A Summary and Analysis of Isaac Asimov’s ‘The Machine That Won the War’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Machine That Won the War’ is a 1961 short story by the science-fiction author Isaac Asimov (1920-92). The story is set shortly after Earth and its associated worlds have won a war against an enemy civilisation known as the Denebians. A vast computer named Multivac is credited with being, in the story’s title, ‘The Machine That Won the War’. But did Multivac win the war? It might be helpful if I briefly summarise the plot of Asimov’s story. The story takes place shortly after a war has ended. Earth and its allies have defeated their enemies, Deneb, thanks largely to a large computer named Multivac. The story features three characters. Lamar Swift is the Executive Director of the Solar Federation, a group of planets which include Earth. John Henderson is the Chief Programmer of Multivac. And Max Jablonsky is the Chief Interpreter of Multivac. When Henderson celebrates the Denebians being destroyed, Swift points out that they owe their victory to Multivac. Jablonsky seems sceptical of the machine being given the credit, but says he doesn’t care. Henderson, however, is more decisive, arguing that Multivac was ‘just a machine’ and had nothing to do with their victory. When Jablonsky suggests Henderson wants to take the credit for himself, Henderson denies this angrily, arguing that the war had become too complicated for the machine to make much difference. Henderson points out that their entire war effort was focused on Multivac, so he could not point out its shortcomings at the time. If he had spoken out against the machine, he would have been removed and replaced by somebody else. Instead, he quietly corrected the unreliable data, using his intuition to guide him. But then Jablonsky reveals that Multivac was not in working order anyway – but he couldn’t speak up about the computer’s technical faults for the same reason. He, too, used his intuition to cover for the machine’s flaws. Swift seems surprised by these revelations. But then he reveals that he never placed too much store by whatever Multivac suggested as a course […]

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