Computers have often been used as fictional objects in literature, movies and in other forms of media. Fictional computers tend to be considerably more sophisticated than anything yet devised in the real world. Computers are notable by their absence from works of the human imagination before they were actually developed by scientists in the 1940s, see History of computing hardware.

Literature

Before 1950

• The Engine, a kind of mechanical information generator featured in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. This is considered to be the first description of a fictional device that in any way resembles a computer (1726).
• The Machine, a device that serves as a life support, communication, and entertainment device for humanity, in E. M. Forster's short story "The Machine Stops" (1909)
• The Games Machine, a vastly powerful computer that plays a major role in A. E. van Vogt's The World of Null-A (serialized in Astounding Science Fiction in 1945)
• Joe, a "logic" (that is to say, a personal computer) in Murray Leinster's short story "A Logic Named Joe" (1946)

1950s

• The Machines, positronic supercomputers that manage the world in Isaac Asimov's short story "The Evitable Conflict" (1950)
• MARAX, the MAchina RAtiocinatriX (Ship's Artificial Intelligence) in Stanisław Lem's novel "The Astronauts" (1951)
• EPICAC in Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano, which coordinates the United States economy. It is also featured in other of his writings (1952) Named after an over-the-counter poison-antidote syrup which induces vomiting.
• Vast anonymous computing machinery possessed by the Overlords, an alien race who administer Earth while the human population merges with the Overmind. Described in Arthur C. Clarke's novel Childhood's End (1953).
• Prime Radiant, Hari Seldon's desktop on Trantor. "Second Foundation" (1953)
• A "supercalculator" formed by the networking of all the computing machines on 96 billion planets, which answers the question "Is there a God?" with "Yes, now there is a God" in Fredric Brown's single-page story "Answer" (1954)
• Bossy, the "cybernetic brain" in the Hugo award-winning novel They'd Rather Be Right (a.k.a. The Forever Machine) by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley (1954)
• Multivac, a series of supercomputers featured in a number of stories by Isaac Asimov (1955 to 1975)
• The Central Computer of the city of Diaspar in Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars (1956)
• Miniac, the "small" computer in the book Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine (1958)
• Cosmic AC, the ultimate computer at the end of time in Isaac Asimov's short story "The Last Question" (The name is derived from "Analog Computer"; see also AC's ancestor, Multivac, and the contemporary UNIVAC) (1959)
• The City Fathers, emotionless computer bank educating and running the City of New York in James Blish's Cities in Flight series (1955 and sequels); their highest ethic was survival of the city and they could overrule humans in exceptional circumstances.

1960s

• Vulcan 3, the sentient supercomputer in Philip K. Dick's novel Vulcan's Hammer (1960)
• The Machine, a computer built to specifications received in a radio transmission from an alien intelligence beyond our galaxy in the novel from the TV series A for Andromeda by Fred Hoyle (1962)
• Merlin from the H. Beam Piper novel The Cosmic Computer (1963, originally Junkyard Planet).
• GENIE, the General Nonlinear Extrapolator from the Keith Laumer novel The Great Time Machine Hoax (1964).
• Alpha-60, a computer which has outlawed all human emotion in the film Alphaville (1965)
• Colossus, a cybernetic computer built to control the nuclear capability of the United States of North America, by Dr Charles Forbin and his team. Colossus initiates communication with an equivalent computer in the Soviet Union, called Guardian. The two computers eventually merge and take control of the human race. Colossus and Guardian appeared in the novel Colossus, by Dennis Feltham Jones (1966).
• Frost, the protagonist computer in Roger Zelazny's story "For a Breath I Tarry"; also SolCom, DivCom, and Beta (1966)
• Mycroft Holmes (aka Mike, Adam Selene), in Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (Named after Mycroft Holmes, the brother of Sherlock Holmes) (1966)
• The Ox in Frank Herbert's novel Destination: Void (1966)
• Supreme -- computer filling the artificial world Primores in Lloyd Biggle's Watchers of the Dark (1966)
• WESCAC (West Campus Analog Computer) from John Barth's Giles Goat-Boy (1966)
• AM from Harlan Ellison's short story I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (1967)
• The Berserkers, a vast network of autonomous machines that are programmed to destroy all life, as found in the stories of Fred Saberhagen (1967 to present)
• HAL 9000, the sentient computer on board the spaceship Discovery One, in Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey (novel) (1968)
• Shalmaneser, from John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar, a small (and possibly semi-sentient) supercomputer cooled in liquid helium (1968)
• Tänkande August (Swedish for "Thinking August"), a powerful computer for solving crime in the Agaton Sax books by Swedish author Nils-Olof Franzén
• The Thinker a non-sentient supercomputer which has absolute control over all aspects human life, including a pre-ordained death date of 21. From the novel Logan's Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson
• M-5, an artificial intelligence master computer designed to run a starship by the egomaniacal genius Dr. Richard Daystrom in the Star Trek episode "The Ultimate Computer"
• Project 79, a Top Secret U.S. Government project to build a sentient supercomputer. Project 79 attempts to control the minds of humans and take over the world, in response to a directive to find a solution to inevitable thermonuclear war, Martin Caidin's The God Machine (1968 novel) (1968)

