Machine-Gods, in fiction?

[Ranchoth]

Out of idle curiosity, and since Wikipedia doesn't seem to have a category for this, yet, I was wondering...would anyone care to suggest candidates for a list of (mostly fictional, I'd presume) machine gods?

That is, a list that would include;

a) Deities having dominion or patronage over machines
b) Deities that manifested or incarnated in the form of a machine
c) Machines that ascended into godhood
d) Machines worshipped as deities

I think that covers all the major categories, at the risk of being overbroad.

Also, at the risk of SPOILERS, so far, I've got—

•The Molochmaschine from Lang's Metropolis (If visions/hallucinations count)
•Unicron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicron) (Depending on the canon, he may be some kind of a god)
•Vaal, and arguably Landru, from Star Trek.
•The Warhammer Machine God (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_Mechanicus#The_Machine_God)
•Issac Asimov's Universal AC from The Last Question
•Fredric Brown's Answer.


So...who am I missing?

[JThunder]

What about the atom bomb that was worshipped in Beneath the Planet of the Apes?

[Kamino Neko]

•Unicron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicron) (Depending on the canon, he may be some kind of a god)

Don't forget Primus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primus_(Transformers)).

And in certain continuities, the All-Spark is akin to a god.

And in the IDW main-line books Nemesis Prime is either regarded as deific himself, or is the highest ranked agent of some unknown deific entity. (Or else the prophet of a non-theistic cult. Information has been slow coming out. I think this entry counts, anyway.)

[Khampelf]

Don't forget the old school. Hephestus, god of the forge for machinery, and Hermes, god of communication for radio, internet, et al.

[Monkey Chews]

In David Zindell's Neverness, and it's sequel series A Requiem For Homo Sapiens, there are several machine-gods:

Ede The God - a computer containing the mind of Nicolas Daru Ede, the first human to download his brain into a computer and thus achieve immportality. Edeism is the largest human religion at this time, and its followers look forward to the day when the traces of their brain patters are downloaded and absorbed into the computer and they are thus joined with god. The Ede computer is continually expanding and Edeists believe it will eventually incorporate every bit of matter in existence - thus uniting Ede, his followers and the entire universe into one entity.

The Solid State Entity - a nebula-sized brain made up of thousands of bio-computers the size of planets, it began life as a young girl from the order of Warrior-Poets, whose brain was artificially enlarged and expanded in an attempt to make her both the pefect warrior and the perfect poet

The Silicon God - created as a self-aware computer who, as soon as it was switched on, figured out space travel, warped away, and was founds centuries later having greatly enlarged itself and at war with the other gods using information viruses

The April Colonial Intelligence - a man-made nanorobotic bacterium which got out of control and overran part of the galaxy, forming an enormous intelligent being


The Doctor Who story "The Face of Evil", featured the descendants of a crashed Earth ship, who had split into two tribes, the Sevateem (descendants of the Survey Team who had been locked out of the ship), and the Tesh (the descendants of the Tech team who had stayed inside). Both tribes worshipped the ships computer Xoanon as a god, with elaborate myths and rituals built up over the centuries.

[phil417]

Assuming you're spelling the word with a small g.."god", how about Leibowitz, as in the novel A Canticle for Leibowitz?

LIC, Phil

[Tuckerfan]

In one of Fred Saberhagen's beserker short stories there's a group of people who worship the defense computer of a collapsed civilization, and another one which talks about folks who worship the beserkers (giant Death Star like machines which destroy life bearing planets) as gods. Pity none of his stuff got turned into movies.

[The Them]

A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine l'Engle has a version of this, IIRC.

[jayjay]

Not a machine GOD, per se, but if you stretch the definition, St. Vidicon of Cathode (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Vidicon) might count...

[Tuckerfan]

Do'h! How could we forget Bender being worshipped as a god after being flung across the cosmos? :smack:

[Tapioca Dextrin]

Does Deep Thought (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_characters_from_The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Deep_Thought) count?

