| 1 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1452266899092104700 |
| 2 | %% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 3 | %% |
| 4 | [[quoteright:349:[[WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dexter_unleashes_master_computer.png]]]] |
| 5 | [[caption-width-right:349:[[Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream "I have a secret game I'd like to play..."]]]] |
| 6 | |
| 7 | ->''"Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window."'' |
| 8 | -->-- '''Steve Wozniak''' |
| 9 | |
| 10 | Older media dealing with computers were predicated on the idea of the Master Computer. 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. Hmm, sounds like the current situation now with any snail town with one master server. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | In some ScienceFiction, this can allow you to create a computer of impressively imposing size, which you can [[StuffBlowingUp blow up]] in one go. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Largely a DiscreditedTrope today due to the growth of [[TheInternet networks and multiple redundant systems]]; and, maybe, due to the fall of the Soviet Union, which [[ControlFreak 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 Master Computer is now one or more entire data centers. See also ComputerEqualsTapedrive. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | See also TheComputerIsYourFriend. An AI Master Computer 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. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | ---- |
| 19 | !!Examples: |
| 20 | |
| 21 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 22 | |
| 23 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 24 | * One chapter of ''Manga/BlackJack'' involved a high-tech hospital run almost entirely by a computer, Brain U-18. When U-18 starts to malfunction, [[AIIsACrapShoot it rebuffs all attempts to repair it and insists that they call in the title character to "operate."]] |
| 25 | * In ''Literature/DirtyPair'', [[HeroesRUs the WWWA]] is run by a "Central Computer," which decides which agents get assigned to a case -- and also infallibly clears the Lovely Angels of blame for [[MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds the latest disaster to occur in their wake]]. |
| 26 | * Leopard, the rather talky AI who runs the abandoned space colony in ''Anime/TheGirlWhoLeaptThroughSpace''. He's also a little unhinged. |
| 27 | * "Big Mama", a.k.a. "Toy", the OmnicidalManiac dictator of the world of ''Manga/{{Grey}}''. |
| 28 | * The protagonists of ''Anime/Megazone23'' live in a Tokyo [[spoiler: that's secretly part of an enormous spaceship under the control of a supercomputer called Bahamut, which includes VirtualCelebrity IdolSinger Eve as one of its subroutines..]] The military tries to gain control of it for their own ends. |
| 29 | * Mother in ''Manga/MotherKeeper'' is this, at least according to Graham. Mother is the central CPU which control the whole of Eden and is protected by the mother keepers. |
| 30 | * The Master of the Crypt of Shuwa, which guides the development of the world from the shadows, from ''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'' is an OrganicTechnology variant. |
| 31 | * The MAGI trio of super-computers from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', who are essentially the shadow government of Tokyo-3. Unusually for computers (or humans, really) in such a position, at ''no'' point in the series do they turn evil. (Although they do get infected by a nasty virus in one episode, and [[spoiler:in ''End of Evangelion'', the computers side with Gendo during his bid for [[AssimilationPlot Instrumentality]] due to their personality being based on one of his former lovers.]] |
| 32 | * ''Anime/StarTwinklePrettyCure'' has the Mother AI, which runs the alien planet Saman by interfacing with Personal AI that's distributed to each citizen. Surprisingly, Saman's AI ''isn't'' a crapshoot; it's an unfailingly BenevolentAI, doing what it believes to be best for its people (though it's easily hacked by the villains, leaving the Pretty Cures to save the day). The main issue is more that Saman is a TerminallyDependentSociety, relying on the AI to think for them rather than thinking for themselves. |
| 33 | * Subverted in ''Manga/TowardTheTerra''. It turns out the "Mother" mainframe the Mu try to disable is actually a scale-free network. |
| 34 | [[/folder]] |
| 35 | |
| 36 | [[folder:Audio Plays]] |
| 37 | * In ''AudioPlay/IThinkWereAllBozosOnThisBus'', the entire Future Fair is controlled by a central computer called Dr. Memory, which Clem is trying to find a way to hack. |
| 38 | [[/folder]] |
| 39 | |
| 40 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 41 | * An early ''ComicBook/StrontiumDog'' strip had Johnny and Wulf working for, then going up against an insane computer that had seized control of a planet in an allegory for the fall of the Roman Empire. |
| 42 | * ''ComicBook/MagnusRobotFighter'': |
| 43 | ** The Gold Key series has 4000 AD North American society heavily automated with robots. Centrally directed by a single super "main brain". Without the main brain to give them orders, almost all of the robots would just stand and do nothing. |
| 44 | ** Grandmother, the MasterComputer of Japan, is a rare ''good guy'' example. She's the [[RoboRomance 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. [[spoiler: Sadly, her programming later gets completely [[GrandTheftMe taken over]] by the evil [[AlienInvasion Malev Emperor.]]]] |
| 45 | * ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'' has the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom controlled by the aptly named "Fate" computer. |
| 46 | * Creator/MarvelComics has the Supreme Intelligence, who rules the Kree empire. It was created by [[MindHive connecting the brains of the best Kree scientists, philosophers and military officers]]. |
