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"The form of communication that the brain and this machine use are both electronic signals. If you can't communicate with it, you're not a true man."
Kogarashi, Kamen no Maid Guy

A "technopath" is someone who can control machines and bend them to the user's will, either through a physical or mental interface link. In some cases, this power also allows them to "hear" what a machine is "thinking" and establish a direct line of communication with the machine. Might be referred to as "Technomancy".

It's not rare to see technopaths bringing formerly inanimate objects to life (e.g., toasters moving around and firing Projectile Toast at disgruntled users), which is much easier to do if Everything Is Online.

Closely related to Magic from Technology. Not to be confused with a character who's pathologically bad with technology, or made a psycho/sociopath by technology.

In modern-day settings that have many people with superpowers walking around, this is frequently the power given to children, as a magical metaphor for the way that people who grew up around technology are generally more comfortable with it.

Compare with Walking Techfix, which is usually not deliberate. Contrast with Machine Empathy, where a character is closely attuned to a machine's behavior simply due to prolonged experience, and Techno Wizard for people capable of only metaphorical wizardry. Not to be confused with Walking Techbane, which is when a person is destructive to technology just by being near it. Also not to be confused with Teknopathetic.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • In Ah! My Goddess Belldandy does this sort of thing all the time. Granted she is a literal goddess with power over all sorts of stuff, but she still ends up talking to machine spirits pretty often.
  • Armitage III: Naomi Armitage and Julian Moore (and possibly other Thirds) are this, as they are robots. Armitage remote controls a crane at one point and Julian hacks a computer by plugging a cable into his chest.
  • A minor character in Bungo Stray Dogs can control any electronic device within his field of view perfectly and at a speed multiple times faster than what can be achieved naturally, as long as he's not in physical contact with it. He also needs to be in a state of physical and mental comfort.
  • This is the ability of the "witch" Kazumi Schlierenzauer from Brynhildr in the Darkness. Later, it turns out that there are two more "witches" who have the same ability.
  • A Certain Magical Index: Multiple:
    • Misaka Mikoto, and probably her clones "The Sisters" can control computers and electronics mentally as an extension of their powers over electromagnetic fields. She came by this ability the hard way, though: She has to consciously control every part of the interaction.
    • Accelerator has calculation abilities on par with a supercomputer, and can interface with a machine by controlling the vectors of the electricity within the device. Similarly to Misaka, he has to have conscious control over all of it, which means that it takes all of his concentration to do it.
  • Weisz Steiner from EDENS ZERO has a form of Ether Gear called Machina Maker that lets him create and remodel machines in an instant through physical contact. As a young man, he can use this power to repair broken machine parts, construct artificial limbs, transform weapons, and upgrade spaceships mid-flight. His skills as an older man are said to be on a whole other level, however; as Happy can attest to, he can transfer living creatures' minds into mechanical bodies that are completely indistinguishable from their organic forms. When sufficiently pissed off, he also shows he can do things like convert a Cyborg's mechanical body into a walking bomb.
  • Makoto in El-Hazard: The Magnificent World. This makes convincing a Demon God Android to change sides (with romance!) a tad easier.
  • The Dark Sisters in the second Galaxy Fraulein Yuna OVA have sophisticated control over machines.
  • In GaoGaiGar, Guy is a technopath. Or just plain awesome. He can summon a giant mecha-lion or transformable jet-plane by just yelling. He even does it once while being in space without wearing a spacesuit. After he becomes an Evoluder, he is able to interface with machinery and computers. In GaoGaiGar FINAL, he uses his powers to overcome a lock on Orbit Base's computer system, and also to pilot Phantom Gao. In his battle with Palparepa, he uses it to turn Palparepa's nanomachines against him (although this doesn't have quite the intended effect).
  • Gundam:
    • Psycommu ("Psychic Communicator") technology in the Universal Century is all about this: machines that can interpret the psychic emanations of Newtypes as commands. It started with Zeon's Elmeth mobile armor in Mobile Suit Gundam and continued in the Psyco Gundams of Zeta Gundam and the "Funnel" Attack Drone systems, all the way up to the Unicorn Gundam's NT-D system, which allows total psychic control over the entire mobile suit.
    • Official info says that Gundam Wing's ZERO System sets up a mental link between pilot and machine, allowing for speed-of-thought reaction times. Combined with the amount of battle data fed directly into the pilot's brain, this makes the system extremely dangerous to use since it can send anything other than a perfectly focused mind spiraling into total madness.
    • Gundam 00 has Innovators, whose minds can interact with quantum computers over the medium of "quantum brainwaves".
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Joseph Joestar acquires the Stand Hermit Purple, which can 'plug in' to items such as cameras and televisions to produce a sort of 'scrying' effect, showing Joseph a picture of something happening at that very moment somewhere in the world. Interestingly, its scrying power isn't limited to technology (he once produced a map of a city, marked with a key location he needed to find, from spilled ashes) and its technology manipulation isn't limited to scrying (he used it once to regain control of a crashing airplane), though he typically uses them in tandem.
    • Paisley Park, the Stand of Yasuho Hirose from JoJolion, has the ability to manipulate technology to guide Yasuho and her allies to the optimal outcome for her. It's done such things as hijack a GPS system, switch around some google search results, and — on multiple occasions — hack into security footage to track an enemy.
  • Out of all the people with Psychic Powers in Kimagure Orange Road, Manami is implied to have this specific skill. More exactly, she shows it off when she secretly erases a videotape that contains proof of her younger sister's telepathy, without touching it.
  • Ruri from Martian Successor Nadesico, by design and implants.
  • In Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Chisame's artifact allows a mental internet link.
  • Matsu from Sekirei has the ability to look into any computer system with her mind and even hacks into and spies through MBI's sattelites at various points. This has caused her to be labeled "The Sneaking Sekirei" a title she doesn't appreciate.
  • Lain from Serial Experiments Lain manifests this power in her show's climax.
  • Fujimaru from Snow White and Seven Dwarfs is able to literally talk with machinery. His full ability, when he takes off his Power Limiter, includes being able to become a part of the machine, hijacking it altogether.
  • Nero from Tantei Opera Milky Holmes has the power to control electronics. This extends from the reasonable (hacking past security systems) to the weird (turning an alarm clock into a suit of armor).
  • Satsuki in X/1999. When her super-powerful personal computer starts to get jealous, it's an issue.

