Computer senility (Red Dwarf)

Computer senility is a fictional concept developed in the Red Dwarf television series that considers how a sentient computer might develop mental instability if left alone for millions of years. Computer senility would therefore be a product of lasting loneliness.

The sentient computer in question is Holly, a computer with artificial intelligence who runs the mining ship Red Dwarf and is manifested in the form of a human face on various viewscreens throughout the ship. Initially having an IQ of six thousand (6,000), Holly becomes very strange after Red Dwarf has traveled away from Earth through deep space for three million (3,000,000) years following a radiation leak that killed the ship's crew. Holly brings Dave Lister, the only surviving member of the crew, out of stasis (a form of prison onboard the ship in which space and time does not affect its inhabitants) partly because he is so lonely, and partly because the radiation from Red Dwarf's engine failure had dropped to a safe background level.

One of Holly's odd activities alone included "Hol Rock", a form of decimalized music with two extra notes that Holly invented, "H" and "J." He also has a collection of singing potatoes to keep himself sane. He also came up with an idea of serving a two year prison sentence in just fourteen weeks. Unfortunately for Dave Lister, he would have to become a dog. On one occasion, Holly is proven to be so incompetent, he is forced to step down from running the ship, and is replaced by the ship's "back-up computer", Queeg 500 (although it is all revealed to be a practical joke played on the crew by Holly). Holly's peculiarities and incompetence are often attributed by Arnold Rimmer to his/her (Holly underwent a "head sex change" later in the series) being computer senile. Holly's current IQ is only 68.

Holly briefly regains more than twice her original IQ in a scheme devised by Kryten and tested on Talkie Toaster.

Kryten also claims that he knew a fellow mechanoid who was senile, whose name was Gilbert but preferred being called "Rameses Niblick the Third Kerplunk Kerplunk Whoops Where's My Thribble". Kryten's Spare Head Three presumably suffers from a related condition which he refers to as "droid rot". This seems to manifest itself in outraged rants against Kryten, made in a Lancastrian accent.

A vending machine on Red Dwarf also seems to suffer from a form of computer senility. On one occasion, it speaks with a lisp and gets black coffee mixed up with a bucket.

See also