I was surprised by the date on this: I thought Colossus: The Forbin Project pre-dated Star Trek but it’s from 1970.
Anyway, it’s yet another example of someone trying to overload a computer with a special program (in this case for distraction).
In Robot Monster (1953), Robot Gorilla Ro-Man says, “I cannot - yet I must. How do you calculate that? At what point on the graph do ‘must’ and ‘cannot’ meet? Yet I must - but I cannot!” He doesn’t actually start smoking, but it is an early instance of conflicting programming/inputs causing. . . eh. . . ‘internal issues.’
A for-once-pissed-off Susan Calvin does this to a robot in Asimov’s LIAR!, in '41.
Novel from 1966. But in the first sequel, “The Fall of Colossus” (1974), the Martians give Forbin a formula to feed into Colossus that will shut him down.
It never occurred to me before this thread, but is “I, Mudd” actually a take-off on “I, Robot”? The title, I mean, not necessarily the plot. That would be cool.
Yes but it wasn’t an example of the cheesy cliche.
Probably more of a take off on I, Claudius.
I wasn’t trying to suggest a connection (the similarity of the titles hadn’t occurred to me, truth be told). I just followed up some details about Star Trek with a literary example I thought many Dopers would recognize.