1970s

• UniComp, the central computer governing all life on Earth in This Perfect Day by Ira Levin (1970)
• T.E.N.C.H. 889B, shipboard super-computer in A Maze of Death by Philip K. Dick (1970)
• Maxine from the Roger Zelazny story "My Lady of the Diodes" (1970)
• The Müller-Fokker computer tapes in The Muller-Fokker Effect (1971)
• HARLIE, protagonist of When HARLIE Was One by David Gerrold (1972)
• Dora, starship computer in Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein (1973)
• Minerva, executive computer in Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein (1973)
• Pallas Athena, Tertius planetary computer in Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein (1973)
• Extro, in Alfred Bester's novel The Computer Connection (1975)
• FUCKUP, from the Illuminatus trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson (1975)
• Proteus IV, the computer self-programmed to rape in the film/novel Demon Seed by Dean Koontz (1976)
• Peerssa, shipboard computer imprinted with the personality of a man of the same name, from A World Out of Time by Larry Niven (1976)
• P-1, a rogue AI which struggles to survive from The Adolescence of P-1.
• The benevolent CC (Central Computer) in John Varley's Eight Worlds novels and short stories (1977 to 1998)
• Com-pewter, a parody of other malevolent computers in Piers Anthony's Xanth series (1977 onwards)
• Com Passion, Com Pewter's friendlier counterpart, in that series.
• Domino, the portable communicator - and associated underground mega-computer - used by Laurent Michaelmas to run the world in Algis Budrys's novel Michaelmas (1977)
• IMP, in Joseph McElroy's PLUS (1977)
• Obie, an artificial intelligence with the ability to alter local regions of reality, in Jack L. Chalker's Well World series (1977)
• Well World, the central computer responsible for "simulating" an entire new universe superimposed over the old Markovian one in Jack L. Chalker's Well World series (1977)
• TOTAL, the vast military network in Up the Walls of the World by James Tiptree Jr (1978)
• ZORAC, the shipboard computer aboard the ancient spacecraft in The Gentle Giants of Ganymede and the related series by James P. Hogan (1978). Also in the same series is VISAR (the network that manages the daily affairs of the Giants) as well as JEVEX, the main computer performing the same function for the offshoot human colony.
• Deep Thought see entry under Radio
• Earth see entry under Radio
• Eddie see entry under Radio
• Spartacus, an AI deliberately designed to test the possibility of provoking hostile behavior towards humans, from James P. Hogan's book The Two Faces of Tomorrow (1979)
• TECT, from George Alec Effinger, various books. Notice that there are several computers named TECT in his novels, even though they are unrelated stories. (1970s onward)
• Sigfrid von Shrink, Albert Einstein, and Polymat, self-aware computer systems in Frederick Pohl's Gateway series, (starting in 1977)
• Orac, ingenius self-aware electronic ego in the BBC serial Blake's 7
• Zen, autonomous master computer of the starship Liberator in Blake's 7

