1.7 "The Ghost in the Machine"

WHEN THE CEO OF A COMPUTER COMPANY DIES IN A LOCKED ROOM, MULDER AND SCULLY SUSPECT SABOTAGE -- FROM A NONHUMAN SOURCE.

The CEO of Eurisko Industries, who planned to shut down an advanced artificial intelligence project is electrocuted in a locked room; Mulder and Scully are asked by Mulder's old partner, Jerry Lamana, to help find the killer. Suspicion falls on the brilliant but eccentric computer designer who built the computer that controls Eurisko. Lamana's death in a "freak" elevator accident confirms Mulder's suspicion that there is more to the computer than wires and transistors. He sets out to defeat it with the help of its designer. Scully is trapped in a deadly tunnel as Mulder races to shut down the computer, and discovers treachery within his own ranks.

Notes

Philosopher Gilbert Ryle wrote an article in 1949 that attacked Cartesian dualism - the idea that our body is a kind of robot, haunted by a spirit or ghost (our mind). Ryle also believed that when we know enough physics, all phenomena can be explained, sounds like one Dr. Scully's position, huh?! In the 60's, Arthur Koestler wrote a book called "Ghost In The Machine", defending the dualist position. The title also refers to simply the "ghost" in the "machine", or computer.