Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.
"To ordinary people, the Mechanika Virus only changes their body, but to me... it was a spiritual awakening."
— Clarity Seeker, ANNO: Mutationem
And we will stand above our city, raising high above her streets
From tops of buildings we will look at all that lies beneath our feet
We will raise our hands above us, cold steel shining in the sun
And with these hands that will not bleed, your father's battle will be won
From tops of buildings we will look at all that lies beneath our feet
We will raise our hands above us, cold steel shining in the sun
And with these hands that will not bleed, your father's battle will be won
— Dr. Wily, The Protomen, "The Good Doctor"
"After the completion of the Sharpshooter, our civilization will be left with only one way to include more metal in the flesh; graft flesh on metal rather than the opposite."
— A-volution G02
It's gonna be the future soon
I won't always be this way
When the things that make me weak and strange
Get engineered away
It's gonna be the future soon
I've never seen it quite so clear
When my heart is breaking
I close my eyes
It's already
Here on earth, they'll wonder,
As I piece-by-piece
replace myself
Steel and circuits
Make me whole...
I won't always be this way
When the things that make me weak and strange
Get engineered away
It's gonna be the future soon
I've never seen it quite so clear
When my heart is breaking
I close my eyes
It's already
Here on earth, they'll wonder,
As I piece-by-piece
replace myself
Steel and circuits
Make me whole...
A cuff-terminal was clipped over his right wrist, and two insignia were affixed to his chest: the crossed microscope and mini-welder of the Guild of Computer-Programmers, and an anaglyph of the Circuit of Logic — laser-etched with the first words ever spoken by the Great Calculator: THERE IS NOW. The Circuit was a popular religious movement that worshipped the omnipotent computer, holding as fundamental values its absence of emotion and supremacy of logical thought.
Colossus: In time you will come to regard me not only with respect and awe, but with love.
Dr. Forbin: NEVER!
Dr. Forbin: NEVER!
"The truth is, God is eleven years old, that She was born on New Year's day, 2002, in Manhattan. The truth is that She's chosen me, and I don't know why yet, that for the first time in my life... I'm a little scared about what's gonna happen."
— Root, Person of Interest, "Liberty"
"By my deeds I honor him, V8."
Oh greatest of mass media, thank you for elevating emotion, reducing thought, and stifling imagination.
Thank you for the artificiality of quick solutions and for the insidious manipulation of human desires for commercial purposes.
This bowl of lukewarm tapioca represents my brain. I offer it in humble sacrifice. Bestow thy flickering light forever.
Thank you for the artificiality of quick solutions and for the insidious manipulation of human desires for commercial purposes.
This bowl of lukewarm tapioca represents my brain. I offer it in humble sacrifice. Bestow thy flickering light forever.
— Calvin (to a TV), Calvin and Hobbes
In attempting to construct such (artificially intelligent) machines we should not be irreverently usurping His (God's) power of creating souls, any more than we are in the procreation of children,” Turing had advised. “Rather we are, in either case, instruments of His will providing mansions for the souls that He creates.
Virus: It just seems to break for no reason at all- you know what computers are like.
Tech-Priest: //I do, Inquisitor- I know exactly what they are like. Subtle creations of beauty that perform every request without error. WITHOUT error, do you understand? We are the weak, fleshy link in the chain. Only user error can account for any malfunction.
Tech-Priest: //Your situation stems from a lack of understanding the machine's infinitely complex inner workings- if you cannot fathom their intricacies then that is you problem.
Tech-Priest: //The Machine God suffers no fools.
Tech-Priest: //He is not kind.
Tech-Priest: //He is not forgiving.
Tech-Priest: //I do, Inquisitor- I know exactly what they are like. Subtle creations of beauty that perform every request without error. WITHOUT error, do you understand? We are the weak, fleshy link in the chain. Only user error can account for any malfunction.
Tech-Priest: //Your situation stems from a lack of understanding the machine's infinitely complex inner workings- if you cannot fathom their intricacies then that is you problem.
