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{{trope}}
[[File:machine-
{{quote|''"To fail is to be flesh, only metal endures."''
[[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]], but for some, it sounds like a good trade. These characters admire the sleek lines and shining chrome of machinery, and idolize the purity of purpose and cold logic of artificial intelligences. Compared with the frailties of mortal flesh and the frivolities of human emotions, robots and AIs can come across as superior beings - after all, they are effectively immortal, and certainly don't seem to war amongst each other as much as humans.
These characters actually worship technology, robots, or artificial intelligences. Some even set out to "improve" themselves, replacing parts of their fleshy prison with cybernetic upgrades, intending to have as few biological components as possible so as to be closer to the machinery they idolize. Others may want to [[Ascend to
Compare with [[Cargo Cult]], in which technology is worshiped as a means to an end. See also [[The Singularity]], a possible outcome if a whole society joins the Machine Cult, and [[Unwilling Roboticisation]], when the mechanisation is forced upon people who refused it. When the ''AI'' is the one who decides [[A God Am I|it's a god]], you have a case of [[Deus Est Machina]]. Can become [[Nightmare Fuel|very, very scary]] if combined with [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]].
{{examples}}
* A mild example shows up in ''[[Ghost in
▲== Anime & Manga ==
▲* A mild example shows up in ''[[Ghost in The Shell]]'', where an [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|eccentric CEO]] had his brain put into an obsolete box-on-wheels robot because he liked the old fashioned design. It's not depicted as particularly religious, however, just eccentric.
* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' has an episode which evolves around a cult obsessed with [[Brain Uploading|uploading your mind into the internet]]. The cult leader thought this was a better alternative to life in the flesh because {{spoiler|he was hospitalized and totally immobile.}}
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* In the [[Wildstorm]] Universe, the Church of Gort is a religion for cyborgs built on this very premise.
* This is the main source of the conflict between the Dark Legion and the rest of the Echidna species in [[Archie Comics]]' ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (
* Exemplified in ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'' by Channon's boyfriend, Ziang. Given Transmetropolitan's style, it's treated more as a sexual fetish than a religion, but for some people religion is an experience on par with sex. Ziang has copious wires hanging out of the back of his head, some cybernetics surely (possibly internal), and treats going "foglet" (uploading his mind into a nanobot colony) as a transcendent experience which he's been "ready for since his first orgasm."
* The Techno-Techno order of the [[Metabarons Universe]] are firm embodiments of this trope, under an organization explicitly derived from the Catholic Church, with a Techno-Pope served by Techno-Bishops and so on. They mix this with elements of the Harkonnen and the Tleilaxu, as despite their technical knowledge, they ultimately wish to gain more wealth and influence rather than foster innovation, understanding and creativity.
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== Film ==
* In ''[[9
* ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'': Protocol droid C-3PO ends up in the Ewok village, where at first the villagers worship him as if he was some sort of god.
== Literature ==
* The Construct Council in [[China Mieville]]'a ''[[Perdido Street Station]]''. A massive AI in a scrapyard with worshipers. However it still has to communicate through a dead body hooked up to it. {{spoiler|As they leave Isaac notes that for the spokesperson to work, they must have ''been alive'' when they were hooked up.}} Also in the gap between this and the sequels ''[[
* In'' [[Dune]]'' the backlash against this is the purported cause of the [[Robot War|Butlerian Jihad]].
** The jihad was when the
** The implication in the early books was that enslavement by machines was a bit more metaphoric: by delegating basic and complex tasks to machines, humanity was weakened rather than enlightened. The target of the Jihad "was a machine-attitude as much as the machines". With the abolition of computers, man was forced to develop his own potential, leading to the rise of the [[Charles Atlas Superpower|specialised skill-sets]] of [[Awesomeness By Analysis|Mentats]] and the [[Compelling Voice|Bene]] [[Muscles Are Meaningless|Gesserit]].
* [[Greg Egan]]'s novels often make the whole thing sound very attractive indeed, most particularly ''Schild's Ladder''.
* The Rix, of [[Scott Westerfeld]]'s ''[[The Risen Empire]]'', worship artificial intelligences, and slowly upgrade themselves, replacing organs, limbs and connective tissues.
* Dekko from ''[[Zot]]'' seems to fall into this trope.
* Doctor Trintignant from [[Alastair Reynolds]]'s novella ''Diamond Dogs'', set in his ''Revelation Space'' verse.
** The Conjoiners from the same verse might be seen this way too, though they're more interested in intellectual rather than physical [[Transhumanism]].
* ''[[Star Trek: Ex Machina]]'', a book in the [[Star Trek Novel Verse]], posits a faction like this in the post-colonization society of [[Cargo Cult|Yonada]], which makes a fair amount of sense. This faction regards Kirk as a "god-killer" for his frequent destruction of artificial intelligences, and interprets V'Ger as having escaped him, not understanding that V'Ger was only able to [[Ascend to
* In [[Ian McDonald]]'s ''Desolation Road'' there is a cybernetic cult. They get pretty disturbing...
