) of Multivac and every one of its descendants. This ends with "Man," the personification of a true, perfect unification of ''every last human being in the universe,'' asks the question of the final version of the AC. It still can't answer... [[spoiler:but when said heat death does occur, it merges with Man, spends an undefined amount of time processing, and then revitalises the universe by declaring "Let There Be Light".]]

Older media dealing with computers were predicated on the idea of the MasterComputer. A science fiction {{dystopia}} holding humanity in chains could be liberated by finding the key mainframe and either shutting it down or destroying it. The main character often destroys the key mainframe by asking it a [[LogicBomb paradoxical or philosophical question]] or by reading [[StrawVulcan poetry]] to it, causing it to self-destruct. A major, world-spanning corporation could be brought to its knees by sabotaging its mainframe. Governments could be held hostage by anyone who controlled the single computer and rendered its data inaccessible.

Largely a DiscreditedTrope today due to the growth of networks and multiply redundant systems; and, maybe, due to the fall of the Soviet Union, that simply loved centralizing everything. However, the software industry called Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is built around integrating all of a business or university's accounting and management software and automatically generating reports for the executives. So instead of being one physical computer, the MasterComputer is now one or more entire data centers. See also ComputerEqualsTapedrive.

See also TheComputerIsYourFriend. An AI MasterComputer is [[AIIsACrapshoot a very loaded crapshoot]]; if it's called [[OneBadMother "Mother" or "Mother Brain"]], [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast just get out of there.]] Such computers often have overly dramatic names; that's NamesGivenToComputers.

* The "Well of Souls" in JackChalker's ''WellWorld'' series is the MasterComputer for the ''entire universe.''

* Pretty much the default in ''Literature/PerryRhodan'' wherever sufficiently heavy computing power is needed (though interestingly the setting has no trouble also fielding very sophisticated {{Ridiculously Human Robot}}s at the same time). Sometimes one of these computers will become an important recurring supporting character in its own right -- famous examples include NATHAN (the ''Solar System's'' MasterComputer, installed on the Moon) and SENECA (the computer "brain" of the intergalactic and eventual generation ship SOL).

* A particularly good ''Doctor Who'' example is WOTAN from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E10TheWarMachines "The War Machines"]], which is similar to Skynet from the ''{{Terminator}}'' franchise - but, this being TheSixties, it consists of a single MasterComputer based in the Post Office Tower in London.

* The MasterComputer component in the ''SpaceEmpires'' series replaces the flesh and blood crew of a starship. They occupy less space and are immune to psychic conversion, but at a significantly higher cost. They're also vulnerable to computer virus attacks.

* The [=ctOS=] of ''VideoGame/WatchDogs'' is a slightly more reasonable modern version, with the MasterComputer's hardware being distributed between several server farms. ''Having'' a MasterComputer that controls everything from traffic signals to security cameras to bridge controls is still a hugely bad idea, but exploiting that fact for your own gain is a key game mechanic.

* Brainiac, as an AI, functioned as the MasterComputer of sorts of Krypton in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' before it blew up.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Cybersyn Project Cybersyn]], an attempt in the early seventies by President Salvador Allende to use a centralized network of computers to run the Chilean economy. The whole plan looked like it was ripped out of a bad science fiction movie, right down to the {{zeerust}} control room. Notably, the MasterComputer actually proved useful when it helped plan efficient ways to transport food and supplies to where they were needed during a major truckers' strike. The project was destroyed in a coup without ever quite being completed.
* Such ideas have been proposed by other advocated of a planned economy, as well. Oskar Lange [[http://calculemus.org/lect/L-I-MNS/12/ekon-i-modele/lange-comp-market.htm suggests]] that instead of leaving price discovery to the trial and error (tatonnement, literally "groping") of the market, one could instead ask every enterprise how much stuff they can make and what they need to make it, then feed everything into a MasterComputer and get prices and production orders out the other end. Later variants tend to go rather heavy on the computer science of how to get the computer to calculate those prices sometime before the sun dies.

* Averted in ''Film/TheMatrix'', which itself appears to be a massive distributed simulation: it includes interaction with billions of humans across many farms in many different locations in the real world, and it is never suggested that the Matrix could physically be attacked.

* ''[[{{Terminator}} Terminator 3]]''. John Connor learns from Kyle Reese that he defeats Skynet by taking it out -- destroying central computer. [[spoiler:Changes in the time line mean Skynet is distributed -- the trope is averted.]] It does not provide a satisfying explanation for Skynet surviving the war.
** Except it does, because that is exactly what an intellgant, self aware computer ''program'' would do if it wanted to defend itself and/or control. Hence why you always build in VillainBall.Exe into all sentient computer programs to avert such an eventuallity.

* Covered from the perspective of an [[AlternateHistory alternate timeline's]] Special forces soldier in SMStirling's ''[[TheDraka Drakon]]''. In his timeline there has been a Cold War many times worse than ours. They only use central computers, with a few terminals hardwired in. When he visits a timeline like ours, and looks at the internet, he is astounded at so many separate processing units protected by nothing more than passwords and encryption. This would scare the hell out of any competent espionage agency in his timeline.

[[quoteright:320:[[Series/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Deep_Thought.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:320:Deep Thought]]

** And subverted, because [[spoiler: in ''SystemShock2' it turns out that the processing components on one of the parts of the space station the protagonist from the first game jettisoned are enough to form a new incarnation of SHODAN. Seems like she was into redundant systems after all...]]

** Such ideas have been proposed by other advocated of a planned economy, as well. Oskar Lange [[http://calculemus.org/lect/L-I-MNS/12/ekon-i-modele/lange-comp-market.htm suggests]] that instead of leaving price discovery to the trial and error (tatonnement, literally "groping") of the market, one could instead ask every enterprise how much stuff they can make and what they need to make it, then feed everything into a MasterComputer and get prices and production orders out the other end. Later variants tend to go rather heavy on the computer science of how to get the computer to calculate those prices sometime before the sun dies.
* "[[ItWillNeverCatchOn I think there's a world market for about 5 computers.]]" - Thomas J. Watson, Chairman of the Board, IBM, circa 1948.
** Rather than ItWillNeverCatchOn, the quote is more TechnologyMarchesOn, as the computers of that time were huge and expensive and only used by the military and the U.S. Census. It's also an UrbanLegend, as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Watson#Famous_misquote he never made such a quote]].

Largely a DiscreditedTrope today due to the growth of networks and multiply redundant systems; and, maybe, due to the fall of the Soviet Union, that simply loved centralized everything. However, the software industry called Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is built around integrating all of a business or university's accounting and management software and automatically generating reports for the executives. So instead of being one physical computer, the MasterComputer is now one or more entire data centers. See also ComputerEqualsTapedrive.

* [[DefiedTrope Defied]] in ''MassEffect''. Since AIIsACrapshoot, no computer is ever designed with more than rudimentary "virtual" intelligence (shown to be little better than a modern software assistant), and most information flows through a galactic Internet-like network. Naturally, when machine sentience does turn up ([[EverythingTryingToKillYou and try to kill you]]), it's almost always structured around massively parallel processing (the rogue VI on Luna, the geth, etc.).\\

* ALLTYNEX OS, the BigBad of most of ''TheTaleOfAlltynex'' trilogy.

* ''VForVendetta'' has the UnitedKingdom controled by the aptly-named "Fate" computer.