HN Explorer

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[ 2.1 ms ] story [ 37.9 ms ] thread
plg
they are missing W.O.P.R. from War Games (1983)
DanBC
That's listed in films under 1980s.

Master Control Program, the main villain of the film Tron (1982)

WOPR (acronym for War Operation Plan Response, pronounced "Whopper"); War Operations Plan Response (addressed as "Joshua" by its creator), the NORAD nuclear war simulation computer from the film WarGames (1983), portrayed as being inside Cheyenne Mountain

Huxley 600 (named Aldous), Interpol's computer in Curse of the Pink Panther used to select Jacques Clouseau's replacement, NYPD Det. Sgt. Clifton Sleigh (1983)

plg
oops I was looking in the Literature section
quarterwave
The Borg from Star Trek TNG?
pavel_lishin
Eh, more of a hybrid cyborg type of critter. I am surprised they didn't include Data, though.

They seem to be missing a lot of various AIs from the show, but I'm not sure it's worth listing them all.

ColinWright
So, you didn't actually read the page, then. Quoting:

    Only static computers are included. Robots and other
    fictional computers that are described as existing in
    a mobile or humanlike form are discussed in a separate
    list of fictional robots and androids.
wangman
Yes both the Vinculum and the Central Plexus should on that list. The Vinculum is specifically described as a processing device whereas the Central Plexus might be more of a switchboard. (Edit: all this is VOY not TNG ofc)
spain
*List of awesome hostnames
angersock
I've used Wintermute as a node name in a robotics lab I used to work in. None of the undergrads thought it was funny...heathens, heathens I say!
erikano
I received my two Adapteva Parallella from the kickstarter quite recently. At the moment I've only used one of them, but I want to make a cluster. I could call the cluster Gibson.
derekp7
Two of my favorite stories on this list is "When Harley was One version 2.0", and "The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect".
rwallace
Good list, there were a few I hadn't heard of. Most notable omission, and among my favorite fictional computers: the Sophotechs from the Golden Age trilogy by John C. Wright.
erikano
So which was the first one you came to think of when you read the title? Mine:

>Gibson, a type of supercomputer used to find oil and perform physics in Hackers (1995)

angersock
Mycroft, from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Comedy answer: The Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network.

restless
Propably the shortest story on the list /Dwan Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the subether bore throughout the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing. He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe -- ninety-six billion planets -- into the supercircuit that would connect them all into one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies. Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions. Then after a moment's silence he said, "Now, Dwar Ev." Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flashed and quieted along the miles-long panel. Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath. "The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn." "Thank you," said Dwar Reyn. "It shall be a question which no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer." He turned to face the machine. "Is there a God?" The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the clicking of a single relay. "Yes, now there is a God." Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the switch. A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and fused the switch shut./ (Fredric Brown, "Answer")
abruzzi
I skimmed the lit section and interestingly, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy seem to be one of the first personal devices. Prior to that, most of the references seem like "mainframes" with the most localized devices being ship computers.
cafard
A few months after watching Colossus: The Forbin Project, I enrolled in a programming class, Fortran IV on the university's Burroughs mainframe. About the fifth or sixth time I showed up with my punch cards to find a notice that the computer was down for repair, I started to have doubts about the movie's plausibility.