‘X-Men’s Cerebro: This Mutant-Detecting Supercomputer is a Personal Data Nightmare
Charles Xavier has done a lot of terrible things. But perhaps the worst of all was making a computer that cataloged every Mutant on Earth.
You could fill several episodes of the classic X-Men cartoon with awful things that Charles Xavier has done—inadvertently or otherwise. One of the comic book run’s most beloved single frames is the classic image of Kitty Pryde calling Xavier a jerk. But, of the many things that he has done, perhaps the worst of all was creating a machine for detecting any mutant in the world: Cerebro.
The machine was built with the best of intentions. But the number of times Cerebro has fallen into the wrong hands, or been misused to either remotely track, harm, or even outright threaten the lives of every mutant in the world could fill an entire season’s worth of plotlines.
And it has. But why? And what does it do? How does it work?
Cerebro’s Design and Capabilities
At its core, Cerebro is a computer with several powerful functions. Originally built as a desk-sized device that ran on punchcards, Cerebro has been upgraded many times through the years, but its core functionality, the primary purpose for which Cerebro was built was for detecting mutants.
It achieved this goal by detecting mutant brain waves across the globe, though it could only detect mutants after the development of their powers. At times, it has even been able to detect mutants beyond the Earth, though this largely depends on the power of the telepath using Cerebro at the time.
Beyond this, Cerebro could also amplify a telepath’s powers and could create a copy of a mutant’s mind. And if these are raising warning bells, that’s with good reason. Owing to the latent psychic abilities of the computer, only telepaths who have been well-trained should be able to use Cerebro. Should be an operative word here, since Cerebro has fallen into the wrong hands practically every other week since its creation.
A List of Existential Threats Caused by Cerebro
Cerebro was once stolen by the human-Sentinel hybrid, Bastion, who used Cerebro to try and access information on all known mutants. Bastion’s nanotechnology allowed the computer to develop sentience, and it created nanotechnology versions of the X-Men with the goal of putting all of humanity in stasis to allow the mutants to inherit the Earth.
After the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants kidnaps Emma Frost, the young telepath is put into Cerebro with the aim of killing all humanity in a single stroke.
Mystique once sabotaged Cerebro, causing it to put Professor X into a coma. And afterward, Colonel William Striker used a brainwashed Charles Xavier to try and kill all the world’s mutants through Cerebro’s connection.
During an alien invasion, Professor X once probed every human mind on the planet.
And that’s just a small sampling of the times this technology has been corrupted to a nefarious purpose that nearly resulted in the deaths of all mutants, humans, or both.
And all this doesn’t even count the number of times Cerebro has driven a powerful telepath over the edge and turned them harmful.