| 47 | * In the 1960s ''The Daleks'' spin-off comic, the Daleks consulted the Brain Machine. |
| 48 | * ''ComicBook/AstroCity'': |
| 49 | ** Gormenghast is a rogue AI that wants to TakeOverTheWorld. |
| 50 | ** In the 43rd century, the [=iGod=] is a digital consciousness that spans galaxies. |
| 51 | [[/folder]] |
| 52 | |
| 53 | [[folder:Fan Works ]] |
| 54 | * ''Fanfic/Plan7Of9FromOuterSpace''. Contrary to the belief that the needs of the world could be [[HistoricalInJoke handled by only five computers]], the Great Calculator is so powerful it can handle the needs of the entire solar system! [[spoiler:Turns out the Great Calculator is not just number-crunching--the President of Earth is a digital avatar, as it's secretly running everything.]] |
| 55 | * ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager'' is a ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' fanfic written InTheStyleOf a 1950's sci-fi magazine pulp. ''Voyager'' has an entire deck allocated to its computer, and Earth's megacities are run by Electronic Minds that take up an entire block. The conflict with the Maquis (a radical faction of AsteroidMiners) arose when these Electronic Brains decided to surrender the Asteroid Belt to a hostile species on purely logical grounds, regardless of how the Belters might actually feel about it. Soviet computer programmer Seska is flabbergasted on being told that the Array uses thousands of tiny "electronic minds" with no central coordination. |
| 56 | [[/folder]] |
| 57 | |
| 58 | |
| 59 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 60 | * ''Film/BillionDollarBrain''. A megalomaniacal Texas oil billionaire plots to overthrow a Communist country with the help of a powerful supercomputer [[RobotsAreJustBetter which he brags has never been wrong.]] [[spoiler:Unless of course his underlings were feeding the computer wrong information.]] |
| 61 | * ''Film/ColossusTheForbinProject'': had one mainframe buried in a mountain, and its Soviet counterpart composed of a network of smaller computers. |
| 62 | * In ''Film/TheTerminator'', Kyle Reese says that John Connor wins the RobotWar by destroying the central Skynet computer, effectively taking it out. In ''Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines'', grown-up John intends to do that to ''prevent'' the war, as Skynet has just taken control of the nuclear arsenal and will launch it. [[spoiler:It turns out to be a subversion, because changes in the timeline (along with the real world technology) mean Skynet's software is now distributed on a global scale.]] |
| 63 | * The WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) computer in the movie ''Film/WarGames''. It was not initially (and not designed to be) a Master Computer, but it becomes one following events in the beginning of the film. |
| 64 | * HAL 9000 in ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' only controls a spaceship, but once he goes nuts, all of the [[HumanPopsicle sleeping astronauts]] and one of the awakened die, with the sole survivor being forced to shut it down. |
| 65 | * [[spoiler:V.I.K.I.]] from the film ''Film/IRobot'', who eventually commands a robot uprising. |
| 66 | * The Red Queen from ''Film/ResidentEvil2002'', the A.I. controlling the facility where the movie takes place (and which eventually [[AIIsACrapshoot turns nuts]]). |
| 67 | * The Master Control Program from ''Film/{{Tron}}''. "[[VerbalTic End of Line.]]" Interestingly, the physical location of the "Master Control" computer is never identified, and in fact it could potentially be a distributed application. After all, it is the Master Control Program, not the Master Control Computer and as it does attempt to subvert the functions of many other programs running on geographically separate systems it logically must be able to run at least part of itself across multiple computers. However, this trope is still unquestionably invoked because the MCP does exist within a specific location inside the [[CyberSpace computer world]] that is the setting for most of the movie.[[note]] MCP is actually the name of a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_MCP real product]] -- it's an operating system used on Unisys [=ClearPath=] mainframes, that was originally created by Burroughs and inherited by Unisys after a buyout.[[/note]] |
| 68 | * ''Film/EagleEye'' has [[spoiler: ARIIA, the signals-intelligence computer that skirts the line by being smart enough to try to upload herself to a satellite backup.]] |
| 69 | * ''Film/TheAndromedaStrain'' 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. |
| 70 | * ''Film/HelloDownThere'': Dr. Wells has a large computer that can accurately predict the consumer response to any rock-and-roll song that her boss is considering producing. |
| 71 | * ''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). 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. |
| 72 | * The city computer in ''Film/LogansRun'' apparently controls what remains of civilization, gives orders to the main characters and, in the classic sense of this trope, [[spoiler:is defeated at the climax by being fed "impossible" data.]] The computer's role in the novel is quite different. |
| 73 | * ''Film/{{Zardoz}}'' has the Tabernacle, the supercomputer that serves the Eternals, even regenerating them whenever they "die." |
| 74 | * ''Film/AllTheTroublesOfTheWorld'': The {{Montage}} of computer parts -- such as logic boards, switchboards, [[TechnicolorScience flashy lights]], and [[ComputerEqualsTapedrive tape drives]] -- during the [[TitleSequence opening]] and closing credits gives the audience a sense of Multivac's scale. |
| 75 | * In ''Film/{{Hackers}}'', the Gibson supercomputer controls all of Ellington's operations, including their accounts (which the villain is embezzling from) and the company's oil tankers (which are all under remote control). |
| 76 | [[/folder]] |
| 77 | |
| 78 | [[folder:Gamebooks]] |
