Well, it was the computer's voice at the beginning, telling all those ill-fated last dayers that "This is the time of renewal. Be strong, and you will be renewed." So, it definitely came from the computer, although it's not clear whether it was originally programmed that way or if it developed over time.
It does seem rather curious, when you think about it. If the dome city was set up in order to preserve humanity in some form, while retaining some semblance of a quality of life with limited resources, there might be some cold but ostensibly logical rationale behind the idea of killing people off at age 30.
In the early years, it might have been viewed as "the sacrifice we have to make" for the survival of our species. Perhaps this may have been viewed as a "holy sacrifice" and possibly tied in with ancient human beliefs in reincarnation, which many people still believe in today. So, the original programmers may have believed in reincarnation and somehow imparted this information to the computer, but the computer must have somehow misinterpreted or screwed it up somehow.
My guess is that the computer (which seemed to be malfunctioning anyway) was programmed to "believe" that they were being renewed and that renewal was an "established fact" in the computer's mind. That's why it seemed to get somewhat short with Logan by saying "The question has been answered Logan 5," not just during that scene, but all his life and to everyone else in the city. The computer also thought that Sanctuary was an "established fact," so when Logan said "there is no sanctuary," the computer had a total hissy fit and a meltdown.
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kaskait
9 years ago
I believe we see something much worse than just programming. I don't think everyone was supposed to die at 30 in the original founding of these cities. It looks to me as if the ones running the show died out and left the computer to do its work alone. And since it seemed to be AI, over the years it had its own ideas on how to run the city, how to protect humanity. What we see is the computer doing social engineering using its original programming and its own deductions. The domed cities are just a kind of zoo run by the computer.
Since it is AI, ultimately illogical, wishful thinking took hold of it. Which is why it broke down at the end. It wanted to believe Sanctuary was real just as much as its human prisoners.
This is the movie's idea, the book was quite different.
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