* In [[Frederik Pohl]]'s ''[[Heechee Saga]]'', the big bads have it in for organic life. The decide to spare humanity {{spoiler|when they encounter a human who had her mind transferred to a Heechee computer form, not to escape death, but
* The ''[[Berserker (Literature)|Berserker]]'' is a series of space opera science fiction short stories by American author [[Fred Saberhagen]] in which robotic self-replicating machines intend to destroy all organic life. The machines are known as Berserkers. Most are giant spaceships the size of Manhattan Island. There are a very few people who actually worship them.
* In the novel of ''[[
* The Machinists in ''[[Broken Sky]]'' have all augmented themselves with machinery in order to better calculate and build, while becoming closer to the machines they create. Also [[For Science!]].
* The future society in Aldous Huxley's ''[[Brave New World (
== Live
* Cavil in ''[[Battlestar Galactica
** And still he just whines about it, instead of actually trying to augment himself, despite of all the technology at his disposal...
*** [[Word of God]] says Cavil probably wouldn't be happy as a full machine either. His resentment is directed at his creators themselves rather than having the form of a human (though it is certainly a factor). The "machine" business is mainly his way of justifying his hatred to himself.
**** Also, despite their technology, Cylons seem to have trouble successfully merging humans with machines. Thats why the creation process of Hybrids is so [[Nightmare Fuel
* The Borg in [[Star Trek]] believe their machine/flesh combo platter form is "perfect". The offshoot who left the Collective to follow Lore are trying to achieve a 100% machine form.
* This was the original rationale for the evolution of the Cybermen in ''[[
* In one episode of ''[[Captain Power and
{{quote|
* One client in the show ''[[The Collector (TV series)|The Collector]]'' was a roboticist who sold her soul to the devil so she could build a robot capable of thought. When her time was nearly up for her to be damned to hell, she places her mind in the robot's body, proclaiming she will now be free, immortal, and perfect. But her body ends up malfunctioning, and incapable of moving at all but [[And I Must Scream|still fully conscious.]]
== Music ==
* The ''[http://www.iron-savior Iron Savior]''{{Dead link}} story goes that Atlantis is about to fall to the surrounding (nuclear) barbarian hordes, and so a colony ship is commissioned to carry the Atlanteans away from Earth. It would be controlled by the most powerful AI ever devised, with a human brain installed to make moral decisions for it. The song ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs4fHY6YiT0 Titans of our Time]'' records the plea of its creator, a technology-worshiping madman to become said "bio-unit." His plea is rejected and he disappears into space.
* Several characters take this view in Tod Machover's opera [[Death And The Powers]] ("The Robot Opera"). It forms an important thematic conflict.
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Warhammer
** Most of them are also kleptomaniacs who have to be dissuaded at ''gunpoint'' from taking whatever piece of technology they like - be it a holy relic or ''a tomb full of frakking Necrons''.
** Sometimes [[Too Dumb to Live|the gun isn't enough incentive for them to keep their hands to themselves]].
** And it isn't necessarily their hands you should be keeping an eye on...
** As the [[Nightmare Fuel]] page for 40k put it:
{{quote|
** The Iron Hands Space Marine Chapter are similar, sharing the Mechanicus' heavy use of bionics and their reverance for all things mechanical, and unusually for an Astartes Chapter enjoy close links with Mars. Instead of Chaplains, they have Iron Fathers, who combine the role of Chaplain with Techmarine. They despise the flesh as weak, and tend to view other Imperial forces and civilians with contempt - in at least one case summarily executing one third of the population of a retaken sub-sector to demonstrate the price of weakness. Even their battle cry is "The flesh is weak!"
** Mechanicus itself has different factions. Such as Cult of Sollex. They are interested in divine mysteries of light... especially related to lasers. It's a very fanatic (even by Imperium standards), warlike (ditto) and secretive (even by Mechanicus standards) sect. Of course, the hereteks whom they hate tend to play underground [[Mad Doctor]] and/or toy with Warp, and the Imperium often has to compete with advanced or numerous aliens, thus better weapons are always welcome, and there's always demand for people willing and able to both maintain weapons and personally shed a few megawatt of Divine Light upon request - so the Inquisition likes to have Sollex folk around. Oh, and they also make those [[Laser Blade|Energy Blades]].
* The ''[[
* ''[[
* The Corpore Metal secret society in ''[[Paranoia (
* The ''[[
* The Cyberpapacy from West End Games's ''Torg'' is what happens when a corrupt medieval pope crossing dimensions from an [[Alternate History]] is forcibly "upgraded" to the technological understanding of ''another'' [[Alternate History]] emigrant (from a [[Cyberpunk]] world); he becomes obsessed with the notion that while the spirit may be willing yet the flesh weak, ''the flesh can be replaced''.