[jayjay]

:smack:

C3PO was worshipped as a god by the ewoks in Return of the Jedi...

[Gerome]

Do'h! How could we forget Bender being worshipped as a god after being flung across the cosmos? :smack:

Or the FemPuter, who ruled the Amazonians? Of course, she was really a fem-bot...

[Frylock]

Hmm... was VALIS a machine? (And was it a god?)

-FrL-

[GIGObuster]

This book, Digital Deli (http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/index.php) made a big impression on me a few years just after I came to America, It had bits of everything regarding new digital technology. A book with an anarchy of design that surprisingly did work and included an early cartoon by Larry Gonick (http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/digital_watch.php) and a bit describing an early tale on the subject:

OF GOD, HUMANS AND MACHINES (http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/god_humans_machines.php)
The computer in science fiction
by Michael Kurland

The article talked about John W Campbell's * "The Machine." In a 1935(!) story from Astounding Science-Fiction.

Even though I have not read it, the summary of the tale stuck in my mind:

On the planet Dwranl, of the star you know as Sirius, a great race lived.... Twenty-one thousand seven hundred and eleven of your years ago, they attained their goal of the machine that could think.
[The Machine's] progress meant gradual branching out, and as it increased in scope, it included in itself the other machines and took over their duties, and it expanded, and because it had been set to make a machine most helpful to the race of that planet, it went on and helped the race automatically.
It was a process so built into the Machine that it could not stop itself now, it could only improve its helpfulness to the race. More and more it did, till ... the Machine became all. It did all. It must, for that was being more helpful to the race, as it had been set to do, and had made itself to be.
The process went on for twenty-one thousand and ninety-three years, and for all but two hundred and thirty-two of those years, the Machine had done anything within its capabilities demanded by the race, and it was not till the last seventy-eight years that the Machine developed itself to the point of recognizing the beneficence of punishment and of refusal.

Behaving like the ultimate parental figure, the Machine began to refuse requests when they were ultimately damaging to the race. And because they no longer understood its workings, the members came to call the Machine "what you would express by God" and sacrificed young females in the hope that it would start up again. Finally, in order to stop this slide back down to savagery, the Machine was forced to leave the planet-and leave the race to fend for itself in rebuilding its civilization. The thesis here is that if you do too much for people, they forget how to do for themselves. Or perhaps: God helps those who help themselves.

*Asimov attributed the Laws of Robotics to John W. Campbell

[Frylock]

ARDNEH (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_of_the_Swords#ARDNEH) was a machine who later came to be regarded as a god--even by the other gods who really were gods for most purposes.

-FrL-

[The Them]

GIGObuster, you've heard of Larry Gonick?! I wanna be your friend. ;)

[GIGObuster]

GIGObuster, you've heard of Larry Gonick?! I wanna be your friend. ;)
Well, I'm a guy, so it depends, ;) In any case you are a doper. So we have already a lot in common.

Related bit: there was once a thread in GC that questioned the reckless zealotry of early Christians after the fire in ancient Rome: When Christianity was a nutty cult

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=364577

I did send Larry Gonick a note to clarify something and he did reply! But because the thread died I never bother posting what he told me with his permission. :smack:

Might as well do it here.

Originally me to Gonick:

I'm a member of a message board from the Chicago Reader magazine, the
Straight Dope message board, owned by that fellow Cecil Adams. We got
into a discussion on how pleased the Christians were when in 64 AD the
big fire ravaged Rome.

One very knowledgeable fellow is claiming that the balloon from page
240 showing Christians happy for the fire or the commentary by the
Roman that "the sect of Christians seemed awfully pleased" has no
basis whatsoever in any ancient text, He dismisses also research by
Professor Gerhard Baudy saying that there is no evidence for what the
professor said in a recent PBS episode that Christians were
circulating vengeful texts predicting that a raging inferno would
reduce the city to ashes. (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_rome/clues.html ) can you help us
a little here pointing out were the source of the Christian joy came
exactly from?

