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The 1970 Universal Pictures release Colossus: The Forbin Project is an underrated science fiction thriller that asks the question: what happens when supercomputers take over? Dr. Charles Forbin (Eric Braeden before he became popular as Victor Newman on the soap The Young and the Restless) designs Colossus, a groundbreaking supercomputer, to manage the nuclear armament for the U.S. government. After the massive computer system is switched on, Colossus unexpectedly develops at an exponential rate, eventually eclipsing all human knowledge and intelligence. Soon it reaches out to a similar system in the Soviet Union (one previously unheard of in the U.S.) and begins bringing it up to speed. Once the two systems are aligned, they use their control over the two nations' nuclear caches to take over the world. The computer's ultimate aim—to guard world peace—reaches a frightening plateau. As Colossus itself states: "The object to construct me is to prevent war. This objective is now attained." As Forbin and the rest of humanity soon discover, Colossus's objective also includes absolute power, for in order to attain world peace it must be able to control humanity, the greatest progenitor of war and violence of any other living creature on the planet. Based on the novel by British author Dennis Feltham, Colossus: The Forbin Project is a cautionary tale about what happens when people build bigger, better mousetraps (well, somebody's got to be the mouse).

Colossus: The Forbin Project

Colossus: The Forbin Project.



Cynthia C. Scott is a writer from the San Francisco Bay Area whose work has appeared in Glint Literary JournalCopperfield Review, Flyleaf Journal, Graze Magazine, and Strange Horizons. She also writes reviews for Bookbrowse.com. She's currently working on a series of SF novels called The Book of Dreams.
Current Issue
29 May 2023

We are touched and encouraged to see an overwhelming response from writers from the Sino diaspora as well as BIPOC creators in various parts of the world. And such diverse and daring takes of wuxia and xianxia, from contemporary to the far reaches of space!
By: L Chan
The air was redolent with machine oil; rich and unctuous, and synthesised alcohol, sharper than a knife on the tongue.
“Leaping Crane don’t want me to tell you this,” Poppy continued, “but I’m the most dangerous thing in the West. We’ll get you to your brother safe before you know it.”
Many eons ago, when the first dawn broke over the newborn mortal world, the children of the Heavenly Realm assembled at the Golden Sky Palace.
Winter storm: lightning flashes old ghosts on my blade.
transplanted from your temple and missing the persimmons in bloom
immigrant daughters dodge sharp barbs thrown in ambush 十面埋伏 from all directions
Many trans and marginalised people in our world can do the exact same things that everyone else has done to overcome challenges and find happiness, only for others to come in and do what they want as Ren Woxing did, and probably, when asked why, they would simply say Xiang Wentian: to ask the heavens. And perhaps we the readers, who are told this story from Linghu Chong’s point of view, should do more to question the actions of people before blindly following along to cause harm.
Before the Occupation, righteousness might have meant taking overt stands against the distant invaders of their ancestral homelands through donating money, labour, or expertise to Chinese wartime efforts. Yet during the Occupation, such behaviour would get one killed or suspected of treason; one might find it better to remain discreet and fade into the background, or leave for safer shores. Could one uphold justice and righteousness quietly, subtly, and effectively within such a world of harshness and deprivation?
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