Reply to post: "here's one infallible method that works on all of them; it's called "pulling the plug.""

"here's one infallible method that works on all of them; it's called "pulling the plug.""

"pulling the plug" -- that is unless you can't reach it. Go read James P. Hogan's novel "The Two Faces of Tomorrow" from way back in June 1979.

They placed a smart computer controlling self-fixing androids (not the phone) on a large space station and attacked it to see what would happen. The idea was that they could pull the plug on the computer if things got dicey, or call it a failure in the absolute worst case and nuke the entire station, thus solving the problem.

Oops.

Ends in a good, hopeful, uplifting way instead of all of the morbid "Everything is Doomed" depressing stuff now-a-days.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-two-faces-of-tomorrow-yukinobu-hoshino/1023673199

For that matter, the movie "Colossus: The Forbin Project" is another computer story from 1970 where the plug is Ever-So-Slightly out of reach. This does NOT have a happy ending unless you're the computer. There was a follow-up SF story where Martians (really!) helped defeat the mean and evil computer that was just trying to minimize humanity's destructive tendencies.

How does that song from the "Who - Won't Get Fooled Again" about the new boss go again?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus:_The_Forbin_Project