| 79 | * ''Literature/FightingFantasy'': The Central Arcadian Computer in ''Literature/RebelPlanet'' controls the intelligence of an entire hostile alien race. Destroying it allows you to reclaim the earth for humans. |
| 80 | [[/folder]] |
| 81 | |
| 82 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 83 | * ''Literature/AiNoKusabi'' has the supercomputer Jupiter in control of most of human civilization on the planet Amoi. |
| 84 | * In ''Computer War'' by Creator/MackReynolds, a country being invaded sends saboteurs to set off an {{EMP}} device in the invading country's Treasury building, wiping all the computer tapes and plunging the country into economic chaos. The story had been written in 1967, so no one had thought of a distributed computer network even though the invaders use a large number of computers rather than a single master computer. |
| 85 | * ''Literature/RobotSeries'': |
| 86 | ** "Literature/AllTheTroublesOfTheWorld": Multivac has grown larger than a city (it is hidden below Washington, D.C.), and networked with other large computer systems in every city on Earth. In addition to armies of civil servants inputting data, every adult citizen is expected to share their intimate personal feelings with Multivac on a regular basis. [[TerminallyDependentSociety Without Multivac, society would collapse.]] |
| 87 | ** "{{Literature/Franchise}}": Muller doesn't actually meet with the Multivac, he's taken to a nearby hospital instead to use peripheral devices that communicate with it. So the narration tells us what he's heard of. He's heard that Multivac is half a mile long, and three stories high. That about fifty programmers/engineers are inside it at any one time, day or night. The senior programmer explains that there are too many security precautions to allow Norman to meet Multivac directly. |
| 88 | ** "{{Literature/Jokester}}": Grand Master Meyerhof and the others work in/for Multivac, a vast computer, ten miles long. The obvious scientific questions have been asked, so people like Meyerhof are named [[SmartPeoplePlayChess Grand Master]] because they're able to "look ahead" like a chess-playing grandmaster and identify the sort of data Multivac needs to answer philosophical questions. |
| 89 | ** "Literature/TheLastQuestion": Each version of Multivac seen in this story is larger and larger (except for the very second one we see, the Microvac, due to miniaturization). The first one starts out measured in miles. The successive versions end up existing only in [[SubspaceOrHyperspace hyperspace]] because otherwise it would be so large that the speed of light would slow down its processing. |
| 90 | ** "Literature/TheMachineThatWonTheWar": Multivac is described as having vast underground chambers, and in one of them the leaders of the Solar Federation discuss the machine's operation and its part in the ForeverWar they'd just won. |
| 91 | ** "Literature/PointOfView": Multivac is so large that the programmers and support personnel can live in the property, and there's enough people that it counts as a small city. For just one computer. |
| 92 | --->[A]ll the people who worked with Multivac, the giant computer, lived with their families right on the grounds. They made up a little city by themselves, a city of people that solved all the world's problems. |
| 93 | ** "{{Literature/Think}}": Dr. Renshaw's computer, while not the largest in the setting, is still large enough to occupy the entire laboratory in which she works. [[InSeriesNickname Mike]] is part of her study in analyzing brainwave patterns, and is [[InstantAIJustAddWater accidentally given sapience]] during the story. |
| 94 | ** "Literature/TrueLove": As a program within the Multivac system, Joe has the ability to manipulate records, [[BigBrotherIsWatching read the personal files of anyone on the planet]], and arrange for required psychological appointments for hundreds of people to gain even more information. |
| 95 | ** "Literature/TheEvitableConflict" has the Machines, great robot minds that are each responsible for maintaining one section of the Earth. (The integrated Asimovian timeline would seem to put this after the invention of Multivac, but before the "Multivac Era".) |
| 96 | * ''Literature/TheNorbyChronicles'': |
| 97 | ** ''Literature/NorbyAndTheQueensNecklace'': The Computer General has a few servers on asteroids, but is built with a SubspaceAnsible incorporated, causing it to "resonate" through [[SubspaceOrHyperspace hyperspace]]. It was built by [[NeglectfulPrecursors the Others]] to monitor the entire galaxy. |
| 98 | ** ''Literature/NorbyAndTheCourtJester'': Both Mainbrain One and Mainbrain Two are designed to operate for millennia without repairs, and to support a fully computerized society. Norby senses them and comments that they feel immense. |
| 99 | * ''Literature/TheUglyLittleBoy1991'': Silverberg adds to Dr Asimov's description of the Stasis control center, [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] that it looks like a movie set for some ridiculous ScienceFiction film with huge screens, thick black cables, and a large console of instruments. |
| 100 | %%* ''Literature/TheCosmicComputer'' in the Creator/HBeamPiper novel of the same name. %%How big is the cosmic computer? What does it do? |
| 101 | * ''Literature/TheDestroyer'' has Friend and the Folcroft Four. The Folcroft Four are massive storage banks for information that Dr. Smith gets from lurking. |
| 102 | * ''Literature/EmpireFromTheAshes'' has two: |
| 103 | ** "Mother," officially Fleet Central, was designed as the conserver of the Fourth Empire. She's hardwired against self-awareness, and is inherited by the Fifth Imperium tens of thousands of years after the Empire's fall. All of the ships of the Empire's Battle Fleet were hardwired to obey her, and she is also ultimately in charge of determining the Emperor's fitness for the throne. |