    Comic Books 

The DCU

  • Batgirl: Oracle (a.k.a. Barbara Gordon), is normally only a hypercompetent Playful Hacker, but she develops technopathic abilities after a remnant of Brainiac decides to use her as a brood mare so he can reconstitute. She manages to defeat him, but some programming is left behind, and decides to enhance her of its own accord, giving her subdermal circuitry and the like. This programming allows her to control computers remotely through a mask interface. Eventually, it gets too big for its britches and is removed surgically.
  • Captain Atom had the ability to telepathically link to and access computers and telecomunnication networks, which makes sense, since his power set includes the ability to manipulate matter and energy in theoretically limitless ways. We only ever see him use this aspect of his abilities much in Captain Atom: Armageddon. Interestingly, the Silver Shield, the being Cap got his powers from in the first place, had the ability to communicate telepathically with human beings, so it stands to reason that Cap could do so also, although he never seems to have figured out how.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes:
    • Cosmic Boy can use his Magnetism Manipulation on electronic devices in much more refined ways than most of his opponents realize:
      "Obviously your technical education doesn't extend to computer science doctor, or you'd be aware that all computer memories store their data electronically, and that's child's play to rearrange magnetically."
    • Gear (himself a Ridiculously Human Robot) from the post-reboot Legion, via Unusual User Interface.
  • Eugene Choi from Shazam! can talk to and control machines in his superpowered form alongside the standard Flying Brick powers.
  • Superman:
    • Brainiac and his counterpart from the Legion of Super-Heroes, Brainiac 5. In fact, this is one of Brainiac's few consistent powers, alongside his Super-Intelligence.
    • Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg-Superman, a recurring villain in the Superman and Green Lantern titles. Actually an Energy Being, he is able to project himself into robotic bodies, and create cloned bodies based on Superman's DNA, into which he then integrates any technology he captures.
    • Metallo was granted these powers following an upgrade from Brainiac, and a deal with the demon lord, Neron, gaining the power to incorporate any machinery he came across into his android shell.
    • Muto in the 2999 reality of The Dominus Effect, who reprograms all the Earth's robots to do his bidding to give Superman's descendant and his new allies, the Justice Alliance, something to fight.
    • Kal Kent, the Superman of the 853rd Century, has this and a long list of other powers that even Superman doesn't have.
    • Jimmy Olsen of the New 52 Earth 2, known as Accountable, is able to access news feeds just by holding onto a smartphone for a few minutes.
  • Wonder Woman:
    • Wonder Woman (1942): Professor Menace can control his Wonder Woman duplicate robot remotely using his mind and when the thing is electrocuted and shorted out, he gets a painful bit of feedback. He later controls three different robots this way but seems to have sorted out the feedback problems.
    • Wonder Woman (Rebirth): Dr. Cyber can control electronics remotely, which is initially her only way of interacting with the physical plane prior to her using said ability to build herself an android body.

