WatchdØg

Haldeman, Jack C. II. (Credited as by "Jack. C. Haldeman). WatchdØg. Amazing Science Fiction May 1972. Reprinted Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year, Second Annual Collection. Lester del Rey, editor. New York: Dutton, 1973; London: Kaye & Ward, 1974. New York: Ace, 1975.

The website Tecknovelgy.com makers ask "What happens when mankind is ready to leave the cradle and seek other worlds. Who can you leave behind?" And they answer their question with a quotation from Haldeman's story.

...the earth shook and the sky split as the giant rockets lifted the soul and body of man to Pluto and the distant stars. Only he stayed behind.

Basically he was six hundred square miles of squat building, with control over a world-wide network of smaller stations and probes.

A babysitter.

Tecknovelgy.com supplies references to compare and contrast:

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 games machine from The World of Null-A (1945) by AE van Vogt, central computer from The City and the Stars (1956) by Arthur C. Clarke and the Vulcan 3 computer from Vulcan's Hammer (1960) by Philip K. Dick.[1]

RDE, finishing, 13Jan21