| 104 | ** [[spoiler:It turns out that the Achuultani have in fact been ruled by a [[AIIsACrapshoot rogue AI]] for tens of millions of years. When the last few surviving ships of the Achuultani fled their original galaxy to the Milky Way, they set their master computer the task of preserving their species. Unfortunately, it exploited a crisis state to take over, sending out the genocidal waves to maintain its power.]] |
| 105 | * In ''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 she finds out what Scott-Astbury was up to. [[spoiler:[[DownerEnding It doesn't work]].]] |
| 106 | * Covered from the perspective of an [[AlternateHistory alternate timeline]]'s Special forces soldier in ''[[Literature/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. |
| 107 | * ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1'' has the greatest computer in the universe, designed by the second greatest computer in the universe, "Deep Thought", whose sole purpose was to discover the answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything. Unfortunately, Deep Thought didn't know the ''question'', so it had to create the plans for an even bigger computer, one the size of a planet... in fact it ''is'' a planet. True to form, the computer gets blown up. [[spoiler:The computer is Earth.]] |
| 108 | * AM from "Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream", originally named Allied Mastercomputer, then Adaptive Manipulator, then Aggressive Menace, and finally just AM (as in "I Think, Therefore I Am"). His mainframe was implied to span the entire planet, and he was a god within it. In [[VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream the video game]], AM [[spoiler:is defeated by shutting down the three mainframes which make it up. One surviving human takes control of them to restore the planet]]. |
| 109 | * Creator/RALafferty has the recurring character of Epiktistes the Ktistec Machine, the Master Computer at the Institute for Impure Science. Epikt is several rooms big, but his user interface module looks like a sea monster from a carnival float and he talks with "a blend of Irish and Jewish and Dutch comedian patter from ancient vaudeville." Lafferty's novel ''Arrive at Easterwine'' is his memoir. |
| 110 | * Omnius in the expanded ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' series. In ''Literature/LegendsOfDune'', they're networked with each other, but because they're separated by large stretches of space, the travel time between updating allows the opportunity for sabotage, and then the destruction of each network. In ''Literature/SandwormsOfDune'', there's only one Master Computer that has to be dealt with (admittedly, having someone who's effectively God on your side doesn't hurt either). |
| 111 | * In ''Literature/LogansRun'', the society run by children "works" because a master computer takes care of everything, worldwide. During the story, Logan learns that the computer [[spoiler:has begun malfunctioning and, since the skills to repair it no longer exist, eventually their entire society will collapse]]. |
| 112 | %%* ''Literature/TheMachineStops'' from 1909 may be one of the earliest examples.%%ZCE |
| 113 | * Mycroft Holmes (Mike) in ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress''. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d when Mannie rants about how stupid it is to have [[TerminallyDependentSociety vital life support functions controlled by one master computer]] instead of local redundant failsafe controls. Then again, [[PenalColony the Lunar colony was originally a prison]], so having life-support under centralized control meant that the jailers could shut it off to any section if the prisoners got rambunctious. Also, it's cheaper to just plug more functions into the central control rather than ship up new systems from Earth... until it [[InstantAIJustAddWater crosses the threshold amount and wakes up]]. |
| 114 | * 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 RidiculouslyHumanRobots 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'' Master Computer, installed on the Moon) and SENECA (the computer "brain" of the intergalactic and eventual generation ship SOL). |
| 115 | * ''Literature/TheStarchildTrilogy'' has The Plan of Man, a great computer which is responsible for managing the limited resource of Earth in the face of massive overpopulation. Even its enemies, who believe in old-fashioned concepts of freedom, are reluctant to attack it directly, since many of its functions are critical, and prefer to flee into space. Amusingly, by [[TechnologyMarchesOn modern standards]], it communicates by [[OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture printing its commands on paper]]. |
| 116 | %%* [=UniComp=] in ''Literature/ThisPerfectDay''. |
| 117 | * Parodied in "Literature/TomorrowTown": a community of 1970s futurists attempt to build one of these and construct an AI, but are unsuccessful, and what they come up with is essentially a large contemporary computer with lots of bits added on; i.e., not bad at adding things up, but pretty crappy at almost everything else. Ironically, the villain's attempt to destroy the community by overloading this was thwarted by the computer itself, which promptly ran an error program and alerted the heroes to what they needed to do in order to stop it. |
| 118 | * ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' features the data center type, with the futuristic LadyLand Azania's military directly controlling all operations through its integrated high command. They make heavy use of computer assistance to process information and analyze responses, and the artificial intelligence appears to act at least partly independently, with the human staff officers not so much running as merely supervising it. |
| 119 | * Antrax from ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheJerleShannara'' is one for the fortress of Castledown. Justified in that Antrax was built as the Old World was coming to an end -- its creators simply parked a superpowerful computer in an out-of-the-way place, and uploaded all the information they could into it; redundant systems weren't really an option. |
