Jealous Machines: Computers in the Twilight Zone
Machines are made by men for man’s benefit and progress, but when man ceases to control the products of his ingenuity and imagination he not only risks losing the benefit, but he takes a long and unpredictable step into… the Twilight Zone.
- opening narration to The Twilight Zone episode “From Agnes – With Love”
The Twilight Zone is one of my favorite TV shows of all time. It’s always thought-provoking and clever. Even though it’s on Netflix and Hulu (and I have memberships with both), every time the Syfy channel has a marathon, I’m there.
The Twilight Zone, like most of sci-fi, is concerned with technology. How will it affect our lives, for good or for evil? Given that this show was produced during the height of the cold war, the prospect of nuclear warfare hangs over the show like a shadow. In the face of robots and bodily transformations, what does it mean to be human? In the aftermath of nuclear warfare, who would survive? What would happen when society broke down?
Discussing the entire run of The Twilight Zone and attitude to technology is far beyond scope of this post. There are so many different types of technology that appear throughout the series: robots, spaceships, and so much more. So, in honor of Twilight Zone Day, I decided to focus on episodes that dealt strictly with computers.
From Agnes – With Love
There’s a lot to be said about a man giving a machine a female name. Consider this old naval saying: “It takes an experienced man to handle her correctly; and without a man at the helm, she is absolutely uncontrollable.”
This episode is the story of nerdy computer scientist James Elwood, the only person who can properly run the supercomputer MARK 502-741, nicknamed “Agnes.” As he takes over for another scientist he receives this warning:
“Watch out for that female. Look out for that femme fatale!”
Agnes ends up causing chaos all around her; she can’t be controlled, she controls. This machine is actively malevolent, even jealous. All that said, this is one of the funnier episodes of The Twilight Zone. I wonder if it’s a coincidence that this episode originally aired on Valentine’s Day…
The Old Man in the Cave
A word of warning: in order to fully discuss this episode, I’m going to include spoilers. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, stop reading now and catch it on Netflix.
The episode, like many Twilight Zone episodes, is about nuclear warfare. It is 1974 (eleven years after this episode first aired), and the United States is a wasteland. Civilization as we know it has been destroyed. This episode takes place in a tiny village of starving people. Food supplies and morale have dwindled; food grown in the now-contaminated fields is unsafe to eat.
One day, a group of soldiers comes to the village and asks them how they have survived all this time. The leader, Goldsmith, says that it’s because of “the old man in the cave.” This mysterious old man is the source of all their knowledge. He tells them what food is safe to eat and what isn’t, weather forecasts, and radiation levels. But Goldsmith is the only one who’s actually seen him.
The soldiers, having seen all sorts of cults spring up in the post-war world, are more than a bit skeptical. They gleefully distribute the food that the old man in the cave says is poisonous. Then they lead the townspeople to the cave and force Goldsmith to open the entrance.
The soldiers goad the villagers to destroy the computer and they do so, smashing it with rocks and tearing it apart with their bare hands. The leader of the soldiers stands on top of the toppled computer and proclaims, “You’re free!”
Several weeks later, we see the results of this freedom. The townspeople and the soldiers are all dead, the victims of strontium 90 poisoning and their own greed.
In this episode, the computer is presented as a savior: a strong guardian, a wise protector whose wisdom is rejected. The moral of this episode that technology itself is not inherently bad in and of itself; it only becomes bad when it is weaponized. Look at Goldsmith’s speech to the soldiers when he begs them not to open the cave:
“There’s no reason, no reason under the sun why this cave should be opened. Why you must see the old man. All you have to know is that he’s kept us alive…Jason, he didn’t drop the bomb. He didn’t kill off this earth, we did that to ourselves. All he’s done is to let us survive our mistake. All he’s done is to let us plant a seed again and let it grow. All the compassion that’s left on Earth is in that cave.”
This speech almost puts the computer on par with God. But to this day I wonder: who or what was powering that computer?