1980s

• AIVAS, Artificial Intelligence Voice Address System, from Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern books (1980s to present)
• Golem XIV, from Stanisław Lem's novel of the same name (1981)
• TECT (originally TECT in the name of the Representative), the world-ruling computer in George Alec Effinger's novel The Wolves of Memory (1981)
• Hactar, the computer that designed the cricket-ball-shaped doomsday bomb (that would destroy the universe) for the people of Krikkit, in Douglas Adams's Life, the Universe and Everything (1982)
• SAL 9000, the counterpart of HAL 9000 in 2010: Odyssey Two (1982)
• Kendy the AI autopilot on board the seeder-ramship Discipline in the novels The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring by Larry Niven (Originally 1983)
• BC, Big Computer (God?) in John Varley's Millennium Novel (1983)
• Cyclops and Millichrome, sentient computers built just before a series of disasters destroyed the American government and society in The Postman by David Brin (1984)
• Loki 7281, from Roger Zelazny's short story by the same name, in which his home computer wants to take over the world (1984)
• Neuromancer and Wintermute, from William Gibson's novel Neuromancer (1984)
• Ghostwheel, built by Merlin in Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. A computer with esoteric environmental requirements, designed to apply data-processing techniques to alternate realities called "Shadows" (1985)
• Mandarax and Gokubi, from Kurt Vonnegut's novel Galápagos (1985)
• Jane, from Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series Ender's companion. She lives in the philotic network of the ansibles and she helps Ender in many situations (1986)
• Master System in Jack L. Chalker's The Rings of the Master series (1986-1988)
• "Fine Till You Came Along" and other ship, hub and planetary Minds in Iain M. Banks' "Culture" novels and stories (1987 to 2000)
• The Quark II in Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987)
• Abulafia, Jacopo Belbo's computer in the novel Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco (1988)
• Arius from William T Quick's novels Dreams of Flesh and Sand, Dreams of Gods and Men, and Singularities (1988 onwards)
• Continuity, from William Gibson's novel Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988)
• GWB-666, the Great Western Beast of Robert Anton Wilson's Schrödinger's Cat trilogy (1988)
• The TechnoCore, a band of Artificial Intelligences striving for the "Ultimate Intelligence", in Dan Simmons' novel Hyperion (1989).
• Eagle, from Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series (1989)
• LEVIN, Low Energy Variable Input Nanocomputer from William T Quick's novels Dreams of Gods and Men, and Singularities (1989)

1990s

• Thing, a very small box shaped computer owned by the Nomes, from Terry Pratchett's The Bromeliad series (1990)
• Grand Napolean, a Charles Babbage style mechanical supercomputer from the alternate history novel The Difference Engine by William Ford Gibson and Bruce Sterling (1990)
• Lingo, a sentient AI that evolves from a simple home computer and escapes to the Internet in the book "Lingo" by Jim Menick (1991)
• Aleph, in Tom Maddox's novel Halo. The computer which not only operates a space station but also houses the personality of a human character whose body became malfunctional (1991)
• Art Fish AKA Dr Fish, later fused with a human to become Markt, from Pat Cadigan's novel Synners (1991)
• Blaine the Mono, from Stephen King's The Dark Tower. A control system for the City of Lud and monorail service. Also Little Blaine and Patricia (1991)
• Center, from S.M. Stirling and David Drake The General series. An AI tasked to indirectly unite planet Bellevue and restore it's civilization, with the eventual goal of restoration of FTL travel and of civilization to the collapsed interplanetary federation. Also Sector Command and Control Unit AZ12-b14-c000 Mk. XIV and Center (1991)
• The Oversoul, Supercomputer and satellite network from Orson Scott Cards' Homecoming Series, first introduced in The Memory of Earth (1992)
• FLORANCE, spontaneously generated AI from Doctor Who Virgin New Adventures (1992)
• David and Jonathon from Arthur C. Clarke's The Hammer of God (1993)
• Abraham, from Philip Kerr's novel Gridiron, is a superintelligent program designed to operate a large office building. Abraham is capable of improving his own code, and eventually kills humans and creates his own replacement "Isaac" (1995)
• Helen, sentient AI from Richard Powers' Galatea 2.2 (1995)
• Hex, from Terry Pratchett's Discworld (1994)
• Prime Intellect, the computer controlling the universe in the Internet novel The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect by Roger Williams (1994)
• The Gibson, a fictional supercomputer/server from the movie Hackers (1995).
• Ordinator, The name used for any computer in the parallel universe occupied by Lyra in the novel Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (1995)
• GRUMPY/SLEEPY: Psychic AI in the Doctor Who New Adventures novel SLEEPY by Kate Orman (1996)
• Rei Toei, an artificial singer from William Gibson's novels Idoru and All Tomorrow's Parties (novel) (1996)
• DOCTOR: AI designed to duplicate the Doctor's reactions in the Doctor Who Eighth Doctor Adventures novel Seeing I by Kate Orman and Jon Blum. Eventually became an explorer with FLORANCE as its "companion" (1998)
• TRANSLTR, NSA supercomputer from Dan Brown's Digital Fortress (1998)
• Engine for the Neutralising of Information by the Generation of Miasmic Alphabets, an advanced cryptographic machine created by Leonard of Quirm, Discworld (1999) (compare with the actual Enigma machine)
• Minotaur, Cybernetic UWC super-soldier in Attack of the Killer SpaceCow - Vol. I created by Chris Evans (2005)
• Jill, a computer reaching self-awareness in Greg Bear's Queen of angels and Slant novels.
• Luminous, a computer that uses a diffraction grating created by lasers to diffract electrons and make calculations. The computer is described in Greg Egan's short story Luminous.
• iFruit, an iMac joke in the comic FoxTrot