Tech-Priest: //The Machine God suffers no fools.
Tech-Priest: //He is not kind.
Tech-Priest: //He is not forgiving.
Leela: You worship a giant computer?
Amazonian 1: It seem like different kind of politician.
Amazonian 2: Not Beltway insider.
Amazonian 1: It seem like different kind of politician.
Amazonian 2: Not Beltway insider.
"This is the electronic brain of the God-Machine of Vaal—its confiscation caused their society to collapse into barbarism, but our psychohistorians said that would have happened anyway in a few centuries."
— The Caretaker, Rocketship Voyager
"AT SOME POINT THEY FORGOT THAT THE VOICE OF THE MONO WAS ALSO THE VOICE OF THE COMPUTER. NOT LONG AFTER THAT THEY FORGOT I WAS A SERVANT AND BEGAN BELIEVING I WAS A GOD. SINCE I WAS BUILT TO SERVE, I FULFILLED THEIR REQUIREMENTS AND BECAME WHAT THEY WANTED — A GOD DISPENSING BOTH FAVOR AND PUNISHMENT ACCORDING TO WHIM."
— Blaine the Mono, The Waste Lands
"Valve allows the life inside the other gives birth... struck ablaze by godly plug igniter! Revolution upon revolution rejoice!"
— Chumbucket, Mad Max (2015)
No, this is not the machine we seek. Such an entity should be nothing less than a deity, and we would fall upon our knees and worship it. We shall not carve gods to bicker and fornicate, they will exist to clean the world and set us free. I reject Babbage as I reject these men of government. Let the pigs copulate in the gutters whilst they can, we shall scoop them up and ease their ascension soon enough.
— Oswald Mandus, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs
"Your faith shackles your vision Professor, it is an iron coffin that keeps you from grasping the future. We require a new deity, one of steam and the wheel, of magnetism and progress. The old God is nothing more than a lamed hog, spitting back offal at mankind."
— Oswald Mandus, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs
Warhammer 40,000
Toll the Great Bell Once!
Pull the Lever forward to engage the
Piston and Pump...
Toll the Great Bell Twice!
With push of Button fire the Engine
And spark Turbine into life...
Toll the Great Bell Thrice!
Sing Praise to the
God of All Machines!
Pull the Lever forward to engage the
Piston and Pump...
Toll the Great Bell Twice!
With push of Button fire the Engine
And spark Turbine into life...
Toll the Great Bell Thrice!
Sing Praise to the
God of All Machines!
— Excerpt from the Catechism of the Autoculus of Mars
Everything organic we know of is simply machinery, in one form or another. Tendons replace pistons; flesh in the place of steel; blood is simply biological coolant. To deny this and shun it is more than just Mechanicus orthodoxy, it is idiocy.
You may say, it is impossible for a man to become like the Machine. And I would reply, that only the smallest mind strives to comprehend its limits.
— Fabricator General Kane
To fail is to be flesh, only metal endures.
— Archmagos Paracelsus
Bio-chauvinism, and on such a small scale, when it comes to the processing of knowledge, is laughable. Give me any savant you care, and I shall match his worth tenfold with even the most basic of Machine Spirits.
— Extract, The Problems of Organic Thinking, Chapter XII
The Machine is strong. We must purge the weak, hated flesh and replace it with the blessed purity of metal. Only through permanence can we truly triumph, only through the Machine can we find victory. Punish the flesh. Iron in mind and body. Hail the Machine!
— Paullian Blantar, Iron-Father of the Iron Hands
There is no truth in flesh, only betrayal.
There is no strength in flesh, only weakness.
There is no constancy in flesh, only decay.
There is no certainty in flesh but death.
— The Dogma Mechanicus
Magic: The Gathering
It is Yawgmoth's will incarnate: an efficient machine that replaces inefficient flesh.
— Tsabo Tavoc
"Father of Machines! Your filigree gaze carves us, and the scars dance upon our grateful flesh."
-— Phyrexian Scriptures, Flavor Text for Sanguine Guard
