List of fictional computers
This page is intended to be a list of computers in fiction and science fiction.
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.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details 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
- Deep Thought, from Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy
- Hex, from Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
- Holly, and Queeg, the on-board computer and back-up computer (respectively) for the space ship Red Dwarf in the BBC television series of the same name.
- LCARS fictional computer architecture of the Starship Enterprise-D and E, and other 24th century starfleet ships, in Star Trek.
- Leela, one of three A.I.s onboard the U.E.S.C. Marathon
- The ship, hub and planetary Minds in Iain M. Banks' "Culture" novels and stories.
- The Machines, positronic supercomputers that manage the world in Isaac Asimov's short story The Evitable Conflict.
- Max Headroom, the cyber punk TV presenter from The Max Talking Headroom Show
- MULTIVAC, a supercomputer which features in a number of stories by Isaac Asimov
- Mycroft Holmes (aka Mike, Adam Selene), in Robert Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (Named after the brother of Sherlock Holmes)
- Orac in Blake's 7.
- Prime Intellect, the computer controlling the universe in the Internet novel The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect by Roger Williams.
- SAL 9000, the counterpart of HAL 9000 in 2010: Odyssey Two
- SID (Space Investigation Detector), the computer onboard the Voyager in the children's comedy series Galloping Galaxies
- Slave, a somewhat subservient computer on the ship Scorpio in Blake's 7
- Solace, the distributed intelligence in some of the stories of Spider Robinson.
- Teletran 1, the Autobots' computer in Transformers, 'revives' The Transformers after crashing on the planet Earth.
- Vox, a holographic computer in the 2002 movie version of The Time Machine.
- Zen, the somewhat aloof computer of the Liberator in Blake's 7.
- ZORAC, the shipboard computer aboard the ancient spacecraft in The Gentle Giants of Ganymede and the related series by James P. Hogan. Also in the same series is VISAR (the network that manages the daily affairs of the Giants) as well as JEVEX, the main computer performing the same function for the offshoot human colony.
Harmful / malevolent fictional computers
- AM from Harlan Ellison's short story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
- CABAL (Computer Assisted Bio-engineered Artificial Life-form) the computer of Nod in Westwood's Command and Conquer 3.
- Colossus, from Colossus: The Forbin Project
- Comp-U-Comp, a super computer from an episode of the Dilbert TV Show. In the episode, Dilbert must face off against comp-u-comp when a clerical error results in him not getting the computer he ordered.
- Durandal, one of three A.I.s onboard the U.E.S.C. Marathon
- FATE, the computer that determines how events span out from Chrono Cross.
- 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
- Kilg%re, an alien AI that can exist in most electrical circuitry, The Flash
- M-5, an experimental computer featured in the Star Trek original series episode "The Ultimate Computer".
- The Machine, a computer built to specifications received from an alien intelligence beyond our galaxy in the novel A for Andromeda by Fred Hoyle.
- Master Control Program from Tron.
- Mother Brain from Metroid.
- 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.
- Traxus IV, A.I. that went rampant on Mars, Marathon (computer game)
- Tycho, one of three A.I.s onboard the U.E.S.C. Marathon
- V.I.K.K.I., from I, Robot (2004)
- XANA, from Code Lyoko
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 find the Question to Life, the Universe, and Everything.
- Eddie, the shipboard computer with artificial personality in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
- The Engine, a mechanical computer featured in Gulliver's Travels. This is considered to be the first fictional computer.
- Father, the station computer in the movie Alien: Resurrection.
- Frost, the protagonist computer in Roger Zelazny's story For a Breath I Tarry; also SolCom, DivCom, and Beta.
- HAL 9000, in 2001: A Space Odyssey (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.
- Hector, in Saturn 3.
- Magic Voice, the Satellite of Love's onboard computer on Mystery Science Theater 3000
- Mother, the ship-board computer in the SF horror movie Alien
- WESCAC (West Campus Analog Computer) from John Barth's Giles Goat-Boy
- WOPR (War Operations Plan and Response) from the movie WarGames
Uncategorized
- Banana 6000, from the comic strip "Bloom County' by Berkeley Breathed
- Batcomputer, the computer system used by Batman and housed in the Batcave
- 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.
- 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
- iFruit, from the FoxTrot comic strip.
- 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 (q.v.) in WarGames
- The Muller-Fokker computer tapes in The Muller-Fokker Effect
- Neuromancer and Wintermute, from William Gibson's novel Neuromancer
- The Ox in Frank Herbert's novel Destination: Void
- The Quark II in Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
- Shalmaneser, the first self-aware computer in John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar
- TECT, from George Alec Effinger, various books. Notice that there are several computers named TECT in his novels, even though they are unrelated stories.
- The Interocitor communication device in the 1955 film This Island Earth
Computers as Robots
See separate article for all fictional computers which are described as existing in in a mobile or humanlike form:-
List of fictional robots and androids
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