# Late-'60s/early-'70s science fiction sub-genre: Technology gone bad **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies, ai\ **Created:** [December 21, 2024, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/late-60s-early-70s-science-fiction-sub-genre-technology-gone-bad/1011987 "2024-12-21T19:56:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2024, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/late-60s-early-70s-science-fiction-sub-genre-technology-gone-bad/1011987/21 "2024-12-21T22:59:44Z")
One entry from the era was 1969’s [The Monitors.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cz4IoF2U_DI&pp=ygURdGhlIG1vbml0b3JzIDE5Njk%3D). Made on a small budget, but with recognized actors (including Susan Oliver ❤), but notably filed guerrilla-style for the Chicago exteriors, back when Mayor Daley forbade moviemaking in his city ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2024, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/late-60s-early-70s-science-fiction-sub-genre-technology-gone-bad/1011987/22 "2024-12-22T00:09:48Z")
I don’t know about cult status, but someone at the local off-brand TV station must have liked it because I saw it several times in the 70s ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2024, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/late-60s-early-70s-science-fiction-sub-genre-technology-gone-bad/1011987/23 "2024-12-22T00:31:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Y’know, Musk could have just… named his AI project something else Nah, let him claim his [1940’s level technology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer). Oh, and getting back to the topic of the thread, Logan’s Run. ---
**Author:** ![lum\_s\_husband](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lum_s_husband/32/3698_2.png) [@lum\_s\_husband](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lum_s_husband)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2024, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/late-60s-early-70s-science-fiction-sub-genre-technology-gone-bad/1011987/24 "2024-12-22T02:34:21Z")
_The Invisible Boy_ (1957) was ahead of its time and darker than one might expect. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2024, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/late-60s-early-70s-science-fiction-sub-genre-technology-gone-bad/1011987/25 "2024-12-22T08:58:00Z")
I agree with those who note that this genre got started earlier than the 1970-plus-or-minus time frame suggested in the OP. For example, I recently rewatched _Fail Safe_ from 1964 (the nuclear-crisis thriller that got overshadowed by _Dr Strangelove_). The premise of the film is that a happenstance collision of technical glitches locks civilization into a path leading to destruction. The reason I believe this warrants inclusion on the list is that there is _explicit_ dialog in the movie about the risks inherent in technological transformation. There are multiple scenes in which characters talk about how, as computers get faster, more powerful, and more complex, they simultaneously become less comprehensible and controllable; so as people rely more heavily on them, putting more and more decisions and actions directly under computer control, failures become increasingly inevitable, with potentially catastrophic results. This is certainly a reflection of mounting discomfort with the unfolding technology revolution, per the OP. (Interestingly, while _Dr Strangelove_ has a superficially very similar plot, I wouldn’t put it in the same category; it reorients the story slightly and emphasizes different aspects, making clear that nuclear devastation is a disaster of our own making, precipitated by human foolishness above all else. The technology _facilitates_ the crisis, but it doesn’t _cause_ it as in _Fail Safe._) ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2024, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/late-60s-early-70s-science-fiction-sub-genre-technology-gone-bad/1011987/26 "2024-12-22T17:53:16Z")
_Silent Running_ (1972) does NOT entirely fit but its setting and tone is very similar to other 70s sc-fi films. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2024, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/late-60s-early-70s-science-fiction-sub-genre-technology-gone-bad/1011987/27 "2024-12-22T18:59:40Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > > > _The Andromeda Strain_ > > I don’t think this really fits. It’s a plague from space, not technology gone wrong. And the apocalypse is averted. The technology of the seals in the containment facility fail, though. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2024, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/late-60s-early-70s-science-fiction-sub-genre-technology-gone-bad/1011987/28 "2024-12-22T22:17:50Z")
I dispute the argument that the “technology gone bad” science fiction sub-genre was unique to the late-'60s and early-'70s because it never really ended. There are many examples in the '80s, like **Blade Runner** and the first **Terminator** movie. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2024, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/late-60s-early-70s-science-fiction-sub-genre-technology-gone-bad/1011987/29 "2024-12-22T22:34:37Z")
It may be a comedy, but Woody Allen’s _Sleeper_ may be the most on-point, given how much of the tech and societal changes indicated (as exaggerated for laughs they might be) has come to pass (or in the case of malignant AI may soon do so), along with the associated dysfunctional totalitarian government. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2024, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/late-60s-early-70s-science-fiction-sub-genre-technology-gone-bad/1011987/30 "2024-12-22T22:39:30Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > I dispute the argument that the “technology gone bad” science fiction sub-genre was unique to the late-'60s and early-'70s because it never really ended. I never said it was. It’s just that in the late-'60s through the early-'70s they were filmed in the style of the time, which is what the thread is about; not about all eras, which had different styles. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2024, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/late-60s-early-70s-science-fiction-sub-genre-technology-gone-bad/1011987/31 "2024-12-22T22:58:45Z")
[Dark Star](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Star_(film)) is a comedy, but fits with the general style, and has some elements of technology gone bad. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2024, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/late-60s-early-70s-science-fiction-sub-genre-technology-gone-bad/1011987/32 "2024-12-22T23:07:46Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > There are many examples in the '80s, like **Blade Runner** and the first **Terminator** movie. I feel like at that point there’s more of a shift from “technology bad” to “corporations bad”. See also Rollerball, the first Alien, and Running Man. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2024, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/late-60s-early-70s-science-fiction-sub-genre-technology-gone-bad/1011987/33 "2024-12-22T23:59:52Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > > [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > > > > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > > > > > _The Andromeda Strain_ > > > > I don’t think this really fits. It’s a plague from space, not technology gone wrong. And the apocalypse is averted. > > The technology of the seals in the containment facility fail, though. Dutton’s line “They brought it on themselves,” flat out states that Project Scoop wasn’t thought out. Catch a sample of alien life and what? Bring it to Earth of course! Then, later, discover the BioChem warfare maps that Wildfire’s computer uses and the actual intent of the project seems to become clear. It’s back to another Crichton line “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2024, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/late-60s-early-70s-science-fiction-sub-genre-technology-gone-bad/1011987/34 "2024-12-25T00:11:33Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I feel like at that point there’s more of a shift from “technology bad” to “corporations bad”. See also Rollerball, the first Alien, and Running Man. _Silent Running_ fits that mold too. At some level they’re all about forces we mere ordinary citizens can’t control: Tech is not designed to serve us. Big business is not designed to serve us. Government is not designed to serve us. Funny how 50 - 60 years later vs the OP’s time frame this anxiety still feels fresh. ---
**Author:** ![john\_b\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@john\_b\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/john_b_2)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2026, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/late-60s-early-70s-science-fiction-sub-genre-technology-gone-bad/1011987/35 "2026-03-07T07:16:29Z")
Agree, but I think that Fantastic Voyage was aiming for the same demographic as the others: Smart sci-fi for guys with suits and ties. Sort of… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/late-60s-early-70s-science-fiction-sub-genre-technology-gone-bad/1011987.md?page=1)