In order to kill the computer, couldn't they just shut down all of the hydroelectric dams and coal-fed power plants? Tell everyone who works there to just not report for work. The computer could retaliate all he wanted to until he ran out of weapons, and then what? Another thing they could have done would be to have everyone go live up in the mountains for about five years. How could he stop them?
share[deleted]
"The computer could have retaliated all 'he' wanted until he ran out of weapons, and then what?"
We know Colossus controlled the US ICBMs, so it'd be reasonable to assume it also had control over hydroelectric dams & coal-fed power plants!
Also by the time it ran out of weapons, the USA could have been pretty well smoked.
[deleted]
The problem is that unless you managed to shutdown Colossus instantly (as well as his Soviet counterpart) his answer to anything would be to nuke a city (or threaten to do that). Given that the US and Soviet Union had thousands of ICBM pointed at each other he has more than a sufficient club to keep mankind obediant.
Even if people hid in the mountains I beleive he would be able to retarget the weapons to those locations. Granted humans might win out in the end, but not until he'd ruined the infrastucture of the world and eliminated 80% of the population.
If its anything like a real computer just wait a few years till
the motherboard crashes . Unless its self repairing?
Even better if people camped out on the mountain where Colossus is housed how could it retailate without blowing up its own mountain?
shareIt never showed but that computer had to put out heat , Where was the
cooling fans ? Climb up the mountain and shoot a bazooka at it through
the fans.
In the novel, Colossus' stronghold was impervious to nukes.
shareThe cutaway artwork Forbin showed in the beginning of the movie is clearly modeled on the NORAD complex in Cheyenne Mountain, with the computer buried deep inside a mountain. NORAD can survive anything short of a direct nuclear strike. Any people camped out on the mountain could be eliminated with a warhead just a few miles distant. People are a lot easier to injure and kill than mountains and computers are.
shareIf I recall the movie correctly, Colossus was well versed in blackmail. All it had to do was threaten another group of humans with annihilation if they didn't stop those attacking it on the mountain.
shareIf I recall the movie correctly, Colossus was well versed in blackmail. All it had to do was threaten another group of humans with annihilation if they didn't stop those attacking it on the mountain.
shareThe computer could retaliate all he wanted to until he ran out of weapons, and then what?
I think Forbin and the other scientists were idiots. Smart, clever people but idiots for not even realising the potential danger their machine posed, and no safeguards were put in place to stop it going rogue.
shareMy guess is they probably would have built the system with an internal supply of electricity. Perhaps a small nuclear pile that is maintained by Colossus with automation? In any event it would have been built with an internal backup power supply. Lets say 3 days worth. That would keep it going until power issues were resolved. At least that is what the designers would have thought when putting it together. Colossus would have 3 days of power to threaten the world or set it on fire. Guardian would be harder to take down this way because they said it was distributed among multiple locations.
share