Peace with Machines?: Myth and Technology in Heinrich Hauser's Gigant Hirn

This article focusses on the interaction of myth and technology that emerges in the novel Gigant Hirn (1948) by Heinrich Hauser (1901–55), an exile writer who struggled with fundamental questions about the relationship between man and computing technologies in a way that anticipates more recent critical discourse on computing and artificial intelligence. In his novel, Hauser analyzes four fundamental questions regarding the so-called "Denkmaschine," all of which are still matters of concern to technology critics, scientists, and computer engineers struggle. First, if the impetus behind technological innovation lies in the human desire to relieve a physiologically imposed limitation, does thinking then amount to one of those limitations we wish to relieve? Second, if we are indeed comfortable with technologically removing the limits to the organ we use to think, what are the evolutionary implications of removing the limits to the brain with machines? Third, will we develop conscious machines more intelligent than we are or more (im)moral? And, finally, will these machines, when networked together, ultimately have the capability to reshape what we have come to know as reality? When Hauser was writing, to deal with these questions was to deal with mythology, and it is in this sense that the novel Gigant Hirn stands as an analysis of the relationship between myth and technology.

Published initially in English translation ("The Brain") as part of a science-fiction collection called Amazing Stories (Vol. 22, Nr. 10, October 1948) under the pseudonym Alexander Blade, Gigant Hirn is a byproduct of Hauser's self-imposed exile years in the United States. His move to the United States during the NSDAP era was not made out of any great anti-Nazi fervour. Hauser was in fact ambivalent towards Hitler's regime. He was a strong critic on the one hand, while on the other he lauded the party for its affinity to technological mobility. The impetus behind Hauser's move was much more prosaic – a job offer from Fortune magazine, which was ultimately not to Hauser's liking (Streim, "Als nationaler Pionier" 115). He wrote works of science fiction to earn money, which caused him, a former winner of the Gerhart Hauptmann Prize, to consider his time in the United States as years of literary prostitution. At the behest of Henri Nannen, publisher of the German periodical Stern, Hauser returned to Germany in 1948 to take over as Nannen's editor-in-chief. He died in 1955, and his wife published Gigant Hirn posthumously in its original German in 1958 (Graebner 137–38).

The result of Hauser's self-proclaimed prostitution, while highly entertaining, would not be considered great literature. The characters are stock, and the plot is transparent. Hauser paints a picture of 1965 America as a nation arrogant and proud of its military victories and more obsessed than ever with national defence. To help alleviate this obsession, Dr. Howard K. Scriven invents and serves as the caretaker of a giant mechanical brain – a protocomputer. This machine has the power of 25,000 "erstklassigen menschlichen Gehirnen" (Hirn 25) and is immune to what Scriven considers the well-established weaknesses of the human brain. Scriven's goal, however, is broader than national defence. He has created a networked computer to help develop a perfect civilization. To assist in this end, he enlists the help of Semper Fidelis Lee, Congressional Medal of Honor winner in World War II and expatriot entomologist of world renown. Lee is famous for cross breeding ants and termites, two warring species, and creating "ant termes Pacificus." In other words, he has experience in creating peace between two warring civilizations, and Scriven believes he can use Lee's work to help achieve world peace.

Given the transparency of the plot, it is all too obvious Scriven will not succeed. The computer he creates, which networks all defence-related systems in the United States, becomes power hungry. The problem is that the computer does not wish to work for a species it considers inferior. Instead of creating peace in the world, it proceeds to take control of its network, creating...