Science Fiction Dictionary
A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

Latest By
Category:

Armor
Artificial Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work

Home | Dictionary | Timeline | New

A big computer named Multivac is having problems coming up with the right answers. A dad remarks to his child that Multivac is not a simple mechanical device (a machine) that would be easy to fix, nor is it as intelligent as a man, in which case you could ask what was wrong. His son remarks that maybe Multivac was like a kid:

"... you say you've got to keep Multivac busy day and night. A machine can do that. But if you give a kid homework and told him to do it for hours and hours, he'd get pretty tired and feel rotten enough to make mistakes, maybe even on purpose. So why not let Multivac take an hour or two off every day with no problem-solving - just letting it chuckle and whir by itself any way it wants to." ('Point of View' by Isaac Asimov)

Technovelgy from Point of View, by Isaac Asimov. Published by Boy's Life in 1975 Additional resources -

It's hard sometimes to figure out if a computer is wrong:

"And the thing is, son, how do we know we always catch Multivac? How do we know that some of the wrong answers don’t get past us? We may rely on some answer and do something that may turn out disastrously five years from now. Something’s wrong inside Multivac and we can’t find out what. And whatever is wrong is getting worse.”

"Why should it be getting worse?” asked Roger.

His father had finished his hamburger and was eating the french fries one by one. "My feeling is, son,” he said, thoughtfully, "that we’ve made Multivac the wrong smartness.”

"Huh?”

"You see, Roger, if Multivac were as smart as a man, we could talk to it and find out what was wrong no matter how complicated it was. If it were as dumb as a machine, it would go wrong in simple ways that we could catch easily. The trouble is, it’s halfsmart, like an idiot. It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong. — And that’s the wrong smartness.”

Compare to computers can dream from 2010: Odyssey Two (1982) by Isaac Asimov.

Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |

Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Point of View
  More Ideas and Technology by Isaac Asimov
  Tech news articles related to Point of View
  Tech news articles related to works by Isaac Asimov

Computer Play Time-related news articles:
  - Could Robots Use A Little Down Time?
  - Is Agentic AI The Wrong Kind Of Smartness?

Want to Contribute an Item? It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add it here.

<Previous	Next>
Web TechNovelgy.com

Science Fiction Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's   1950's
1960's   1970's
1980's   1990's
2000's   2010's