The X-Files, "Ghost in the Machine"

"Ghost in the Machine." The X-Files. Fox-TV. 29 Oct. 1993, 14 Jan. 1994. Jerrold Freedman, dir. Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, script.

The AI "Central Operating System" of a building turns murderous. The machine is outplayed and defeated by the two starring FBI agents on the X-files, and by the COS's creator (who creates a virus to kill it). Raises explicitly what we'll call "the Oppenheimer Question" (after J. Robert Oppenheimer): What are the responsibilities of scientists who develop technologies that can be used by their governments for destruction? Note X-Files's sympathy with such individuals against the US government. Note also the episode title (see R. Descartes entry under Background), images of entrapment within a huge machine, and X-File staffers vs. the Government. Cf. and contrast "death"—possibly temporary—of COS with the "death" of HAL 9000 in 2001 and of Terminator in both films. Summarized in Cinefantastique 26.6/27.1 (Oct. 1995): 26.