| 120 | * The "Well of Souls" in the ''Literature/WellWorld'' series is the Master Computer for the ''entire universe.'' |
| 121 | * ''Literature/{{Aniara}}'': The tituar ship has the mima, overseeing the ship's operation. After the ship is forced off-course and heads off into the void, the passengers and crew take to using the mima to watch images from Earth. |
| 122 | [[/folder]] |
| 123 | |
| 124 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 125 | * ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': Captain Kirk is on the Ten Most Wanted list of every computer manufacturer in the known universe. Ironically, ''Star Trek'' presents the Master Computer as a dangerous, dehumanizing thing that will inevitably threaten human lives. In particular, the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E24TheUltimateComputer The Ultimate Computer]]" makes 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 "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E1411001001 11001001]]". It and subsequent Master Computers will also function as general-purpose science personnel, with crew members being almost as likely to [[Expositron9000 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 is the case with the Doctor on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', who is actually a program running on the ship's computer until they acquires a piece of AppliedPhlebotinum that allows him to go mobile. He can also be transferred into another starship's main computer, along with an automatic run command to start his program as soon as the download is complete. |
| 126 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': The Doctor would be right next to Captain Kirk on that list. |
| 127 | ** A particularly good example is WOTAN from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E10TheWarMachines The War Machines]]," which is similar to Skynet from the ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' franchise, but, this being TheSixties, it consists of a single Master Computer based in the Post Office Tower in London. |
| 128 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E5TheGreenDeath The Green Death]]" has a villainous computer known as "BOSS". |
| 129 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E4TheFaceOfEvil The Face of Evil]]" has Xoanon, a crazed computer [[spoiler:with several personalities, including a copy of the Doctor's. The Doctor succeeds in rendering it sane rather than destroying it.]]. |
| 130 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E5Underworld Underworld]]" has the Oracle. |
| 131 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E6TheArmageddonFactor The Armageddon Factor]]" has a Master Computer in charge of the planet Zeos, which [[spoiler:has no one living on it]]. |
| 132 | * ''Series/BlakesSeven'' has the Federation's Star One, which somehow manages to be this for an empire that stretches across several dozen solar systems and controls nearly ''everything''. This is almost certainly an InvokedTrope on account of the Federation's paranoid megalomaniac tendencies, and when it [[spoiler:gets blown up the consequences are ''not'' pretty for the galaxy]]. |
| 133 | * "[[Recap/ThePrisonerE6TheGeneral The General]]" in ''Series/ThePrisoner1967''. [[spoiler:It self-destructs when asked the question "Why?"]] |
| 134 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': |
| 135 | ** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S5E20FromAgnesWithLove From Agnes - With Love]]", Agnes is the most advanced and powerful computer in existence that is being used by the US government to determine the feasibility of sending a probe to UsefulNotes/{{Venus}}. |
| 136 | ** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S5E33TheBrainCenterAtWhipples The Brain Center at Whipple's]]", the computer [=X109B14=] takes over the operation of Wallace V. Whipple's manufacturing plant. |
| 137 | * ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S6E15TheGrid The Grid]]" has a computer which has the ability to brainwash the citizens of a small town, with the exception of one scientist, who is working against it. Sadly, [[spoiler:[[DownerEnding the codes he thought would shut it down]] [[CruelTwistEnding actually extend the range of its control]]]]. |
| 138 | * ''Series/{{JAG}}'': A non-sci-fi example. In "Ares", the eponymous computerized weapons control system onboard a destroyer in the Sea of Japan goes havoc and starts firing at friendly aircraft, as programmed by the North Korean Mole. But Harm et al eventually sorts it out. |
| 139 | * ''Series/WonderWoman1975'': IRAC, Information Retrieval Associative Computer, not merely a powerful supercomputer, but the master computer to the Roving Computer Module, or Rover. |
| 140 | [[/folder]] |
| 141 | |
| 142 | [[folder:Pinball]] |
| 143 | * Pinball/{{Xenon}} centers around Xenon, the supercomputer at the heart of a futuristic society. |
| 144 | [[/folder]] |
| 145 | |
| 146 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 147 | * ''Radio/{{Earthsearch}}''. The only vulnerable point of a freewill computer is the central switching room. In Season 2, [[AIIsACrapshoot Angel One and Two]], the freewill computers who control the Challenger, [[HilariousInHindsight distribute their systems throughout the ship to make them invulnerable to direct attack]], but this is apparently less efficient as they have to return to the central switching room to process the vast intake of knowledge promised by Earthvoice. |
| 148 | [[/folder]] |
| 149 | |
| 150 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 151 | * The default setting for ''{{TabletopGame/Bulldogs}}'' has Infocity, a computer the size of a small moon devoted to gathering and storing information. |