2000s

• Logris, a massive alien supercomputer in the novel series The History of the Galaxy. Logris consists of many smaller jewel-like computers called logrs.
• Mother, a self-evolved artificial intelligence in the novel series The History of the Galaxy. Mother's goal is to create a race of machines like itself (hence the name).
• Turing Hopper, the artificial intelligence personality (AIP) turned cybersleuth in You've Got Murder and subsequent books of the mystery series by Donna Andrews (2002)
• Stormbreaker, a learning device containing a hidden canister of smallpox in Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider: Stormbreaker (2001)
• Glooper, from Terry Pratchett's Making Money (2007) of the Discworld series, an economic-modeling device resembling the MONIAC computer.
• Antrax, an extremely powerful supercomputer built by ancient humans in the novel Antrax by Terry Brooks. (2001)
• Cohen, a 400 year old AI which manifests itself by 'shunting' through people. It is featured in the novels Spin State and Spin Control by Chris Moriarty. (2005)
• Sif, the controller AI for transportation to and from the human agricultural colony-planet of Harvest in Halo: Contact Harvest (2007).
• Mack/Loki, a coexisting pair of artificial intelligences in Halo: Contact Harvest. The former manages the agricultural machinery on Harvest, while the latter is a secret United Nations Space Corps Office of Naval Intelligence AI. Only one member of the pair can be active at a time. (2007)
• Omnius The sentient computer evermind and ruler of the synchronized worlds in the Legends of Dune series, first seen in Dune: The Butlerian Jihad (2002)

Un-sorted

• Solace, the distributed intelligence in some of the stories of Spider Robinson.

Film

1950s

• NOVAC, Nuclear Operated Variable Automatic Computer featured in the 3D film GOG aka Gog (1954)
• The Interocitor communication device in the film This Island Earth (1955)
• The Great Machine built inside a planet that can manifest thought in Forbidden Planet (1956)
• EMERAC, the business computer in Desk Set (1957)

1960s

• Alpha 60, in Jean-Luc Godard's film Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965)
• HAL 9000 (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) is a fictional mission computer in the films 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and sequel 2010 (1984) that fatally malfunctions when contra-programmed with the secret purpose of the mission.
• Alfie, a shipboard computer in Barbarella (1968)

1970s

• Colossus — a massive U.S. defense computer which becomes sentient and links with Guardian, its Soviet counterpart, to take control of the world. From the film Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)
• Guardian — a massive U.S.S.R defense computer which becomes sentient and links with Colossus, its U.S. counterpart, to take control of the world. From the film Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)
• The Aries Computer, the computer from the 1972 film of the same name.
• Bomb 20 — the sentient nuclear bomb from the film Dark Star (1974)
• Mother, the ship-board computer on the space ship Dark Star, from the film Dark Star (1974)
• MU-TH-R 182 model 2.1 terabyte AI Mainframe/Mother, the ship-board computer on the space ship Nostromo, known by the crew as 'mother,' in the SF horror movie Alien (1979)
• Proteus, artificial intelligence in SF horror movie Demon Seed (1977)
• The Tabernacle, artificial intelligence controlling The Vortexes Zardoz (1974)
• DUEL, the computer which holds the sum total of human knowledge, in the SF movie The Final Programme (1973)

1980s

• SCMODS (State, County, Municipal Offender Data System), police patrol car computer in the movie The Blues Brothers (1980)
• Master Control Program, the main villain of Tron (1982)
• WOPR (War Operations Plan Response) from the movie WarGames (1983)
• Huxley 600 (named Aldous), Interpol's computer in Curse of the Pink Panther used to select Jacques Clouseau's replacement, NYPD Det. Sgt. Clifton Sleigh (1983)
• Joshua, a subprogram that runs on the WOPR (q.v.) in WarGames (1983)
• An unnamed Supercomputer that is the main antagonist in Superman III (1983)
• Skynet, the malevolent fictional world-AI of The Terminator and its sequels (1984)
• Edgar, AI computer that takes part in a romantic rivalry over a woman in the movie Electric Dreams (1984)
• ROK, the faulty computer in Airplane II: The Sequel, which steers the shuttle toward the sun (1982)