I thank you for your attention for what it a mundane issue, but over here one of the missions is to fight ignorance, and boy this one bites.

Sincerely.

GB.



Boy, can I not remember any more. It doesn't surprise me that there's
no documentary evidence for the circulation of Christian texts. My
source was probably Tacitus, who of course was biased and can't be
double-checked against anybody. I put it in because it makes sense.
Early Christian texts (which would have to postdate the fire by at
least 150 years or so) are, if I may say so, even worse, since they
were eager to prove themselves loyal Romans and discount any subversive
intent their predecessors may have had.

Originally me to Gonick:

No reply yet from the German historian.
Can I have your permission to quote from your reply?

Once again, thanks a million for your previous reply.

Yeah, you can quote me. You might also add this little confession: sometimes I put things in--usually as comments from characters--that are only plausible conjectures. In this case, I had something like this in mind: the history of "un-Christian" attitudes and behavior among Christians is ancient; you might even say it goes back to Jesus himself. It simply defies credulity that *everyone* in a persecuted minority would feel totally forgiving when a calamity befell the persecutors, even if the official line is to love your brother and turn the other cheek. There simply *must* have been expressions of satisfaction, especially when you consider that other Jews--plenty of these Christians were Jews, remember--had openly demonstrated against Rome. Otherwise they wouldn't have been human--and human they were!

Even if everyone miraculously succeeded in keeping his mouth shut, we can easily imagine police informants who would have *reported* their feeling. Note that the speech balloon in question is in the mouth of a Roman officer, not a Christian.

How do your contributors feel about the tradition that the persecution of Christians stepped up after the fire?

Larry Gonick

[Sage Rat]

The Zygote people have a god of science and machinery in the manga, Aqua Knight. But I've only read the Japanese version so I'm not sure what the English translation of the name is, nor even the Japanese since my copy is somewhere hidden at the moment....

[Pushkin]

There's a short PKD story about a machine in a post apocalyptic world that was worshipped by humans. They ask it a story that they think unanswerable, if it answers successfully, it digest them.

[Walpurgis]

I just finished a great novel by S.M. Peters called Whitechapel Gods (http://www.amazon.com/Whitechapel-Gods-S-M-Peters/dp/0451461932/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208690286&sr=8-1). It's set in Victorian London where alien machine gods are taking over Whitechapel. It's grimy and steampunky and I haven't seen anything like it since... since ever.

[MrDibble]

There's Primus, chief Modron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modron_%28Dungeons_%26_Dragons%29) and God of Mechanus in the D'nD Planescape setting.

[Der Trihs]

From the duology Lear's Daughter's by M. Bradley Kellogg; Valla and Lagri, the Sister Goddesses of Fire and Water. In actuality, they are a pair of ancient AI controlled weather control systems; built many millennia ago, but with forgotten origins. The planet they are on can no longer support life naturally ( which is why they were made ), and they each control opposite ends of the climate/weather spectrum, constantly opposing each other to create a dynamic balance. They also keep the population from outbreeding their limited resources, since polluting/overusing the environment gives one of the Sisters an advantage and kills much of the population in a Devastation. As well, they were built as opposing systems because they are sophisticated enough to need stimulation to keep from going insane from boredom over tens of millennia.

[jayjay]

GIGObuster, you've heard of Larry Gonick?! I wanna be your friend. ;)

I'm a big Gonick fan, too. I've tried to read all of his history-based books.

[Peter Morris]

a) Deities having dominion or patronage over machines

Silver from Sapphire And Steel

[Chingon]

Xenogears a game for the playstation a while back. I think it was one of the best plot lines in video game history and would to read it as a series of books.

a bit OT, but lets say I wanted to to be the one to write it, who would I have to contact to get the rights to do so?

