Fictional Examples
- In Arthur C. Clarke's novel The Fountains of Paradise the extraterrestrial Starglider probe is an example of a Bracewell probe. In Clark's story The Sentinel, later adapted into the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, the 'Monolith' appears to be a Bracewell probe placed on the moon to ensure that only a civilization capable of spaceflight would be able to discover it.
- Alien Planet is a 94-minute special which aired on the Discovery Channel in 2005 about two internationally-built robot probes, and their mothership, searching for alien life on the fictional planet Darwin IV.
- Bracewell probes are featured in David Brin's novel Existence.
- In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Inner Light," a Bracewell probe transmits details of an extinct civilization to Captain Picard.
- An alien probe contacts the space station Babylon 5 in the season 3 episode "A Day in the Strife." The probe is a Bracewell probe, asking a series of questions and offering new technologies, medicine and science in return for answers to said questions. However, if the probe receives correct answers — thus proving that whatever civilization the probe has come into contact with is advanced — the probe detonates with a yield of 500 megatons, removing said civilization's homeworld or facility. This makes it more of a berserker probe.
- The Snark, an alien probe that visits Earth in the novel In the Ocean of Night (1977) by Gregory Benford.
- Bracewell probes in the role-playing game Eclipse Phase infect the seed AIs created by humanity with a deadly computer virus.
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