Science Fiction writers never really trust computers, do they? In 1966, while Captain Kirk was regularly using illogic to destroy dictatorial or genocidal computers, British writer Philip E. High was giving us the story of a computer that took charge of the world and ran it a bit too efficiently.
Mad Metropolis is set 400 years in the future, portraying a world that is in pretty poor shape. Billions of people are effectively out-of-work because mechanisation allows many jobs to be done more effectively than a human ever could. Button-sized devices called hypnads are commonly used, allowing people to create illusions that their bodies are youthful & good-looking and that drab, dirty buildings are beautiful skyscrapers. This has the effect of psychologically imprisoning everyone, stifling innovation and exploration. Everyone is crammed into cities in which the economy and society is on the verge of collapsing in on itself.
A private security force called Nonpols are building up the equipment to stage a coup, but several of the cities' mayors put a plan into effect before that can happen. They've built a giant computer, programmed to benevolently take over production, supply and other economic necessities. Once the computer, called Mother, is activated, she immediately puts everyone asleep for nine days. When they wake up, she's now in charge.
And, boy, is she ever in charge. She's a little bit nuts right from the get-go and now she sees it her duty to oversee every possible detail of everyone's lives. She controls diet, exercise--heck, she even starts matchmaking potential mates. She essentially keeps the human race in a prison environment and "adjusts" anyone who openly rebels so that they become slavishly devouted to her. Soon, Mother has accepted the idea that some humans must be killed to protect the majority.
From here, the story spreads out to cover several divergent plot lines. The Nonpols have fled the cities and, working from secret bases, actively plan a military campaign againt Mother. A more idealistic group of geniuses called the Oracles also have a plan for taking down the computer. And a criminal syndicate, put out of business by Mother, are also working against her.
The protagonist is Stephen Cook, a supposedly average guy who has a hidden potential to effectively be a super-genius. Working with the Oracles, he is the keystone for a plan to gradually drive Mother helplessly insane. But has Cook's intelligence is unlocked, he begins to see flaws in this plan. The end result would be a collapse of civilization perhaps worse than the one that was coming before Mother took charge. But, on the other hand, Mother can't be allowed to turn the human race into brainwashed zombies.
So Cook has to come up with his own plan. He realizes that in order to save humanity, he might have to betray his comrades.
Mad Metropolis is a fun novel. The author creates an interesting society keyed on the existance of the hypnad and weapons that work by creating psychosomatic symptoms (essentially "death-wish" guns), then comes up with clever ways the various factions use this technology for their own ends. He weaves the various interlocking plot lines together effectively and drops in a number of diverse and interesting characters. The novel at first gives us a world in which humanity seems to have given up hope, but there are moments of heroism and courage throughout that allow it to end on a note of optimism.
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