machine regulated society theme

also known as: computer controlled society

Society is supposedly ideal thanks to being regulated by machines that go about optimizing everybody's well-being in the best way possible.

15 total · 1 choice · 13 major · 1 minor

StoryLevelMotivation
shortstory: The Machine Stops (1909) choice At the heart of the story is the gradual breakdown of an enormous machine that oversaw nearly every aspect of society.
blackmirror4x04 major Amy and Frank lived in a walled-off society where people were required to be matched by AI algorithms into romantic relationships.
futurama3x01 major The Amazonians worshiped what seemed like a society regulating central computer with its own agenda, but was actually a fembot behind a curtain.
movie: Alphaville (1965) major Alphaville was completely controlled by the sentient computer Alpha 60.
movie: Appleseed (2004) major The story is set in the futuristic, seemingly utopian city-state Olympus. Peace and harmony was supposedly maintained throughout the city in part by an all observing computer system named Gaia.
movie: Colossus The Forbin Project (1970) major The film ended with the Colossus computer taking over the world and forcing humans to live together in peace.
movie: Cosmos: War of the Planets (1977) major A space crew investigating a signal from a distant planet finds a race of green-skinned humanoids enslaved by a rogue, evil supercomputer.
movie: Logans Run (1976) major The viewer is shown a computer-run society in which a stable population was maintained through indoctrinating people with the belief that that ritual suicide was a necessity of life.
rbt1985e3x05 major The story featured a supposed utopian society in which it seemed that machines took care of public affairs and people were left to sit in their air-conditioned homes watching reruns on their TVs. Other hints were dropped that the society was run by machines. For instance, it was said that they same on TV content was replayed again and again, and that voice recordings were used to answer questions posed over the telephone.
tos1x22 major The central computer Landru ruled over the people of Beta III much as a cult leader.