Marvel Universe

  • The Avengers once fought a man with the ability to control machines who attacked a demolition derby under the belief that the machines were in pain and needed liberating. When confronted by the Vision, the Avengers' resident sentient machine, with the prospect of reading his feelings, he realizes that he's actually delusional and can't read machine minds at all.
  • Iron Man:
    • Thanks to Nanomachines, Iron Man can directly interface with most digital technology using only his mind. Still, it gets some getting used to, as people start thinking he's schizophrenic because he's suffering from a form of 'information overflow' and can't turn it off — though his hallucinations do come in handy with regards to the plot. He lost this power after Secret Invasion (2008).
    • The minor character Cybermancer (Suzi Endo) had these powers. She was heavily involved in The Crossing, an infamous Continuity Snarl, until she was Rescued from the Scrappy Heap as War Machine's technical advisor.
  • The third Loki from Loki: Agent of Asgard exhibits technomantic affinity; of course, in this case, this means actual magic. We don't know exactly how they do it, but they claim that it's easy because technology is very gullible, so it might involve lying. Ultron Forever also features a possible future version of Loki who has been transformed into a Contagious A.I. against his will.
  • Spider-Man:
    • Doctor Octopus has been getting this attributed to him lately.
    • Because it was spawned when Carnage was being used as organic circuitry for a prosthetic arm, the symbiote named Scorn is described as not being able to discern the difference between technology and organics, freely capable of manipulating both. Carnage eventually learns how to do this, and turns Iron Man's own armor against him.
    • In the 100th anniversary issue, in fact an issue only depicting what a 100th anniversary story would be like, Venom has been modified to be able to control and travel through electronics.
  • The Ultimates: For a time, Tony Stark could control machines with the tumor in his brain, which manifested as a child Tony inside his head.
  • X-Men:
    • Cypher from New Mutants has the mutant power to communicate in any kind of language. And yes, that includes programming language. This is how he manages to shut off the Master Molds, render the massive wave of Nimrods completely unoperational and throw the ultimate wrench into Bastion's plans towards the end of X-Men: Second Coming.
    • Network is a mutant who can speak to technology and control it. The simpler the technology, the easier a time she has controlling it.
    • Subverted with Sage. She is called a cyberpath, and her brain operates like a computer, but she doesn't seem to be able to communicate with machines on her own. However, she's got a spiffy command center and lives in an Everything Is Online universe. She's recently gotten Cool Shades which contain a wireless link to computers.
    • Apocalypse is one of the greatest, as well as most convoluted, examples of this power — ironically enough, because infecting Nathan Summers with his T.O. virus as a child had his older future self come after him in the past, demonstrating his own technopathic abilities, and infecting En Sabah Nur with his own techno-organic pathogen that he'd grow into when Cable killed him.
    • Nate Grey is also capable of technopathy, via one of the more arcane uses of his vast Psychic Powers, scanning a database in seconds. He rarely uses it, as he rarely needs to — given that he's the most powerful psychic in the Marvel Universe at his peak and an outright Reality Warper, this is not surprising.
    • Tom Skylark in Grant Morrison's "Here Comes Tomorrow" is a mutant technopath who is able to make friends with a mutant-hunting robot.
    • Madison Jeffries, formerly of Alpha Flight and later a recruit of the X-Club, can reshape metal, plastic and glass at will, often by talking to it.
    • David Bond (the current page image), also known as Hijack, is a mutant with the power to control vehicular mechanisms at will, including cars, and even helicarriers.
    • The mutant called the Reanimator can control anything electronic (such as Sentinels. Uh-oh!).
    • Takeshi Matsuya/Wiz Kid (who's alternately been a member of the X-Terminators, Avengers Academy, and S.W.O.R.D.) has the ability to technoform machinery into various forms and functions of his specifications. Most notably, he used this power to turn his electric wheelchair into a Transforming Vehicle.
    • John Greycrow of the Marauders can manipulate mechanical components, assembling them into a variety of different configurations like guns or projectile weapons. He typically wears a costume that gives him easy access to a wide variety of components to manipulate.

Other

  • In Astro City:
    • The heroic Assemblyman is suggested to be one of these, and he has been shown controlling machines and reconfiguring them into various weapons.
    • Magda, from "On the Sidelines," who can communicate with machines and persuade them to do her bidding. She uses her powers to restore old cars.
  • Willow the cybernetic telepath from Dreadstar. Unusually, she is also a conventional telepath.
  • Mitchell Hundred from Ex Machina. Due to living in New York City, he suffered a sensory overload seconds after getting his powers and blacked out half of Manhattan by screaming "Shut up!" Afterwards, his brain readjusted — first he could only listen to technology he touched, then he could command them, then he could interact with any machine he could see. He can control technology ranging from complex electronics to those as simple as a handgun. However, a bow and arrow is too simple.
  • Livewire in Harbinger, who has used her powers to text and tweet at once.
  • Lady Death: The Coffin Comics continuity has Jake, a young sorcerer whose magic revolves around controlling technology.
  • Planetary: The Drummer has nebulous powers related to "information flow", which apparently include sensing magic (the "cheat codes of the universe"), but he's usually employed as a super-hacker and living Electronic Counter-Measures device (disrupting security systems, monitoring or jamming enemy communications and such). Oh, and he's nuts.
  • The Iron Queen from Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) is the only known surviving user of the ancient art of Magitek, which allows her to control robotics and cybernetics (including Artificial Limbs) through mystical powers. There seems to be a limit to her powers, though; she supposedly cannot control the implants of the Dark Legion, for example (according to her, they're too complex for her to manipulate, despite being created by the same Mad Scientist that created the cybernetics of her other victims).
  • The android named Cyanure is an enemy of Spirou & Fantasio. She can take control of any machine or electric system near her.
  • Strikeforce: Morituri: Scanner had the power of clairsentience, but had a neural jack installed in his head to give him limited control of machines.
  • In Transformers: Shattered Glass, Heatwave has the ability to control non-sentient machines by communicating with them telepathically — though he's a bit quirky in that while he's doing so, he talks to the machines as if they were actually alive and sentient.
  • Very minor example: from Transmetropolitan, the "weird-looking fucker" communicates with his children via electrical signals. This might have been Spider just generalizing it, but...
  • Shortly after getting lightning power, Will from W.I.T.C.H. gains the ability to talk to machines. She finds out that the Computer and the Printer are married. Also, her mobile is a prick.
  • The indie comic Worth is about a man who can talk to any electronic device without a computer in it, which made him a counter-cultural hero back during the sixties, but has left him ill-prepared for the 21st century, because he is so used to just being able to talk with machines that he never bothered to learn how to use them. The series deals with his efforts to adjust to a world where almost everything has a computer in it.

