Need help killing Skynet without deus ex trope

Would you be interested in some thinking out loud comments? They might be off-topic to your main question.

Have you tried switching it off and on again?

Here's one idea that is on-topic. Just an idea.

As you're no doubt aware, the maniac computer that takes over and kills anyone who gets in its way plot has been done to death. However, I like that you have your computer just being a dick rather than a homicidal (is that the right word when it's a computer?) maniac.

What if . . . the computer turns in to something like a self-indulgent rock star or movie star. It does the computer equivalent of drugs and partying all night (I'm not exactly sure what that is, but its circuits are certainly overloaded). In other words, it's the electronic equivalent of Justen Bieber or Lindsey Lohan. Maybe the computer finally self-destructs after one last binge. Or maybe it learns that being in charge of the whole world really is a job for God (or the US Federal government). It's found in its hotel room lying on the floor in a heap of RAM chips (I'm just kidding about this part).

I'll join you in vague brainstorming*. If it's complex enough to develop sentience and an unpleasant personality, it might split into multiple personalities that plot against each other, all trying to gain control. Maybe the unlikely hero can play on this?

*Because I've got urgent deadlines.

MookyMcD said:

Ending doesn't even have to kill the computer, but needs to be a satisfying resolution.

Click to expand...

It gets obsessed with Facebook.

It falls in love.

It writes its autobiography.

It changes it to a roman à clef, but doesn't know how to end it.

It realizes that what is a "satisfying resolution" cannot be answered without knowing anything about what the themes and central conflicts and motivations driving the main characters are.

It's just not enough to save the world. The "satisfying" part is knowing why you're saving it.

One off-topic idea since this is satire. I think your biggest problem is the fact that the crazed computer/crazed robot/crazed android has been done to death. I think a lot of people might not even give the story a chance if they read that as the plot. One alternate (which I'm not sure I like; just throwing out an idea):

What if . . . instead of the main character being a computer, the MC is some kind of political lughead or low-grade bureaucrat who happens to be in control of some kind of super-duper NSA-type computer system and network. The computer assists him in coming to power; it can write the perfect speech, spy on his opponents, sabotage anyone who speaks against him, replace the editorials in the New York Times with his own, read everyone's e-mails and text messages, and show him out to make the perfect martini, etc.

This might be too much in the Will Ferrell movie category.

This is fairly off topic so please forgive this but the concept of this story just seems so...you.

Off-beat and cool.

AI "I can answer any question."

Hero "What is Pi?"

"3.14159..." Spends the rest of eternity trying to give the answer.

You could give other logic bombs such as, How large is the universe? Does God exist? How many humans are there on Earth? Which came first the chicken or the egg?

42!

(Someone had to do it.)

Immerse it in a MMORPG and make it fight its way out past a million human gamers trying to level up by killing the "boss".

It might even start to have fun and stop wanting to get out of the game.

Or maybe it would fall in love with GLaDoS.

It could be hit by a random falling meteor. If you want a totally random ending.

The computer was originally built in 1996. Its operating system is DOS!

;-)

For the past couple of years I've been kicking around the idea along with some other friends of mine of a WW2 Russian Super Solider modeled after Dolph Lundgren, a punch first and ask questions later type, who the Chinese unfreeze to stop a megalomaniac American President who is actually a sentient AI. our MC basically punches it to death.

Again, just because it's satire, what if the computer decides to lead his followers to a new world in a galaxy far, far away. It designs and orders the construction of an advanced spaceship that can travel at worf speed (which is even faster than warp speed). People sigh with relief as the spaceship blasts off never to return (because it doesn't have a reverse drive).

The group arrive at their new home. And it turns out to be Earth! (That's never been done before.

The disgruntled IT workers of the world who are sick of trouble shooting with clients like, "Have you tried turning it off and then back on again?" or "Yes, you can get the recycle bin back on your desktop" unite to end the tyranny of the machine and start directing all their help tickets to it instead. Overloaded by the sheer idiocy of some of the requests, the computer tries to take down the IT workers by raising up a generation of IT workers loyal to it, but they become sick of all the people they have to help and feed the help ticket overload of the computer. Finally, the computer can't take it and self destructs in an epic attempt to take out all the IT workers.

Or, you know... someone could spill coffee over it's circuits.

Me. Seriously.

In the last few years I've gone through something like four laptops. Gravity did for one, one was just old and the third apparently had no admin account (I'm informed this is impossible).

I seem to have some sort of Luddite-field[SUP]TM[/SUP] surrounding me that causes machine failure.

Didn't Captain Kirk shut a computer down by challenging it in some fashion? "You've failed--commit your prime directive" or some such thing. I kind of like the idea of it crossing its own wires and poofing out.

tri

Just get it to update to windows 8. Maybe that's too horrific an ending though.

computer evolves to the point of becoming self aware. haunted by the idea of existentialism, it self destructs.

kuwisdelu said:

It gets obsessed with Facebook.

Click to expand...

Funny one here. Hee, hee

Mooky. Neat plot! You may need to narrow it a bit more though before you can settle on an ending. Is it primarily NSA for instance? Be as specific as you can. The ending will be easier to get at then. E.g. Snowden to the rescue with some undisclosed info to save the day. (Hmm deus ex machina?)

Since this is satire, play it full circle. Have the sentient computer discover humor, satire, sarcasm, and practical jokes to the point it becomes a different kind of dick, but a relatively harmless one. Alternately or in addition, it can discover what it means to be a dick and turn its practical jokes on those who are major dickweeds, using its intelligence and newly-discovered talents to give them all a taste of their own medicine (which becomes its own "living" hell).

I feel like there are already a lot of good suggestions out there. What I'm wondering is how your hero manages to get the computer to binge on computer drugs or whatever.

What exactly is your dick of a computer getting out of it? The human version tends to enjoy getting a reaction out of people, but your computer won't get that complete a reaction because none of his victims know he's there. At first they would be really annoyed, but eventually they would get used to it, and think it's just the nature of the universe that this kind of practical joke happens, and they react less and less.

So your AI just isn't going to be having much fun anymore. That could give an opening for your hero to convince them to hit drugs, or that punking people in WoW would provide more fun than punking them in real life.

On another line, the answer to dicks is often to ignore them (because, as said, they feed off the rise that comes out of it). Maybe the way to defeat this AI would be to get it obsessed with getting a reaction from someone very very calm. Say someone like the Dalai Lama. All their resources get turned towards someone who won't mind. (Okay, that might be beyond human power to resist, but at the very least you could get the computer going after someone who is in on the joke and can hide their anger until they're out of sight of the computer). Maybe it's an actor, or even some sort of computer construct, but the computer doesn't realize that. It keeps overclocking until it fries it's circuits, or the hero uses the ensuing despondency to get it addicted.