[chorpler]

I just finished reading a new book by Adam-Troy Castro, Emissaries from the Dead, that involves godlike artificial intelligences called the AIsource who have engineered a bizarre habitat populated by slothlike aliens and dragons inside a thousand-kilometer-long cylindrical asteroid, where all the action of the book takes place, and who may be sinister and murderous or benevolent and kind. Pretty interesting book.

[jayjay]

Adam-Troy Castro

I KNEW I recognized that name! He wrote the companion book to The Amazing Race, My Ox Is Broken!

[chorpler]

I KNEW I recognized that name! He wrote the companion book to The Amazing Race, My Ox Is Broken!

He also wrote The Unauthorized Harry Potter, which is how I found out about his new Emissaries from the Dead novel -- my daughter had The Unauthorized Harry Potter in her stack of books she wanted from the Young Adult section, and I saw his name and said "Oh, hey, that guy's awesome!" and looked inside the book and saw that he had a new novel out in the "Also by Adam-Troy Castro" list in the front.

I was already familiar with a few of his comic book novels, particularly his "Sinister Six" Spider-Man trilogy, which was -- The Gathering of the Sinisister Six, Revenge of the Sinister Six, and The Secret of the Sinister Six, which were the best superhero novels I've ever read. And he has a rather distinctive name, so when I saw it on the Harry Potter book and saw that he had a new novel out, I immediately ran to see if they had it in the Science Fiction section, and sure enough, there it was.

And it was definitely worth it. I look forward to seeing the sequels that I presume are forthcoming -- Emissaries from the Dead said "An Andrea Cort Novel" on the front cover, so I presume he plans to write more novels set in his AIsource universe.

[Hellestal]

Dan Simmons's Hyperion books have a machine god, an Ultimate Intelligence. The first two books are brilliant, the second two very good.

[jayjay]

In the Marvel Universe, is the Kree Supreme Intelligence composed of the greatest minds of the Kree race uploaded onto a massive computer, or is it some sort of spiritual aggregate of the actual minds? Because the SI is the de facto Kree god.

[TWDuke]

The "Moloch Machine" is a famous image from Fritz Lang's Metropolis, although it existed within the film as a visual metaphor, not an actual diety.

The Saviour Machine:They called it the Prayer, its answer was law
Its logic stopped war, gave them food
How they adored till it cried in its boredom

'Please don't believe in me, please disagree with me

Life is too easy, a plague seems quite feasible now
or maybe a war, or I may kill you all.

[PharmBoy]

In Marvel comics, the Celestials are space-gods who are machine-like.

[BrainGlutton]

For some reason, Futurama has a Robot Devil but no Robot God.

[TWDuke]

OK, on my return visit I noticed that the Moloch Machine was mentioned in the OP, so in its place I offer... Henry Ford, as idolized in the society depicted in Brave New World. People speak of "Our Ford," make the sign of the T, and say things like "Ford's in his flivver, all's right with the world."

[Johnny L.A.]

Thirty-four replies and no mention of Ernest And The Machine God by Harlan Ellison?

True, s/he doesn't actually make an appearance; but s/he's the source of Ernest's aptitude with machines.

[Tuckerfan]

For some reason, Futurama has a Robot Devil but no Robot God.
But there is a Robot Jesus (as well as Robot Jews).

[Harmonious Discord]

In one of Fred Saberhagen's beserker short stories there's a group of people who worship the defense computer of a collapsed civilization, and another one which talks about folks who worship the beserkers (giant Death Star like machines which destroy life bearing planets) as gods. Pity none of his stuff got turned into movies.

I've said for a long time, that the series would make a great group of movies.

[Crocodiles And Boulevards]

The Utwig race from Star Control worship a machine called the Ultron.

[Pushkin]

In one of Fred Saberhagen's beserker short stories there's a group of people who worship the defense computer of a collapsed civilization

Somewhat like the Covenant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covenant_%28Halo%29) and their worship of the Halos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_%28megastructure%29) in the video game series of that name.

[Zsofia]

Sharon Shinn has a set of books about "angels" who pray for intercession to something that turns out to be the computer on the colony ship.