    Fan Works 
  • Electro from Calvin & Hobbes: The Series uses this to take over Calvin's many inventions twice.
  • Empath and all Psyches in Empath: The Luckiest Smurf have this ability via Touch Telepathy.
  • Homecoming, 2026: Cyberpaths, an alternate name for those with the power, are mentioned, with the implication that their power involves manipulating computers with their minds.
  • Shirley Fenette in Justice Society of Japan has a very powerful (and hard to control) variant of this power.
  • This is part of the standard powerset for earth-aspected humans in Oversaturated World. Technology of all kinds simply works better for earth-aspects, in ways ranging from Diamond Tiara's ability to bully computer programs into doing what she wants all the way to the way Applejack's tools have become sharper and more durable and her farm vehicles more fuel-efficient and requiring less maintenance.
  • Jaune in Shattered Stars. He's the only reason why they haven't replaced the Beacon's nearly unreadable OS. He also has a tendency to actually talk to the machines as if they were real people and call them things like "sexy" or "beautiful"... out loud, sometimes forgetting that there are other people in the room who don't know he's a technopath.
  • Triptych Continuum: This turns out to be part of Rachette's hybrid magic. By smearing a device with her blood, she telepathically links to that device, enabling her to power, activate, and control it.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • With Chucky being a robot in Child's Play (2019), he can control anything made by the same company that made him, including TVs, phones, remote control drones, and automated automobiles.
  • DC Extended Universe:
    • SHAZAM! (2019): Shazam's Shock and Awe powers give him some control over machines with a chance of breaking them. He can use his lightning to charge phones and raid ATMs and vending machines.
    • Zack Snyder's Justice League: Due to being now partly made from a Mother Box's technology, Victor Stone/Cyborg is able to connect and interface seamlessly with anything technological from Earth and beyond, including being constantly plugged into the Internet. Notably, Cyborg is able to gain access to the Kryptonian ship's interface, and he also takes control of the Knightcrawler and reactivates it after it was wrecked by Steppenwolf. He even completely rebuilds a tape recorder he smashed to tiny bits, with it none the worse for wear.
  • RoboCop has an Universal Interface Spike in his arm that can talk to any computer. It also has stabbity applications.
  • The telepathic "Scanners" in the Scanners and Scanner Cop movies are consistently portrayed as being able to control machinery with their minds. There are lots of displays of this in the movies:
    • Scanners: Cameron Vale figures out that a computer's "nervous system" is just as scannable as any other, and retrieves information from one over the phone lines.
    • Scanners II: The New Order: Peter Drak is playing an arcade game. Then he does it in front of everybody without using his hands. Then he takes control of the entire arcade hall, setting a panic, and blowing it up.
    • Scanners III: The Takeover: The villains' plot revolves around mind controlling people straight through cameras and television sets.
    • Scanner Cop: Sam controls a computer with his mind to speed up the facial composition software.
    • Scanner Cop II: Scanners use their minds to more easily navigate personal computers as a faster way to input data.
  • In Sky High (2005), Gwen Grayson's superpower is her ability to control technology with her mind. Under her original identity, Sue Tenny, this made her an outcast and got her relegated to sidekick class while the popular kids called her a Mad Scientist, as technopathy was not seen as particularly useful back in The '70s — and sure enough, she became the supervillain Royal Pain. After a battle with the Strongholds resulted in her being de-aged, she returned to Sky High in the '00s and found that, in a more computer-driven society, her power is actually extremely potent, and on her second go-around, her powers made her the most popular girl in school.
  • Spider-Man: No Way Home:
    • The Nanomachines in Spidey's suit take over Doctor Octopus' tentacles letting Spider-Man control them. Mainly just stopping Doc Ock from using them himself.
    • Electro uses his powers to switch a TV on in Happy's apartment at one point.
  • Jedi in Star Wars effectively have this occasionally. Notably, in the Revenge of the Sith novelization, Obi-Wan seems to use this several times; first triggering the full reverse function on his starfighter before it crashes and twice reversing the polarity of the components of mechanical hands and causing them to open. He even does this to Anakin, who is stronger in the Force, though he notes It Only Works Once.
  • The T-X from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is designed by SkyNet as an "Anti-Terminator Terminator", presumably to counteract the human resistance's repeated reprogrammings of captured Terminator models. Her design includes nanotech to reprogram and remote control other machines. Throughout the film these include cars, trucks, primitive T-1s, and even the Arnie T-850 at one point.
  • Arguably, the titular protagonists of the Tetsuo film series are this, gaining a rudimentary control over anything metallic, drawing it to them or turning it to scrap or turning other people into 'Tetsuos', as well as the typical manifesting metal from their bodies.
  • During the final battle of Time Bandits, Evil uses his magic to take control of a tank and a starfighter belonging to the hero's Red Shirt Army.
  • Up, Up and Away!: Adam Marshall (a.k.a. Silver Charge) can manipulate electromagnetic fields. He can, reportedly, use them to hack into computers. However, the one time we're shown him attempting, he gets overexcited and fries the machine. He is much better at causing Laser-Guided Amnesia in people.
  • Naydenov in White Tiger says tanks talk to him — active tanks tell him how to dodge shells, and wrecked tanks tell him how they met their ends.
  • X-Men Film Series
    • X2: X-Men United has a boy who changes the TV by blinking, and later controls a computer display the same way. It remains unknown if he's up to turning a toaster into a lethal weapon, though.
    • Chris Bradley from the film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Useful once the elevator's power is cut.
    • Magneto manages to technically become this to the Sentinels in X-Men: Days of Future Past by wrapping steel bars inside them while they are being transported in order to gain control over them. How he gets them to fire their weapons is another matter.
    • X-Men: Apocalypse: After awakening in the modern world, Apocalypse learns the languages and layout just by touching a TV screen and taping into all the broadcasts everywhere.
  • In Zoom: Academy for Superheroes, Summer's telepathy works on machines as well as people. She can combine it with her telekinesis to fix machines, similar to Gwen Grayson.