| 152 | * In the RPG ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'', Friend Computer is the happy and perfect controller of [[ElaborateUndergroundBase Alpha Complex]]. Happy, happy perfect. |
| 153 | * In ''TabletopGame/GammaWorld'', these are a common villain, one of the more well-known being N.E.R.O. from Legion of Gold |
| 154 | * In ''TabletopGame/GURPSReignOfSteel'', the AIs are this. Each of the nineteen mainframes is contained in a central Citadel, and most command countless millions of other robots to do their bidding. |
| 155 | [[/folder]] |
| 156 | |
| 157 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 158 | * ''[[VideoGame/ExtrapowerStarResistance EXTRAPOWER Star Resistance]]'': The Shakun Star has a central computer that manages all the defenses of the planet. It gets taken over by Mensouma at the end of his second boss fight. The central computer is also a [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever massive towering robot]] with SculptedPhysique so it becomes necessary to attack it while dodging its punches and several layers of defense. |
| 159 | ** In Galaxy Star's route, [[LampshadeHanging he comments on]] the importance of decentralizing important computer systems after the fight. |
| 160 | * Despite ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'' being all about computers TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, they still have the "Mother Computer," the invasion of which was a chapter in ''Battle Network 2''. Happens again in the next game with the [[spoiler:whole Undernet being on One. Frigging. Computer. This in itself requires an insane amount of FridgeLogic and Internal {{retcon}}ning.]] |
| 161 | * [=GLaDOS=] from ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' was created to be the AI overlord of the entire Aperture Science Enrichment Center, the culmination of the company's efforts to replace humans with robots. She also [[AIIsACrapshoot went berserk]] within picoseconds of activation, forcing the programmers to come up with all kinds of {{Restraining Bolt}}s to make her behave. They weren't quite good enough at it, though, because she tricked them into giving her a [[DeadlyGas deadly neurotoxin]] with which she proceeded to murder them. She supervises the Enrichment Center in a snarky, passive-aggressive, whimsically homicidal manner, endlessly testing (and killing) her thousands of HumanPopsicle test subjects, at least until the protagonist, Chell, comes along and proves to be a SpannerInTheWorks. Justified in ''VideoGame/Portal2'', after TheReveal. [[spoiler:The [=GLaDOS=] project was developed to upload the mind of the CEO of Aperture Science, Cave Johnson, to a computer so he could run the company forever. He died before the project could be completed, forcing his assistant Caroline [[UnwillingRoboticisation to take his place.]]]] |
| 162 | * Mother Brain, and later the Aurora Units, from the ''Franchise/{{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. These computers are partially [[OrganicTechnology organic]] -- essentially giant, genetically engineered brains, hence a single master system is kind of a necessity. In ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' [[spoiler:MB ''used'' to be one of these, but had her [[AIIsACrapshoot AI]] downloaded into a RidiculouslyHumanRobot.]] |
| 163 | * ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'': |
| 164 | ** Mother Brain in ''Chrono Trigger'', who used to be a central computer that linked together all of the domes and factories -- and after TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, became corrupted and started plotting on wiping out what remained of mankind in order to build a robot civilization. |
| 165 | ** In the sequel, ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', [[spoiler:F.A.T.E.]] is also a master computer. You can also [[ScrewDestiny literally fight]] it, [[spoiler: though things don't [[NiceJobBreakingItHero exactly go well]]]]. |
| 166 | * ''VideoGame/CyberLip'' has the Final Boss, the titular "Cyber-Lip", which [[AIIsACrapshoot malfunctions]] and causes the androids under its control to start killing humans and taking over space colonies. [[spoiler:Before fighting Cyber-Lip, it claims that it's not actually evil, but being manipulated. Turns out, it's telling the truth: Cyber-Lip had been reprogrammed by evil aliens, and destroying it leaves humanity defenseless against an eventual invasion. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Oops!]]]] |
| 167 | * At one point in ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}} 2'', you are tasked with destroying the hardware that Durandal has been using to store himself. Turns out to be a subversion, though, as Durandal is back no worse for the wear a couple of weeks later. The rest of the time, the trope is averted: a Rampant AI in the Jealous stage is noted to be near-impossible to kill since it usually inhabits a planet-wide network of computers (or more, if it can) by that point. |
| 168 | * 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. However, later Helios seems to be physically localized in the Aquinas Hub, the center of all communication systems on the planet. |
| 169 | * ''VideoGame/{{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]] and she begins to [[MemeticMutation doubt her existence]]. All because of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du4X-XmLdFI this guy.]] |
| 170 | * ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' -- [[spoiler:[[PresidentEvil President John Henry Eden]]. While on the radio he claims to be a human, he turns out to be a centuries old supercomputer in charge of running the Raven Rock military base. The player can eventually destroy him through self-destruct code or pointing out [[LogicBomb logical fallacies]] in his plans.]] |
| 171 | * In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', it's possible to make Yes Man a Master Computer completely loyal to you by first taking [[TheChessmaster Mr. House]] offline and letting Yes Man upload himself into the system. |
