The World of Null-A

van Vogt, A. E. The World of Null-A (also written The World of Ā). Originally published as a three-part serial in 1945 in Astounding Stories. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1948.[1] Followed by The Pawns of Null-A (vt The Players of Null-A) and Null-A Three.[2]

See for the "vast computer system" of the Null-A books, "the Games Machine." As quoted on the Technovelgy (sic) site:

The Machine itself stood on the leveled crest of a mountain.

It was a scintillating, silvery shaft rearing up into the sky nearly five miles away. Its gardens, and the presidential mansion near by, were partially concealed behind trees. [...] The Machine itself overshadowed every other object in his field of vision. [* * *]

"People sometimes think that the electronic brain system of the Machine constitutes a development superior to that of man. They marvel at the Machine's capacity to handle twenty-five thousand individuals at once, but actually it can do so only because twenty-five thousand electronic brains were set up in intricate series for just that purpose... [* * *]

[Technovelgy heading] The Machine also had control over its own evolution:

"...It is located over a multimetal mine, which is completely under its control. It has laboratories, where robots work under its direction. It is capable of manufacturing tools, and does all its own replacement and repair work."

The Technovelgy site offers the relevant references: "Compare to the Machine from The Machine Stops (1909) by EM Forster, the government machine from Mechanocracy (1932) by Miles J. Breuer, the machine city from Twilight (1934) by John Campbell, the central computer from The City and the Stars (1956) by Arthur C. Clarke, the Vulcan 3 computer from Vulcan's Hammer (1960) by Philip K. Dick and the WatchdØg from WatchdØg (1972) by Jack C. Haldeman."[3]

For background from a highly reliable source see the review by Arthur O. Lewis Jr. of Null-A Continuum (2008) and A. C. Clarke's and Stephen Baxter's Firstborn. A Time Odyssey 3 in SFRA Review #285 (Spring 2008): pp. 33-34.[4].

RDE, finishing, 13Jan21