    Literature 
  • Heart of Steel offers a limited example in Cyborg Alistair Mechanus. He has a mental link to the computer network of his island lair, allowing him to command his robots with a thought.
  • Rhiannon Lassiter's Hex series features genetically engineered humans capable of interfacing directly with computers.
  • Mostly the cybreakers and the mnemonics in later (timeline-wise) The History of the Galaxy novels, but also anyone with a simple brain implant that translates brainwaves into digital commands which allows them to mentally control household appliances and the like. One of the novels mentions a cybreaker who was threatened with a gun (a futuristic Magnetic Weapon), while he remotely disabled the firing circuit (wouldn't have happened with a conventional gun, but those are nigh-impossible to find). Also, when a bunch of thugs attempt to physically assault him in a restaurant, he takes control of one of the server robots and has it stab one of the thugs before asking the others if they would like a table. They can also use the same brain implants that everyone has to conduct Electronic Telepathy.
  • H.I.V.E. Series: Otto has an innate understanding of computer systems and can interface with more advanced artificial intelligences using his mind.
  • iBoy: Tom becomes this courtesy of his accident that left a piece of phone stuck in his brain. He's initially only able to "see" electrical signals and telecommunicatons through Extreme Graphical Representation, but he's able to hack into any network, operate cars, and even explode things.
  • This is the eponymous character's power set in Jack Blank. He calls it being able to "talk to machines", which does give him telepathy with any programmed system, as well as being able to telekinetically influence anything with moving parts.
  • Nudge from Maximum Ride eventually gains the power to hack computers by touching them.
  • The limited use of this ability is one of many talents that makes the psychopathic villain Dread from Otherland so scary. In his case, it manifests as telekinesis that operates on the level of individual electrons, allowing him to alter the state of an electronic device independent of its programming. He uses it on an instinctual level and refers to it as his "twist".
  • Because Dana from Pilgrennon's Children had her Brain/Computer Interface during the critical learning period of her infancy, she can interpret data from other computers as easily as information from her senses. She can use GPS data to navigate, copy test answers from school computers, and play a VR game without a headset, among other things.
  • The Sholan Alliance series features Kusac. He has endured being Touched by Vorlons and some psychic Training from Hell in order to achieve this.
  • Sprawl Trilogy: Angie Mitchell had her nervous system modified with bioware designed by A.I.s which enabled her to connect to the series' equivalent of the internet by thought alone and granted her considerable hacking skills.
  • Heather Farley, a rebellious young student in A. C. Crispin's StarBridge series, is both a traditional telepath and a cyberpath; she swears off using the latter ability after she nearly gets trapped in a computer system.
  • The Mechanic from the Wild Cards series, the hitch being he has to physically interface by cutting himself and putting the wound to the machine. Fortunately he also heals real fast.
  • In Zeroes, Crash has the power to affect complex machinery, allowing her to destroy anything computerized. She later learns to use her powers to repair tech as well as to destroy it.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The 4400: In "Ghost in the Machine", Warren Trask gained the ability to control machines after taking promicin. This was not immediately apparent as he had a stroke which rendered him unable to speak or move before his powers manifested. However, Warren's mental faculties were unaffected. He managed to tap into the computers running his life support and spread a virus to every operating system developed by Ubient Software from ATMs and laptops to government mainframes and international banking databases. This had a severe effect on the global economy. Warren did so out of revenge as Ubient's CEO Drew Imroth stole the idea for the operating system Enzyme from him in the early 1980s and made billions while he received only $100,000 as part of an out of court settlement.
  • Ace Lightning has Random Virus, a morally confused cyborg with limited control over machinery.
  • Cybergirl: Cy, Isaak and Xanda, all being humanoid robots, can interface with just about anything. This includes, but is not limited to: Stealing money from ATMs, turning on every kitchen appliance that's not the oven, recovering deleted files and defeating security systems easily. Of course, this is partly due to the fact that not only is everything online, it is also on a network run by Top Dog Interactive.
  • Fringe has a character from the episode "Power Hungry" with this. He had experiments performed on him by a Mad Scientist to give him this. Unfortunately, he hasn't the slightest control over it; he mutilates his boss, kills the woman he secretly adores, and shorts out his mother's pacemaker. He is later kidnapped by the same people responsible for his power and has it altered so that he actually has control over technology, which he then uses to escape.
  • In Haven, a repairman has a form of this ability; anything that he fixes comes to life and kills those who he dislikes, along with those who would cause him to leave them. Unfortunately he has no control over this and until the end of the episode, he doesn't even know that it's him causing the machines to come to life.
  • Heroes:
    • Micah Sanders. He can "communicate with machines and electronics". His power seems to require physical contact with the device and a certain level of concentration, after which the changes he wishes to make are almost instantaneous. Using a cell phone, Micah can bypass the need for physical contact, at least in cases where the target device is controlled by a networked computer. In season three, when Micah demonstrates his ability to Tracy, it can be seen that he does not physically touch his computer when using his ability. When asked to rig an election, for example, Micah is able to reprogram the entire voting computer network, which covers the entire city, in roughly a minute, though doing so weakens him.
    • To an extent, also the character Hana Gitelman, who appears primarily in the web-only side comics for Heroes. She's the "cyberpath" version, and can connect to anything that can receive a remote signal, not just a normal internet connection, meaning that as long as she has any signal strength at all, she can contact anyone without a phone, and receive and send e-mail without a computer. At one point she even IMs a computer that isn't online, but does have its wireless card in and active. Essentially, she trades Micah's versatility (he can influence any electronics that he can touch) for range. In the comics, Gitelman's physical body is killed, but lives on as a ghost in the Internet before being Killed Off for Real after being deleted from a Company mainframe.
    • Matt Parkman Jr. aka "Baby Stop And Go" seems to have this power to a certain extent as well in that he can either turn something on or off. He's just a baby though so it's rather haphazard and mood dependent. "Something" also includes others' powers, as seen when he re-activates Hiro's time mastery.
  • The eponymous character from Jake 2.0, although while he can remotely hack into a computer to display certain information, he still needs to read it normally.
  • Ryan Walker from Mech-X4 uses technopathy to disrupt electronics and change information on computer screens, usually to help him and his friends get into places or escape from situations. He also uses it to pilot the giant robot MECH-X4.
  • Emma's friend in the Mutant X episode "Interface" is a technopath. She further gets enhanced by GSA to become a Wetware CPU but is restored at the end of the episode. According to Emma, she is the only New Mutant who managed to counteract the effects of the subdermal governor (presumably, she disabled it before they even activated the device). Many years before, both of them used to use their powers to cheat bartenders out of free drinks with Emma's empathy and, when the bartender eventually caught on, use her friend's power to shut off the lights and run away.
  • Electroclash in No Heroics controls machines by giving them commands in an electronic voice.
  • The Outer Limits (1995): In "Mona Lisa", the titular android is able to control any machine by remote. She uses this ability to hotwire a car and steal $100 from an ATM.
  • Stargate Atlantis:
    • When Rodney accelerates his own evolution in "Tao of Rodney", he gains psychic powers, among other things. They're revealed to the team in a skirmish with the Genii when Rodney wins the battle for them by thinking "wouldn't it be awesome if suddenly the Genii troopers' weapons jammed?" Guess what happens.
    • Ancient tech is purposely made for this trope due to the fact that many operate via a wireless neural interface. Anyone with the necessary gene can activate it by just thinking at it.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • The Undertaker usually just messed with WWE sound and display systems but has done other things, like cause motor vehicles to move without drivers. Supposedly, this is an extension of his lightning-summoning powers.

