Machine Rule

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See also: Cybernetic revolt

The concept of Machine Rule is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which an artificially created lifeform takes over the naturally evolved beings that created them. In cases where this takeover is hostile, it may be called a cybernetic revolt, but it may occur peacefully, with humans deciding that machines, such as androids, robots or sentient computers, would provide a better lifestyle for humanity.

As a theme, it may reflect a fear of the autonomy of a machine that can run itself, eventually rendering its creators obsolete, or a fear of man's creations running out of control, becoming the new masters (see cybernetic revolt for a more in-depth discussion).

[edit] In fiction

R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) is arguably the first example of a robotocracy, as the worker robots revolt against their human creators.

The outer space visitor Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still claimed to come from a robotocracy in which law and order were strictly (and viciously) enforced by robotic police.

In The Matrix, robots known as the Machines control the world, having eliminated all human society. Human beings are kept as prisoners in cocoon-like structures, their brains plugged into a massive computer simulation of reality.

In the movie I, Robot, an artificial intelligence attempts, by remotely controlling vast numbers of commercial humanoid robots, to take over the world for the purported aim of protecting humanity from itself.

Isaac Asimov, whose short stories frequently feature robots and computers, occasionally in the position of supervising or ruling humanity.

Frank Herbert's Dune series featured a Machine Empire whose totalitarian rule over humanity lead to a war and eventually a taboo on the creation of "thinking" machines.

David Brin's Uplift books include Machines as one of the seven orders of life.

Harlan Ellison's short story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream involves the last human survivor, kept alive for torment by the deranged AM, an AI that has gained control of the world.

Jack Chalker has numerous series that feature computers in control of biological society, including The Rings of the Master and the Quintara Marathon.

Multiple episodes of the Star Trek television series have featured episodes about planets or societies managed to one degree or another by computers and other machines. This includes Spock's Brain, A Taste of Armageddon and the Borg from the Star Trek: The Next Generation

Fred Saberhagen's Berserkers are a machine-race who are a doomsday weapon left over from an ancient war. They are programmed to eliminate all life, including humanity.

Colossus: The Forbin Project features two computers created by the world's superpowers, who unite and decide to rule over humanity.

The world-conquering computer Skynet in the The Terminator series

In the classic videogame series, Mega Man X, humanoid robots become artificially intelligent and a certain group of them, the "Mavericks," revolt against humans.

In the re-imagined version of "Battlestar Galactica," humans created the Cylons, who eventually rebelled against their creators. In Season 3, the Cylons were depicted as ruling over the shattered remains of humanity.

In Ian M. Banks science-fiction utopian Culture society, Minds, extremely advanced computer sentiences inhabit and control whole spaceships or artificial worlds. While they do not rule the Culture as such (technically they have the same status as any sentient citizen), and provide benevolent guidance to its biological citizens, their powers are only limited by their self-restraint.

The Human Polity featured in Neal Asher's "Polity Series" is governed and managed by Earth Central, an incredibly powerful Ai, in a benevolent (most of the time) Dictator fashion.