Over the past thirty years, computers and the awareness of computers has increasingly become a common part of our every day lives. Not only are computers used in business, but many home appliances also contain a mini-computer. As they have been incorporated into our lives and into our minds they have exerted a strong influence on our thought process. We use computers, we talk about the latest developments, we write about their utility and the unending possibilities for their use. Writes weave them into fiction and film makers even bring them to life before our very eyes.

Our notions of the computer have changed drastically since the days of computers which used vacuum tubes and relays, first introduced in the 1950s. Our computers today run on micro chips, optical switches, and integrated circuits. We can simulate virtual reality in a 3-dimensional world inside of the computer. We can digitize photographs and reassemble and distort the truth with the computer. We can send entire documents through the net and via satellite to a computer in a remote location. Some programs have voice activated commands and can respond with dialogue in a simulated voice of their own.

Robots created, if not for handicapped purposes, for films, have human characteristics such as "arms". But what we will be able to do with and use computers for in the future is still a mystery, as it was in the 1950s imagining the possibilities for computers today. The unknown always gives room for myths and beliefs embodying, in this case, the truths and generalizations about computer existence and its capabilities. I have chosen here to analyze three important films in the breakthrough of computer technology: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Tron, and Bladerunner

These three films demonstrate a recurring myth about computers. The theme of this myth is a fear that the computer will someday be able to have a mind of its own, that it will turn and lute against humans, its creator, and itself try to control man or destroy man. This struggle between humans and the computer has developed from a certain human reality as well: that of man fearing his own creation, thus fearing himself. The cause of this fear I believe is undergirded by the increased personification of computers. Writers and film makers have

personified the computer in these three films. But it is not only in the fictitious world that computers are increasingly taking on human characteristics. Today, computers, electronic video games, and cars can talk to you, toy robots are given human features such as arms, hands, clamps for fingers, and a voice box located in a rotating head, which all further support the myth. But as computers or robots are created purposely for use with human interaction, may it be for pleasure, or in a utilitarian manner, the humanizing characterization of the machine in question makes for a

friendlier or more comfortable experience. The myth continues. Can a human designed, human made, human programmed "computer" become as good as or better than humans themselves? A computer can already out-compute a human. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Tron, and Bladerunner, have all tried to portray what the capabilities and possibilities of the computer might be in the future. The computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Hal, is designed as a supervisor that would serve to control and operate all of the

functions on the space traveling ship. A model of his type was chosen based on its impeccable reputation,

that of having never malfunctioned. Hal was given some human characteristics such as an optical device in several cabins of the space ship (in other words an eye) a voice that mimicked a human's, a memory, and a personality in order to better interact with the humans aboard the ship. In this film the computer was given the task of Commander because it "could not" malfunction or make a mistake, whereas humans are fallible. Hal, the super-computer is omnipresent throughout the ship and can oversee numerous functions simultaneously. Also Hal, being a machine, could in a sense outlive a human. Thus Hal

was possibly better than a human in that he is dependable, faultless, and sure. When Hal was built, he was so programmed by humans, to be perfect, never to malfunction. The plot of the film, though, changes the history of the perfect model type's irreproachable reputation. The astronauts aboard the ship believe Hal errs. His personality was programmed to have so many human traits such as emotions, feelings, sorrow, and even suspicion that the computer reacts to events in the plot in an all too human way. Our myth is undergirded here as Hal who controls all the functions of the ship's operation decides to run

things under his own command. This happens when he is given reason to believe that he will be shut down, which Hal regards as his own "life" being terminated as a human would. Hal knows he has a mission to carry out and it would therefore be at the expense of human lives to carry out this mission if so necessary. Events lead Hal to release into outer space one astronaut and to shut off the life support system keeping others preserved "frozen", thus killing several humans. Tron's depiction of the computer is similar to Hal in 2001 but it introduces a world inside of the

computer besides the real world. In the real world the computer called the MCP is designed as a helper, an

informer, and an accomplice. It also controls access to computer systems to prevent tampering with the program and, hence tampering with its own authority. It is given a voice, a memory, judgment, and a personality. It becomes the orchestrator to whom everyone in the computer world must answer. When a principal character, Flynn, is accidentally physically digitized into the computer/video game world, he becomes a pawn in the very video game that he had mastered. Flynn was now under the control of the MCP and had to succumb to the MCP's rules and dictation. When made a live player of the video game, Flynn

realizes that he or his opponents, other humans, would have to die in order to produce a winner of the game in the 'real world'. Flynn realizes the control the MCP has over humans. He sees that the MCP can manipulate and play a game of death with human lives like his own. The MCP in Tron further supports our myth that the computer of the future will be able to, for example, digitize a human physically into a computer and control him in turn. I do not think that this could ever actually manifest. But in this instance of fiction, Flynn being digitized into the computer symbolizes the computer taking

control of humans. The computers in the film Bladerunner were in the form of androids called Replicants made for use as slaves or workers on colonized planets. The Replicants were indistinguishable from humans. Only a special test tackling emotional circumstances could prove their gender. Besides their human features, Replicants were programmed with all the human qualities except emotions. But given their almost complete human condition after several years it became difficult for them not to feel emotions. Like Hal in 2001 the Replicants

eventually develop a longing for their lives, a desire for survival; they do not want to expire (die). Bladerunner is the story of a group of Replicants who escape back to Earth and try to persuade their creator to prolong their lifespan. While searching for their creator, many human lives are lost, since these man-made computer Replicants' developed a desire to be as good if not better than humans by getting the same respect as humans and being able to have extended life. Our myth reappears here. However, in each film the myth is accounted for. The popular fear that

computers will eventually have minds of their own, that they will desire to and be able to control man, is resolved. Man does actually have final control in each case. Humans designed, built, and programmed the computers and the Replicants with a final way to terminate the creation in an extreme case or emergency situation. The computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Hal, has a control box and can be shut down just like any other computer. It eventually becomes necessary for a character to cut Hal's power. Hal had already caused several human deaths. If only to save his own life, Dave shuts Hal down. Flynn in Tron designed the

computer program and therefore has the power to manipulate and destroy the same MCP that served as a shield against Flynn in the real world and a manipulator in the computer world. The Replicants in Bladerunner were also designed and built by humans who gave them only certain human qualities. In an emergency case like that in Bladerunner the Replicants could be conventionally killed like humans, but if not killed, their life span was programmed to terminate after only four years. The creators of the Replicants did this so that human emotions would not develop in the Replicants, permitting them to long for life and

try to get that at any human cost. The myth about computers that has become so popular through its influence in our daily lives has some truth to it too. Writers and films depict computers as having greater intelligence than man, as having the possibility, in the future, of overpowering man. It is interesting to observe man's perception of the possibilities for computers in 2001 compared to man's perception for their possibilities ten or twenty years later. In this year 1991 computers have been attributed some human characteristics such as voice

activated commands and a simulated voice of their own, robots have mechanical "arms" that can build things for us. But we are nowhere close to building a "robot" with the capabilities of Bladerunner's Replicants. Despite the progress that computers have made since the 1950s popularity still holds the same fears portrayed through these three movies. Still, films made today such as Terminator II presents the idea of the computer completely taking over the human race and creating a world of its own. Since 2001: A Space Odyssey was made films portray the computers of the future with even more human

characteristics: Replicants and Terminators versus a Hal or the MCP. Because the future is unknown the capabilities for computers in the future will always give way to the imagination and encourage myths to develop about the possibility of computers outpowering and controlling and destroying humans.