1990s

• Lucy, jealous AI home automation system who falls in love with her owner in Homewrecker (1992)
• Zed, female-voiced AI prison control computer who eventually goes over warden's head in Fortress (1993)
• Charon, female-voiced AI computer assisting a scientist in hypnotizing subjects in The Lifeforce Experiment (1994)
• Central, female-voiced AI computer assisting the San Angeles Police Department in Demolition Man (1993)
• Father, the station computer in Alien Resurrection (1997)
• Euclid, powerful personal computer used for mathematical testing by the main character in Pi (1998)
• The Matrix, virtual reality simulator for pacification of humans, The Matrix series (1999)
• Lucy, a computer in Hackers (1995) used to hack the Gibson (see below) and subsequently destroyed by the Secret Service.
• Gibson, a type of supercomputer used to find oil and perform physics in Hackers (1995)
• PAT, (Personal Applied Technology) Female motherly computer program who controls all the functions of a house in Disney's Smart House (1999)
• Project 2501 Artificial Intelligence developed by Section 6 in Ghost in the Shell (1995)
• Wittgenstein, a supercomputer in the children's movie The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue (1999)
• SETH, (Self Evolving Thought Helix) a military supercomputer which turns rogue in Universal Soldier: The Return (1999)

2000s

• Red Queen, the AI from the movie Resident Evil (2002)
• Vox, a holographic computer in The Time Machine (2002)
• I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E. — computer for Team America: World Police (2004)
• V.I.K.I., (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence) from I, Robot (2004)
• E.D.I (Extreme Deep Invader) is the flight computer for an unmanned fighter plane in Stealth (2005)
• Lucille - artificially intelligent spacecraft control interface aboard Mars-1 in Red Planet (2000)
• Deep Thought see entry under Radio
• PAL, a spoof of HAL 9000 seen in Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-lot (2004)
• Icarus, the computer from the film Sunshine (2007)
• JARVIS (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System), Tony Stark's personal AI from Iron Man (2008)
• R.I.P.L.E.Y Dr. Kenneth Hassert's supercomputer used to hit a target with a smart bomb from a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), featured in WarGames: The Dead Code (2008)
• ARIIA, the supercomputer from the film Eagle Eye (2008)
• GERTY, from the film Moon (2009)

Radio

1970s

• Deep Thought, from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy calculates the answer to "Life, the universe and everything", later designs the computer Earth to work out what the question is (1978)
• Earth, the greatest computer of all time in Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, bought and run by mice, designed by Deep Thought, to find the Question to Life, the Universe, and Everything (1978)
• Eddie, the shipboard computer of the starship Heart of Gold, from Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978)

1980s

• Alarm Clock, an artificially intelligent alarm clock from Nineteen Ninety-Four by William Osborne and Richard Turner. Other domestic appliances thus imbued also include Refrigerator and Television (1985)
• ANGEL 1 and ANGEL 2, Ancillary Guardians of Environment and Life, shipboard 'Freewill' computers from James Follett's Earthsearch series. Also Solaria D, Custodian, Sentinel, and Earthvoice (1980 — 1982)
• Executive and Dreamer, paired AI's running on The Mainframe; Dreamer's purpose was to come up with product and policy ideas, and Executive's function was to implement them, from Nineteen Ninety-Four by William Osborne and Richard Turner (1985)
• Hab a parody of HAL 9000 and precursor to Holly, appearing in the Son of Cliché radio series written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor (1983 — 1984)
• The Mainframe, an overarching computer system to support the super-department of The Environment, in the BBC comedy satire Nineteen Ninety-Four by William Osborne and Richard Turner (1985)

2000s

• Alpha, from Mike Walker's BBC radio play of the same name (2001)
• Gemini, the AI of K.E.N.T from Nebulous. (2005)
• System from the Doctor Who audio adventure The Harvest by Big Finish Productions is a sophisticated administration computer for a hospital in the future. (2004)

Television films and series

1960s

• The Machine, a computer built to specifications received in a radio transmission from an alien intelligence beyond our galaxy in the BBC seven part TV series A for Andromeda by Fred Hoyle (1961)
• Batcomputer, large punch card mainframe depicted in the television series Batman. Introduced by series producers William Dozier and Howard Horowitz,(1964).
• WOTAN (Will Operating Thought ANalogue) from Doctor Who ("The War Machines") (1966)
• ARDVARC (Automated Reciprocal Data Verifier And Reaction Computer) — CONTROL master computer in Get Smart episodes The Girls from KAOS (1967) & Leadside (1969)
• Computex GB from the Journey to the Unknown series episode "The Madison Equation" (1969)
• The Library Computer, from Star Trek, the otherwise unnamed computer of the Starship Enterprise. Voiced by Majel Barrett (1967)
• The General, from
  

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