    Tabletop Games 
  • In the d20 Modern setting Urban Arcana, a 2nd level Techno Mage gains a +2 Competence Bonus to any skill checks involving technology and can use any technology even if untrained in the relevant skill. While it is called Machine Empathy, this class and ability has more of a technopath feel.
  • In Deadlands: Hell on Earth, Junkers achieve this effect through shamanistic interactions with a special kind of tech spirit called a browser spirit. Since the game is set After the End, there are a lot of disembodied tech spirits floating around, and Junkers create new bodies for them to live in out of spare parts. It's kind of like tech-necromancy. While most tech spirits just inhabit their new bodies, browser spirits can communicate telepathically with any Junker that touches their body, and the most powerful kind of browser spirit keeps up a permanent telepathic link with the Junker who made its body.
  • In the third edition of Eberron, there were some Artificers whose powers came from Psionics rather than magic, essentially making them this.
  • GURPS has a whole setting about this trope, by the name of Technomancer. Psionic Powers brings us Cyberpsi, which has similar effects, but doesn't use spells, leaning toward more of a Combo Platter Powers approach.
  • Palladium's RPGs, especially Heroes Unlimited and Rifts has the ability/power Telemechanics, which makes the user into a Technopath. In Rifts particularly, this ability was how Hagan Lonovich became Archie-3's idea man.
  • Magic: The Gathering:
  • Mutants & Masterminds offers a power called "Datalink" that allows communication with machines.
  • The "machine empathy" mutant ability in Paranoia allows the mutant to make machines really, really like them. This is not as great as it sounds, because it also affects everyone's friend, The Computer. Who really, really doesn't enjoy being the thrall of a commie mutant traitor. So it employs special "machine empath detection" diagnostics to root out the traitor, and if caught, a machine empath can expect not only immediate termination, but also outright erasure of their clone template. Machine empaths lead a very brief existence.
  • In Shadowrun, most hackers have to use a hacking rig called a cyberdeck which had to be connected by a datajack. Then came the Otaku, kids who had a mysterious ability to interface with machinery and the matrix with nothing but a datajack, no extra equipment needed. Then the Crash 2.0 happened, and the Matrix was relaunched in a wireless format, and practically everything is connected, even things that shouldn't be. The Otaku all disappeared when the wired internet got blown up, and were replaced by Technomancers, whose brains have an equally mysterious ability to access the new wireless internet by thought alone. In addition, they have access to the Resonance. Nobody is quite sure what it is, but the best guess is that it's the raw "stuff" of the Matrix, giving technomancers strange, impossible-on-paper abilities, including making simple A.I.s called sprites.
  • Warhammer 40,000 has several examples.
    • Eldar Bonesingers, their equivalent of engineers and artisans. They literally sing to bring wraithbone into existence and to shape it. Being a psychically sensitive material, it's the Craftworld Eldar's go-to building material for everything buildings to war machines.
    • Ork Mekboyz aren't quite technopathic, but they have a workaround that's more like a cheat. Mekboyz can cobble together a machine which structurally can more or less work out, yet they really work on their species's gestalt psychic field. Their machines function relatively well because they will their machines into working because they think they should. The best part is that the Orks aren't quite aware of this crutch, just just think that's the way the world works. The AdMech explain it via the Orks scaring their machines into submission.
    • Senior members of the Adeptus Mechanicus (who can, in terms of humanity, can only generously be described as cyborgs) think they are. Though, depending on the source in question, they are only trained to be very good with tech and think they're technopathic, and other times whether they are or not is left open to interpretation.
    • Speaking of the Mechanicus, a subsect called the Machine Empaths are trained to interact and coax the A.I. of an object into cooperation. Higher members can literally feel what a machine is thinking without a direct link.
  • The World of Darkness:
    • In the fan-supplement Genius: The Transgression, every PC is (or can be) one.
    • Geist: The Sin-Eaters gives us the Industrial Key, which, when filtered through the right Manifestation, allows a Sin-Eater to gain control over a building and every device therein (Boneyard), install technology right into their body (Caul), understand just how a device works (Oracle), or manipulate a device from afar (Marionette). They do have a limitation, however; seeing as they derive their powers from the Underworld, they're better off dealing with "anachrotech", and take penalties when dealing with newer technologies. So, it's easier to hack a Model T than it is an iPhone.
    • This was split into the psychic powers "Cyberkinesis" and "Cyberpathy" in the Sorcerer supplement to Mage: The Ascension.
    • The Embassy to Machines in Princess: The Hopeful. Members of this Embassy never take penalties for trying to use unfamiliar technology, can automatically succeed on any roll to operate a machine by spending Willpower, can infuse a machine with Light to make it function more effectively, and more.
    • Pretty much every Chronicles of Darkness splat, save Hunter: The Vigil, deals with this in some way. It's an animistic world, after all.

