Thermodynamics. The original idea was the machines using human brains as CPUs, execs said “the audience doesn’t know what computation is” so they came up with that “humans generate energy” thing which is complete and utter inefficient nonsense.
If people didn’t understand the computing thing they could have just said it was designed to keep the human population under control and not rebelling against their machine overlords.
Yes but why keep humans around then, why not just kill them all off? Could be some “Robot Law” injunction, “don’t harm humans”, but I’d say introducing that would introduce complexity into the setting that detracts from the main themes.
“We’re using humans for their computational power” doesn’t need much history or exposition as it’s a completely practical matter: Suspension of disbelief for minimum investment a script writer’s dream.
Thermodynamics. The original idea was the machines using human brains as CPUs, execs said “the audience doesn’t know what computation is” so they came up with that “humans generate energy” thing which is complete and utter inefficient nonsense.
If people didn’t understand the computing thing they could have just said it was designed to keep the human population under control and not rebelling against their machine overlords.
Yes but why keep humans around then, why not just kill them all off? Could be some “Robot Law” injunction, “don’t harm humans”, but I’d say introducing that would introduce complexity into the setting that detracts from the main themes.
“We’re using humans for their computational power” doesn’t need much history or exposition as it’s a completely practical matter: Suspension of disbelief for minimum investment a script writer’s dream.