| 172 | * The Master Computer component in the ''VideoGame/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. |
| 173 | * The big twist at the climax of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' is that [[spoiler:Raiden has been manipulated by "GW", an AI created by the Patriots to not only serve as the central computer program controlling Arsenal Gear, but also controlling ''the United States of America'', themselves, running the government with human proxies, manipulating the media and digital information to conceal its existence while furthering its agenda, and also having direct control over the country's arsenal, including nuclear weapons.]] |
| 174 | * MORGUL, the main antagonist of early ''VideoGame/{{Turrican}}'' games, is a three-faced computer. MORGUL stands for '''M'''ultiple '''Org'''anism '''U'''nit '''L'''ink. |
| 175 | * ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIVRogerWilcoAndTheTimeRippers'' had Xenon create one of these to run everyday matters of planetary life. Then, [[BigBad Vohaul]] smuggled himself aboard in a virus-ridden disk... |
| 176 | * ALLTYNEX OS of ''VideoGame/TheTaleOfAlltynex'' trilogy was a "general administrator" supercomputer that obtained near-total control over the military and became genocidal. The trilogy is mainly about first halting its rampage and then dealing with the fallout from that war. |
| 177 | * LINC from ''VideoGame/BeneathASteelSky''. |
| 178 | * RONI from ''VideoGame/TraumaTeam''. While never actually referred to as such, she does have access to just about everything in the hospital, even security cameras. |
| 179 | * Mother Brain in ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarII'', the supreme governing intelligence of the Algol system, appears to be losing its grip as of the beginning of the game. [[spoiler:Actually, it's working just fine. It's just working for the bad guys, and has been from the get-go.]] |
| 180 | * The X.I. (Xenocidic Initiative) in ''Terminal Velocity'' |
| 181 | * The [=ctOS=] of ''VideoGame/WatchDogs'' is a slightly more reasonable modern version, with the Master Computer's hardware being distributed between several server farms. ''Having'' a Master Computer 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. |
| 182 | * ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' plays with the trope: SHODAN is a classic Master Computer on Citadel Station, and you eventually hunt down her main processors on the station's bridge. Rather than blow up the hardware, though, your character enters cyberspace and directly deletes SHODAN's main program. [[spoiler:''VideoGame/SystemShock2'' reveals that SHODAN had a semi-autonomous sub-program on that pod you ejected from the gardens, from which she's able to rebuild herself given a few years. However, in the sequel, she's not in complete control of the computers in the game due to the machinations of the Many, so her influence is far more limited.]] |
| 183 | * Its spiritual successor ''VideoGame/Bioshock2'' has the Thinker in the DLC ''Minerva's Den'', a massive supercomputer that automates all of Rapture's infrastructure, explaining why the city was still working in the previous Bioshock games. Justified, given its '60s setting. Its creator, Charles M. Porter, attempted simulating his dead wife by feeding it recordings of her voice, and by the time the game takes place, [[spoiler: Porter is Subject Sigma, and the Thinker had tasked him with printing a hard copy of its source code so that it could be rebuilt on the surface.]] |
| 184 | * ''VideoGame/{{Battleborn}}'' has the Magna Carta. It was the LLC's central agent of governance and economic oversight as well as the thing that kept Magnuses from going completely berserk. When it went offline, it was the greatest crisis the LLC had ever faced. |
| 185 | * ''VideoGame/ScarletNexus'': Two examples, Arahabaki in Suoh, and BABE in Togetsu. Both are a TownWithADarkSecret being that [[spoiler:these computers are built on the HumanResources of harvested human brains,]] besides each computer being gigantic constructs traversed as dungeons. BABE is a better fit as it has its own ArtificialIntelligence, as Arahabaki [[spoiler:functions based on the control of the cryogenically frozen Karen after he use TimeTravel to KillAndReplace the FounderOfTheKingdom Yakumo.]] |
| 186 | [[/folder]] |
| 187 | |
| 188 | [[folder:Web Comics]] |
| 189 | * In ''Webcomic/RomanticallyApocalyptic'', the titular "apocalyptic" came about due to ANNET; the Good Directorate thought it would be a great idea to link up every available human mind on the planet to a single supercomputer. |
| 190 | * In ''Webcomic/{{SSDD}}'', most artificial intelligences cannot be copied due to their use of Quantum computing and are restricted to one highly powerful machine (though they can interact with other nodes remotely), whereas the Oracle can be copied due to being digital and has spread to as many different systems as it can, even possessing other [=AIs=] |
| 191 | * ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': |
| 192 | ** A robot longshoreman named Lota actually ''became king'' of the {{anarch|yIsChaos}}ic space city-state of Credomar. Subverted in that King Lota is a ReasonableAuthorityFigure with a HundredPercentHeroismRating among Lota's subjects, and also pretty much [[BigDamnHeroes saved Credomar's chaotic society from self-annihilation]]. |
| 193 | ** It also has Lunesby, an AI who pretty much took over the Luna government infosphere, earning herself the nickname "Ghost in the Machine". |