    Video Games 
  • In Borderlands 2, Angel has this power due to being a Siren. She is networked into every machine in Pandora and is essentially a living supercomputer.
  • Digital Devil Saga:
    • It turns out that Sera's godlike powers are actually an application of this; she can communicate with and control computer systems, and the entire Junkyard is a simulation.
    • Roland figures out how to use his control over electricity to open computer-locked doors without a keycard; he describes the experience as the computer "reading his will as a signal."
  • Shelke from Dirge of Cerberus can perform Synaptic Net Dives, which basically give her this.
  • EVE Online:
    • It was originally intended for pod pilots to be able to control their ship directly with their thoughts, but most people ended up feeling sick and dizzy from using it, so they settled for a less direct (but presumably still mental) interface. There are, however, cybernetic mindlink implants that allow their user to directly interface with various parts of the ship, giving passive buffs to them and their party.
    • The current technology combines a sensory deprivation chamber with the mindlink, replacing the pilot's senses with the sensors of the ship. Even sound is emulated.
  • The "hacking" ability of Ghostrunner's hero manifests in the ability to move and control certain pieces of machinery and floating platforms with nothing but a wave of his hand.
  • Mass Effect:
    • In all three games, classes like the Engineer and Infiltrator have a natural affinity for all things electronic, which translates into abilities like Overload, (AI) hacking and summoning combat drones. Certain squad members have these abilities as well.
    • Mass Effect 3 shows that due to Commander Shepard's experiences with the Prothean Beacons and the Cipher, they are recognised by all Prothean technology as though they were a member of the species. This also implanted Shepard with an unconscious understanding of the Prothean language as well as letting them view data recordings, which other species can only see as static. Shepard also demonstrates on Thessia, they have a limited ability to sense Prothean Beacons.
  • The protagonist of Watch_Dogs has the ability to hack anything. Anything. Black out city blocks, mess with traffic lights, make individual machines activate, hack ATMs, you name it, even stand-alone things like forklifts or cars. Sure, he uses a backdoor program and the city's universal free wi-fi to enable this, but there's essentially nothing electronic he can't bend to his will. For some reason, this includes the Big Bad's pacemaker.