* ''[[Magic:
** Before that, there was Yawgmoth and his vision of making everyone and everything flawless zombie cyborgs.
** And let's not forget Karn's pure metal and mathematical world, and Memnarch's attempt to balance Mirrodin between the two by turning flesh to metal and metal to flesh.
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** The Soldevi Adnates in ''Ice Age'' and ''Alliances'' worshipped ancient Thran machines. Which were then taken over by Phyrexia, if I recall.
** ''New Phyrexia'' brought this trope [[Up to Eleven]] with the white Phyrexian faction led by Elesh Norn and called the Machine Orthodoxy.
* ''[[
* [[
** And to ramp it [[Up to Eleven]], the Word of Blake's elite troops, the Manei Domini, have taken it steps further, receiving extensive cybernetic augmentation (And in a universe where cybernetics are incredibly rare and almost solely for repair of grievous injuries, even scorned and reviled in some areas, that's saying something) to a degree that would make Robocop look like a patchjob. Of course, these augmented soldiers look down on the unaugmented, even their fellow WOBbies, with epithets such as Frails. Of course, the whole cult angle is also ramped up a few notches as well, with the MDs taking up biblical names upon induction to the higher rankings, and even their high-end [[Humongous Mecha|OmniMechs]] are called Celestials and given reporting names corresponding to various classes of angels.
== [[Video Games]] ==
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** What's more, SHODAN considers ''herself'' to be a goddess. "How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?"
*** {{spoiler|At the end of System Shock 2 she gains the means to become a goddess and turn the universe into her personal cyberspace.}}
* ''[[
* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'' the Freakshow villain group is pretty much this trope embodied in a group of street thug drug addicts. They don't worship technology, but do they ever abuse it.
* ''[[
* Saren in ''[[
** This trope splits the [[Mechanical Lifeforms|geth]] down the middle. The 'heretic' geth view the Reapers as the pinnacle of [[Mechanical Evolution]] and will do anything to become more like them. The 'true' geth have the same goal, but wish to achieve it on their own terms and without harming anyone else. Despite their absolutely massive egos, the Reapers find the heretics' worship [[Pretender Diss|insulting]] and only view them as tools.
** Cerberus's attempt to control the geth through their religious impulse is the basis of the Overlord [[Downloadable Content|DLC]]. As with so many other Cerberus projects, it went very, very wrong.
* The Cybernetic Consciousness faction of ''[[Sid
* The Vanu Sovereignty of [[
* The entire humankind in [[Ar
* The Meklar in the [[Master of Orion]] series are an entire race of cyborgs.
* The Core in ''[[Total Annihilation]]'', and the Cybran Nation in the [[Spiritual Successor]] ''[[
** Well, not really. Their culture and even their very bodies are tightly integrated with technology, but they don't actively ''worship'' it, despite what UEF propaganda might say.
* The Sansha's Nation in ''[[
* The Accretians in [[RF Online]] is basically a race of human brains in robotic shells. Looks down upon other races as a result.
* Karras, from ''[[Thief]] 2: The Metal Age'', runs a sect of Mechanists which idolizes machines as "[[Crystal Dragon Jesus|Builder's]] Children". Karras himself is even more radical than his followers, as he hates all organic life and believes that only metal (and himself) is perfect and loved by the Builder.
* Zenith of ''[[Resonance of Fate]]'' is worshiped by humans living on Basel (a clockwork tower), but is in actuality the controlling mechanism of Basel, a giant machine built to purify the air and protect the last humans.
* If you look hard enough at ''[[
* [[Deus Ex: Human Revolution
* The synthet of [[Etherlords]] live on land where plants welk and flesh withers, so insyead they seek to increase their perfection: "the presence of specially created synthetic elements in the body, to replace and supplement imperfect organic elements".
* The Reaver movement of [[Fallout Tactics Brotherhood of Steel]] goes beyond the Brotherhood's semi-religious emphasis on gathering technology and outright worships pre-War tech. Their canon status is... [[Broad Strokes|somewhat uncertain]], but more likely than the Beastlords or hairy Deathclaws of that game.
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== Web Original ==
* In [[Red vs. Blue]] Recreation, the alien race treats {{spoiler|Epsilon Church as a god after he is implanted into a Forerunner monitor}} because they worship ancient technology. {{spoiler|Epsilon Church}} immediately uses this to his advantage by throwing a crate at a praying alien, thus "smiting" him.
* In [[
== Western Animation ==
* Heroic Example: Cyborg from ''[[Teen Titans (
** Brother Blood is a straight example, however, once he saw how powerful Cyborg's tech was.
* An episode of ''[[Transformers Generation
{{quote|
* [[Played for Laughs]] in ''[[
** Amusingly, the Amazonians' response to the question of why they'd make a computer their god is pretty much "seemed like a good idea."
** Also rather amusingly, {{spoiler|the fembot was not the first one to pull it off - she says that she originates from a male-centric society ruled by a "Manputer" who was actually a manbot.}}
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Cyberpunk Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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