Positronic brain

In the 1953 film Abbott and Costello Go To Mars, when Queen Allura of Venus (Mari Blanchard) puts Orville (Lou Costello) to a lie detector test in an ESP-enabled crystal chair, she states that it is "based on the principle of the Positronic Brain."

In a mini story entitled "Night Vision!" in Annual #6 of the Marvel comic, writer Scot Edelman refers to the brain of the synthezoid "The Vision" as positronic. The Vision had a complicated history, being born of the dead android body of the original Human Torch, and the mind of the dead human Wonder Man, not to mention being programmed to be a killing machine by the armageddon-happy sentient robot Ultron, who in his turn had been inadvertently created by scientist Henry Pym, originally as a lab assistant. He overcame his programming and became a hero, but The Vision was always alternately coldly logical and given to violent emotion, and was able to break all three laws.

In the fourth season (1966–67) Doctor Who story "The Power of the Daleks", second incarnation of the Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton, awakens from his first regeneration and eventually faces one of his old nemeses, the Daleks. Human space colonists examine "dead" Daleks and, upon their re-activation, conjecture as to "what sort of positronic brain must this device possess". However, the Daleks are actually organic life-forms that were encased in robotic shells, and thus do not possess the purported positronic brain and, in any case, do not obey the Three Laws of Robotics.

In the seventeenth season (1979–80) story "The Horns of Nimon", the fourth incarnation of the Doctor, played by Tom Baker, recognizes the Labyrinth-like building complex that serves as the lair of the Nimons as resembling both physically and functionally a "giant positronic circuit". When adequately fueled, the circuit was capable of transferring massive amounts of energy over vast distances to generate two black holes as gateways to hyperspace and to sustain a tunnel that served as the motive power between them for the transport of an invading force of Nimons from the dying planet Crinoth to Skonnos.

In the fifth series (2010) Doctor Who story "Victory of the Daleks", the Daleks create a human-cyborg scientist "Bracewell", that is implanted in to the British scientific community to develop technology for the war effort. The creation was said to be controlled by a positronic brain.

Prior to the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Dr. Noonien Soong and his wife Juliana Tainer created several positronic androids that they regarded as sons, including B-4, Lore, and Data. The episode "Inheritance" reveals that Tainer's mind was uploaded into a robotic body after her death, while the episode "The Offspring" depicts Data's construction of a daughter named Lal.

None of Soong's androids are constrained by Asimov's robot laws. Lore lacks ethics and morals, killing indiscriminately. Data, though his actions are restricted by ethical programming provided by Soong, is capable of killing in situations where he believes it is strictly necessary. Data also chooses to follow orders in his capacity as a Starfleet officer, rather than being compelled to follow any order from any human.

Positronic implants were used to replace lost function in Vedek Bareil's brain during the Star Trek: Deep Space 9 episode "Life Support". This was described by Bareil as having a negative effect on his emotional state, as he felt increasingly numb as more changes were made.

In the German science fiction series Perry Rhodan (written starting in 1961), positronic brains (German: Positroniken) are the main computer technology; for quite a time they are replaced by the more powerful Syntronics, but those stop working due to the increased Hyperimpedance. The most powerful positronic brain is called NATHAN and covers large parts of the Earth's moon. Many of the larger computers (including NATHAN) as well as the race of Posbis combine a biological component with the positronic brain, giving them sentience and creativity.

The robots in the 2004 film I, Robot (loosely based upon several of Isaac Asimov's stories) also have positronic brains. Sonny, one of the main characters from the film, has two separate positronic brains—the second being a positronic "heart"—so it has choices open to him the other robots in the film do not have. Sonny also has the possibility of being able to develop emotions and a sense of right and wrong independent of the Three Laws of Robotics; it has the ability to choose not to obey them.

The film also features a colossal positronic brain, VIKI, who is bound by the Three Laws. Its interpretation of the laws allows VIKI to directly harm humans to protect humanity as a whole in an application of the Zeroth Law.

The robots in the 1999 film Bicentennial Man (based on one of Asimov's stories) also have positronic brains, including the main character Andrew, an NDR series robot that starts to experience human characteristics such as creativity. Only when Andrew allows his positronic brain to "decay", thereby willfully abandoning his immortality, is he declared a human being.

Twiki and Crichton, two robotic characters who appear in the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century television series, are equipped with positronic brains. Crichton recites Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" upon activation.

In 1989, in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Season One episode The Corpse Vanishes, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo read an issue of Tiger Bot magazine featuring an interview with the Star Trek character, Data. They then lament the fact that they don't have positronic brains like him.

In the second episode, Spectreman's robot head is found and viewers discover he is a robot with a positronic brain.

The game Stellaris features Positronic Artificial Intelligence as a possible research goal, which is employed with "Synthetics" (sentient robotic beings) and sentient computers for usage in research, administration, combat etc.[5][6][7][8]

In the game Space Station 13, players can research and construct positronic brains, and place them inside of AIs, cyborgs and even mechas.[9]

The game Deep Rock Galactic features the currently unnamed "Rival Corporation", a fully robotic antagonist corporation to the four player-driven Dwarven miners of Deep Rock Galactic, the titular company the players are employed with. The Rival's many robotic drones include a "Patrol Bot" as its primary frontline combat machine, and has a chance to be disabled in combat, leaving it vulnerable to an optional hacking minigame initiated by the players. Succeeding in this hacking minigame will convert the bot into a temporary ally, and the players voice lines will occasionally comment on their skill at navigating a "Positronic Matrix". The minigame gives an insight into the supposed Positron-based hardware of the bots, which resembles conventional wires, circuitry and other modern computer hardware.