Nearly every recent science fiction writer has included computers in his stories. Thinking machines may be found in stories that predate the advent of computers. For instance, John W. Campbell's 1935 story "The Machine" features a sentient mechanism.

In more recent times, computers have become a frequent subject of popular fiction as authors capitalize on public interest in the machines. In the novel Colossus (1966), D. F. Jones presents an American supercomputer that links up with a Soviet one and then takes over the world. Such tales often build suspense by having the intelligent computer menace humanity, and they tend to end with the "ultimate" thinking machine winning a conflict with humanity.