Sentient golems in charge

[Steve]

I recently had a notion for a fantasy world that has sentient golems as its rulers instead of organic types. I’m just fishing for any ideas that might be out there to bulk up the concept. I could see a PC group as rebels against them, but I’m wondering what other notions could be wrung out of a fantasy world with flesh beings ruled by a former servants race like golems.

[Alibear]

Are the golems avatars of some extra terrestrial God? Are they really, really big? How do they rule?

[Doc Democracy]

Is this not a fantasy equivalent of Iain Banks' Culture?

 

I guess the golems were created by humans, became cleverer until they were cleverer than their creators and effectively took control.

 

The question is whether these golems are actually independently sentient and more could be created. You need to consider whether Banks' consideration that more intelligence is equivalent to better....and be driving toward a socialist dream society.

 

There would obviously be people against such a society and possibly for the best of motivations.

 

I like the idea that the golems might manifest the gestalt identity of a huge segment of the population and so fundamentally flawed but blessed with the wisdom of the crowd through which they make decisions in the interest of their identities.

 

Doc

[death tribble]

Have you read Terry Pratchett's Feet of Clay ? That has Golems.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feet_of_Clay_(novel)

[Zeropoint]

I Believe That A Golem With The Constitution In Its Head Would Be A Vast Improvement Over Some Presidents We Have Had.

[assault]

This setup doesn't sound particularly unlikely. Just replace "golems" with "idols". That big statue in the temple? It talks!

 

That doesn't work well with the "servant race" part though.

[drunkonduty]

I for one welcome our new golemoid overlords.

 

I guess if there's rebels that means the golems' rule is not met entirely with approval. (Not me. I approve of approve them. Obviously. )

 

Are they cruel tyrants looking to eradicate organic life? Perhaps they merely hold off on destroying organic life while they search for a method to reproduce themselves. Then, when they have their own children, their surrogate children (eg: humans) will no longer be needed.

 

Is it simply that the heroes hate the idea of being ruled by thinking machines?

 

Or perhaps the machines have occasionally acted in very arbitrary ways. The Butlerian Jihad (from the Dune series) was kicked off by a computer arbitrarily deciding to abort Butler's unborn baby. She took it poorly. Fast forward: no thinking machines.

 

Do the golems's forms in some way inform how they think? A statue of a god considers itself a servant/avatar of the god. A statue of a little kid skips and sings in rhyme all the time.

 

Then there's The Matrix or, much, much better, Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons. The machines need humanity as a resource of some sort.

 

Are there political parties among the golems? Some for helping humanity. Some for destroying them. Some for isolation from the mewling humans. Some for keeping them in a zoo for their own protection?

 

Are there Laws of Robotics?

 

Can a paradox cause their brains to fry?

 

The more I write the more I realise this scenario is ripe with classic sci-fi tropes.

[Mister E]

Slow & steady wins the race war.

[Jagged]

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