North Central Positronics

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North Central Positronics is a fictional corporation in Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series.

The word "positronic" is almost certainly a nod to the positronic brains originally conceived by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in his robot stories of the late 1930s. References to other authors and works are common in King's writing. For many examples, see the entry on Stephen King.

North Central Positronics appears in multiple works of Stephen King, sometimes as a passing reference or -- as in the Dark Tower series -- a central "character" to the story. It is a huge corporation which manufactures technologically-advanced items such as robots, computers, and weapons. Although almost all of North Central Positronics's products appear on the surface to be designed to benefit or protect civilization, these products are almost always shown in the story as dangerous, damaged, or perverted from their original purpose. This is most prominent in the Dark Tower series, where the few remaining North Central Positronics products still functioning have gone insane, preying upon life and the remnants of civilization. In a larger sense, North Central Positronics is a classical example of the Frankenstein Complex.

Stephen King uses North Central Positronics as an example of a society that has shunned the "natural" world, instead attempting to control the world via technology. In the Dark Tower series, the Old Ones -- the technologically advanced society that has "moved on" and left the world in ruin -- sought to replace the magical means by which the world was controlled with technology from North Central Positronics. Unfortunately, this technology either ran amok or degraded over time, wreaking destruction upon reality itself.

By the time it is encountered by Roland and his ka-tet, North Central Positronics is part of the Sombra Group, owned by the Crimson King, the personification of Satan and evil in the world of the Dark Tower. The Crimson King's stated goal is the destruction of the multiverse, thus the destructive failure of North Central Positronics's products can be seen as an ultimate design goal instead of an unfortunate happenstance. This theme is carried forward in every Stephen King book featuring North Central Positronics, but none more so than the Dark Tower series.

North Central Positronics can be seen as a parable on the futility of man's attempt to control nature and thus his destiny. In this sense, the ultimate failure of technology in the face of the natural and/or supernatural can be compared to the Tower of Babel and such famous disasters such as the sinking of the RMS Titanic.