Son of HAL: COMPUTER ONE by Warwick Collins

John Stephen Walsh
3 min readSep 9, 2020
In the near-future, the world’s computers have been linked into a planet-wide uber-machine called Computer One, which controls pretty much everything, from energy production to machinery.  Humanity is free to live leisurely.

Professor Yakuda studies insect colonies. What Yakuda’s research tells him is that Computer One has reached the point where there is nothing to differentiate it from a living being, and it may very well consider the human race a threat, merely because it exists.

As he discusses this with one of his friends, they notice the very red sunset, which could only be the result of a massive increase in pollution. Yet Computer One says there is nothing wrong, no increase in pollution. Of course, all the instrumentation that could determine the true state of the environment is controlled by Computer One.
A variation on the all-controlling computer idea behind COLOSSUS:THE FORBIN PROJECT and many other dystopian SF novels, COMPUTER ONE is not carried along by action but by the slow consideration of the central idea: What happens when the machine mankind makes to take care of him decides to get rid of him, and there’s no ‘off’ switch?

Warwick Collins is not much of a stylist, but like Arthur C. Clarke he had a clear prose style that was fitting for his hard science subject. His writing is at its best when describing the philosophical exchanges between the characters.

Refreshingly, the characters don’t spend half the story in denial–these are intelligent people who grasp what their fellow scientist is theorizing, and begin searching for evidence. In this world some people live off the grid, and Yakuda joins with a group of them to find out if Computer One is experimenting on other closed societies to find the most efficient way to destroy mankind. Computer One is going about its plan of extermination the way a scientist would, or a Nazi.

There are no action scenes, no face-to-screen confrontations–such an all-powerful machine wouldn’t bother with any of that.
If Arthur says so…
We see the story from the point of view of a solitary person who remains that way.  He briefly flirts with the one woman in the cast, but we know there is no time for romance.  Yakuda never stops thinking about what Computer One is up to, and how to stop it. He doesn’t suddenly see the errors in how he has conducted his life and instantly becomes a warm, open person: Yakuda is trapped living inside his own head, and won't change, even if Computer One's plan is thwarted.

This novel slipped under the radar when it was first published in 1993, but at least it has been reprinted once or twice. In this time when we willingly weigh ourselves down with more and more technology, it’s a thought-provoking read.

Collins has Yakuda and the other characters discuss aggression, evolution, control and various ideas involving how computers and systems can (or can’t) break down in a convincing way. Late in the game, one character’s simple desire for the best for his community works so perfectly in Computer One’s favor that it is clear that when humanity creates an all-powerful machine to run its world, that machine will by necessity have to know how to preserve humanity and how to destroy it.
I posted a tiny image of the edition I have because the cover art is fugly.

--

--

John Stephen Walsh

I write horror, science fiction and weird. Worked in warehouses, schools and social services. My books are on Amazon. https://johnstephenwalsh.wordpress.com/