What are the origins of the intelligent machine apocalypse story theme

September 20, 2009 7:32 PM

As a follow-up to my question about the origins of the mutant superhero genre...

What are the origins of the technological apocalypse movies/stories, i.e. the machines and computers become intelligent and war against humanity. Just watched "9." The earliest that I can remember is the "Terminator" movies, but I'm 41, so I don't know what went on before that. Just on a side-note, it's interesting that humanity is apocalyptic. Either "Left Behind," Christian end-times, or Singularity technological apocalypse.

posted by jeffreyclong to Society & Culture (9 answers total)

The origins probably go back further (as you say, humans love end-of-the-world stories) but an old example that pops to mind is Samuel Butler's Erewhon, a novel written in 1872 about a near-future utopia built (in part) as a haven safe from machines that (may soon) become self-aware and begin to evolve and improve, to the eventual exclusion of humankind.

(He'd just read Darwin, apparently, and it gave him nightmares.)

Butler also nails a lot of other things that would later become sci-fi fodder, like corporate power.
posted by rokusan at 7:42 PM on September 20, 2009 [1 favorite]

As far as film, the oldest I can think of, though not extremely apocalyptic, is Colossus: The Forbin Project I'm sure there's much older, but I thought we could get to 1970 early, because earlier stuff will be more obscure.
posted by itsonreserve at 7:46 PM on September 20, 2009

Erewhon's the first I've heard of as well, but the 1921 play RUR (where we get the word 'robot' from) involves a machine apocalypse.
posted by Paragon at 7:58 PM on September 20, 2009

One could argue that any story in which man tries his hand at playing God is at the heart of this concept. For example, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:21 PM on September 20, 2009 [1 favorite]

The earliest movie on that theme is probably "Metropolis".
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:42 PM on September 20, 2009 [1 favorite]

Older related stories of human-created entities that then turn on humans include the Golem myth (Golem movie (1920)), Frankenstein's monster, Homunculus (a serial from 1916), Metropolis (1927). A few other earlier killer-robot and AI-gone-amok stories include Westworld (1973), Gog (1954), Demon Seed (1977),
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:47 PM on September 20, 2009

I have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (1967) isn't nearly as old as any of that stuff, but man it's good.
posted by Large Marge at 11:04 PM on September 20, 2009

I'm not sure about Metropolis. The plot, at least from my memory, is more about man being used as a machine, and not really about the machines becoming sentient or anything. You could argue that once we are treated like machines, they have control over us, but I think it's a stretch.
posted by itsonreserve at 7:19 AM on September 21, 2009

I would say the Sorcerer's Apprentice deserves at least a footnote in such a history.
posted by kimota at 8:00 PM on September 21, 2009