    Visual Novels 
  • Last Chance in Xollywood: Vanilla the cinematographer uses her psychic powers to control and move the camera drones and spotlight drones around the set, since she's a worm-like alien with no hands or other appendages.

    Web Animation 
  • Homestar Runner: Strong Bad provides a mundane example. He can type with any part of his body, regardless of which keys are being pressed. This comes in quite handy when you have boxing gloves for hands.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • Inspector Lawrence Reinhardt, from the Crinoverse is a metahuman with the natural ability to communicate with and control machines, sending instant messages with his brain and shutting down robots without lifting a finger.
  • The Journal Entries has people with a whole raft of psychic powers, including this one, called cyberpathy in this setting. It is also present reverse, with A.I.s that are telepathic with organics. There are also a whole series of artificial interfaces that produce equivalent results, from external headbands to multiple generations of implants.
  • The Metro City Chronicles have a minor villain called Black Hat whose powers focus on cyber-telepathy and control.
  • Wes Hickman from the Omega Universe can assume control of electronic devices and hack computers with his mind as well as project his consciousness into cyberspace.
  • Samantha Harrison from Phaeton. She is technically a machine herself, but who cares when you can order the gun pointed at your head to dismantle itself?
  • SCP Foundation: The now-deleted but still well-remembered SCP-808 (a.k.a. Alice). An otherwise normal girl, her ability to communicate with machines is complicated by the fact that the machines consider her to be God. Fortunately, an archived version exists here.
  • Hafidha Gates of Shadow Unit can not only consciously connect to and control any nearby machine which contains computer chips, but she can also, without any conscious effort, act as a Wi-Fi access point or cell phone tower. She can combine these abilities to directly connect to the Internet with her mind, but she instead prefers to control a computer which is connected to Internet. This is in addition to and separate from a paranormal boost to her technical skills, making her one of the most skilled Techno Wizards on the planet.
  • Several characters in the Whateley Universe can do this to one extent or another.
    • At the Superhero School Whateley Academy, Ringo has this power, as does the hated Assistant to the Headmistress Ms. Hartford (so the school's computer network has security that DARPA envies) and even Samantha Everheart, who is one of the school's security officers (but she has merged with a nanite supercomputer called Hive, so she has an unfair advantage).
    • The supervillain Dr. Abel Palm has not only done this but has magically encrypted his soul into AI viruses and is trying to destroy all humankind.
    • Merry is a cyberpath who can dive into computer networks and do whatever she wants.
    • The character Whisper is one more of a growing number of technopaths in the universe. This kind of backfired on her, however, when, in a video game, the attacks on her character directly translated to injuries on her physical form.
    • Some Gadgeteers have a more limited form of this, in that they can 'feel' the condition of the gadget they are working on (a type of psychometry), and even manipulate it to some degree. Loophole, who can use this to become an Instant Expert with almost any weapon or vehicle, applies this to Take a Third Option in her sophomore Combat Final, by taking control of the simulator itself.

    Western Animation 
  • Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers: Already a skilled hacker in his own right, Walter "Doc" Hartford's Series 5 implant cranks his technological affinity to the point where he is effortlessly bossing around ancient alien computers.
  • In Batman Beyond, Willy Watt gains this ability after an accident involving a giant robot which he's controlling via a neural interface. The ability later morphs into Mind over Matter.
  • Ben 10:
    • Cooper has the ability to telekinetically merge with and control electronic devices, disassembling and reassembling them at will, as well as telepathically interfacing and communicating with machines to analyze and gather information. While using these abilities, his eye color turns bluish with a robotic print to show his connection to technology.
    • Galvanic Mechamorphs (Upgrade) are Mechanical Lifeforms with a liquid metal body allowing them to merge with and possess any technology by encasing themselves over it.
  • Nicolai Technus from Danny Phantom, whose name is a play on famous engineer Nikola Tesla. Technus has the power to possess and upgrade technology, which he uses to forge powerful weapons and battlesuits. Technus can also summon technology and bend it to his will to do whatever he says, even from afar. He commonly refers to himself in some form of "Technus! Ghost Master of Technology!" because of this.
  • Transformers: Animated:
    • Megatron discovers that he can control Earth machines because so much technology has been reverse engineered from him over the last 50 years. Which is rather useful, as he was reduced to a head when he found this out.
    • In the third season, Sari gains the ability to learn how to operate or repair any machine just by touching it: she describes it as the machines themselves simply telling her what they need.

    Real Life 
  • Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are currently in development. They can be either implanted or worn on a skullcap and allow one to connect to a computer directly without an external interface. Researcher Kevin Warwick used one to control various computerized household devices with his brain. Relatedly, you can buy motorized Cat Girl ears that use a headset to make the ears move based on brain impulses.

 
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O.M.N.S.S.

O.M.N.S.S. is able to use its processing power to take control of any machine via the satellite dish it's plugged in to. It also allows him to survey everyone and everything in the city, detecting the turtles after it becomes self-aware.

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