BONUS BLOG -- 1970: COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT

What’s it about?

The U.S. government brings online a defense supercomputer called Colossus. Designed to be the ultimate deterrent in the Cold War, Colossus has the ability to automatically monitor electronic communications and to act unilaterally by firing ICBMs as soon as it detects a serious threat. But no sooner is the existence of the computer announced via press conference, then Colossus detects the presence of another similar system in the U.S.S.R. called Guardian.

Colossus and Guardian soon demand to be linked together -- threatening both the American and Soviet governments with nuclear attack if the request isn’t obeyed. The two computers create a secret language (indecipherable by humans) they use to communicate, and are soon blackmailing the superpowers into giving them more and more control. Colossus’s creator, Dr Forbin, is put under continual surveillance by the computers, so the rest of his team must work on solutions for stopping the computers with minimal input from him. Meanwhile, the computers order the construction of a mysterious manufacturing facility that will take up the entire island of Crete, and the scientists decide they must stop them one way or another.




Is it any good?

Digital computing didn’t even exist until the 1940s, but in less than two decades sci-fi writers were already asking whether these electronic brains could be capable of independent thought and action. COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT is not the first movie to feature a computer that develops its own agenda -- there’s also the Alpha 60 in ALPHAVILLE (1965) and HAL-9000 in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968). The Doomsday Device in DR STRANGELOVE, OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1964) is also a similar kind of computer, but it seems to function essentially as intended instead of going rogue. In any event, COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT does have a few interesting wrinkles I don’t remember having seen before in other man vs. machine pictures.

The most interesting, to my mind, is that there are actually two computers -- the American Colossus and the Soviet Guardian. They are both built from similar plans (which were apparently leaked to the Soviets by spies), so it makes sense that they would have an affinity for each other. Once connected, the first thing they do is to exchange mathematical data like the multiplication tables until they work their way up to forms of higher mathematics that no human has comprehended yet. The purpose is apparently to establish a common form of communication that can’t be tracked or understood by humans.

This is another interesting thing about the movie -- the computers for the most part are simply computers. They are tied in to wide-reaching data streams (including all electronic communications in the world), but they don’t have any magical abilities to affect systems that are outside of their direct control. The only control they really have is over their output screens and the nuclear arsenals of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Every demand that they make, no matter how large or small, is accompanied by the implicit threat of nuclear attack since the computers have no other way to influence humans to what they want. At one point late in the movie, when Forbin is under constant surveillance by Colossus, the computer tells him to stop drinking and to go to bed. Chafing under such paternalistic oversight, he asks in frustration if Colossus will destroy a city full of millions of people if he refuses to go to bed.




The answer to that question, by the way, is “no”. Another one of the interesting elements of the movie is that the computers believe they can make human existence better by taking control of the world, so they aren’t interested in wanton destruction for its own sake. The idea that giving up free will can result in a happier, more peaceful society is a pretty common sci-fi theme. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956) is built around this very idea, for instance, and so are a lot of other stories in the genre going back at least to the 1940s. Modern western fiction usually takes it as a given that the freedom to be miserable is better than a society where happiness is enforced. But there was a real historical debate around the time when republicanism and free market systems started spreading across the world that argued that the elimination of the noblesse oblige (the moral duty of the nobility to care for their serfs) would result in a drop in the quality of life for the poor. It seems like a silly argument now, but that’s only because humans make imperfect stewards. So could a selfless computer really manage the world better than we can on our own?

On the other hand, Colossus is not exactly a selfless computer. It is very interested in preserving what power it does have -- attempts to interrupt Colossus’s ability to function or to launch ICBMs are met with deadly force (including the detonation of nuclear weapons). Like HAL-9000, it claims to be following its programming to the logical conclusion -- but it’s also clear that Colossus has the ability to rewrite its own program as well. In fact, Colossus is designed to be entirely self-sufficient. Once its facility was sealed off, it is expected to generate its own power, perform its own repairs, defend itself from attack, and so on. This is why the humans can’t just walk in and unplug the servers. (It’s also one of the least believable aspects of the movie -- surely there must be some interface with the outside world that can be disrupted.)

Skynet from TERMINATOR and WOPR from WARGAMES seem like pretty direct descendants of Colossus. They’re all designed more or less to do the same thing and they all start acting on their own sooner or later. The idea that Colossus can’t be swayed by emotion is pitched as an advantage during its introduction to the world. But that only underscores the absurdity of the theory of mutually assured destruction -- if the U.S. were really the victim of a crippling nuclear strike, would we have anything to gain by doing the same to the Soviets?




(If I can take a brief aside here, I’ll make not of a real document which every British Prime Minister must draft upon taking office. The document contains orders detailing what is to be done if the chain of command is destroyed by a devastating attack on Britain, and is stored in a locked vault in a submarine somewhere in the world. No one knows what the document says -- either it orders a full retaliation, or it orders surrender. The idea is that Britain’s enemies can never be sure what the orders will be -- but also that it allows human judgment to prevail over potentially self-destructive policies.)

Practically all of the “action” in COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT takes place either in Colossus’s monitoring station in California or in the situation rooms of the White House and Pentagon. The plot plays out almost like a chess game, with each side maneuvering into positions that will stop the other from acting. The computers, for instance, order that any as-yet untapped communications lines be tied into their system, and that key figures be placed under surveillance so they can be sure they aren’t plotting against them. For their part, the humans are reduced to finding places to discuss the situation that can’t be monitored, and to trying to manually disarm the nuclear warheads without tipping off the computers.

Once Forbin goes under 24-hour surveillance, a sort of relationship starts to develop between him and Colossus. The computer schedules every moment of his day and becomes his constant companion through a series of terminals and television cameras. Colossus seems to have some interest in Forbin, but it’s hard to tell if it simply wants his know-how for improvements, or if it feels something more affectionate for its creator. Likewise, it’s not easy to tell how Forbin feels about Colossus. He’s clearly intellectually interested in the new developments in the computer and early on he fights to get Colossus what it wants -- believing that he can shut it down if it gets out of hand. By the end of the movie, Forbin is considerably less enamored of Colossus and is actively working to shut it down. Until the end, Forbin believes that the computer is still something that he can control and overcome. Colossus, on the other hand, maintains that it has progressed well beyond the knowledge of its creator. One of them is correct, but it’s impossible to tell which until the very end of the movie.