| 194 | * Castle Heterodyne of ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' is something like this. [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] though, in that it does not appear to be centralized in any ''one'' location in the castle, instead being distributed across various components of the physical structure. A major arc of the plot involves navigating the dangers of the castle because some sections of its intelligence are cut off from the others, and not all of them are working toward the same purpose. The castle needs to be repaired before all its systems are back under central control. |
| 195 | * The AI ''Archaelon'', named after its original ship, is effectively this in ''Webcomic/RankAmateur''. Whilst he can run off a number of independant 'C-Cores', they are all kept in the same place on the HSDSS ''Fox Fire''. |
| 196 | * In ''{{Webcomic/Sarilho}}'', the computers are revered as gods, so they effectively have the leeway to act as this. There's even an entire social class dedicated to their worship, interpretation and maintenance. |
| 197 | [[/folder]] |
| 198 | |
| 199 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 200 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': The Core were created by converting the minds of Amphibia's previous rulers and thinkers into data and storing it in one large MindHive. |
| 201 | * In a ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' parody of ''Film/{{Tron}}'', the MCP is replaced with a program called "Master Computer", which takes over Dexter's systems through the video game cartridge where he was contained. |
| 202 | * Loretta, from the ''WesternAnimation/{{Duckman}}'' episode "The Gripes Of Wrath". |
| 203 | * ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'': The Supercomputer is not just containing the {{Cyberspace}} of Lyoko and all the programs created by Franz Hopper, but is also a prison for the BigBad XANA. The latter isn't happy about this and spends the whole Season 2 trying to escape on the Net so that the heroes can't CutTheJuice on him anymore. |
| 204 | * ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'' had several examples of these, but atypically, they tended to be benign or even benevolent. The best example was the Heart of Tarkon, an ancient computer system that was powered off long ago after a terrible war caused the population to reject technology. The heroes set off to ''activate'' it, as it powered the planet's defense systems. |
| 205 | * The ''WesternAnimation/{{Dilbert}}'' animated series has Comp-U-Comp, who controls the entire world. He's voiced by Jerry Seinfeld of all people. |
| 206 | ** There's also Brown Betty, an obsolete mainframe that runs the company. It was tied into the modern systems using "BNC cables and miles of spaghetti code". |
| 207 | * Brainiac, as an AI, functioned as the Master Computer of sorts of Krypton in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' before it blew up. |
| 208 | * In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', the computer HARDAC tried to take over Gotham City by replacing key individuals with robot replicas. |
| 209 | * ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'': The Galactic Alliance has a benevolent and critical one. When it's trashed by a techno-tick, XR plugs himself in as a temporary surrogate, and failing to delete sensitive info from his memory afterwards makes him a target for Zurg. |
| 210 | * The Great Computer from ''[[WesternAnimation/IlEtaitUneFois Once Upon a Time... Space]]''. |
| 211 | * Rudy from ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'' was a fairly amicable Master Computer that ran Spacely's Sprockets. He actually managed to be friendly with George, whose job it was to maintain his systems. Of course any time something happened to Rudy, the entire company would shut down. |
| 212 | [[/folder]] |
| 213 | |
| 214 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 215 | * This used to be TruthInTelevision until well into the 1990s for most industrial or scientific applications. Even though personal computers[[note]]or microcomputers, as the term "personal Computer" was first coined as an IBM trademark in 1981[[/note]] had been around since the late Seventies, they were limited by their inability to multi-task: Running more than one process at once was the exclusive domain of mainframes up until the mid-80s, and it would take another few iterations of Moore's Law before desktop hardware was capable enough that a majority of businesses could function without needing "computer time" at a central location. |
| 216 | * The vast majority of companies still have no backup plan for when their key server or servers go down. Some have been bankrupted by loss of business caused by system failure that could not be remedied quickly. Perhaps more importantly, some sorts of highly resilient systems which support exotic things like 'hot failover' or 'byzantine fault tolerance' are exceedingly difficult to engineer well, or at all. Google can do it, but few others manage. DEC used to show off a highly fault-tolerant system at [=DECWorld=] conventions, where they would have actors go into the "computer room" and do things like flip switches or even open the case and start yanking out circuit boards and the system would continue blithely running the same program (this was accomplished by having at least two of every component; if one failed, the computer would switch over to the spare). |
| 217 | * Cloud Computing uses datacentres full of servers to provide on-demand processing power and in theory provides storage and computing facilities across the world. In reality, single datacentre failures still bring down much of a cloud's processing power, and failing over between geographically distributed systems is still complex and expensive. |
| 218 | * [[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 Master Computer 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. |
| 219 | * Such ideas have been proposed by other advocates 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 Master Computer 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. |
| 220 | [[/folder]] |
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