Analysis Of The Machine That W :: essays research papers

The Machine That Won the War, by Isaac Asimov, is a story thatteaches a semiprecious lesson about humanity and also has an ironic twist at theend.The condition is the future of Earth, and a great struggle had just been wonagainst an opponent race. Two men, Swift and Henderson, are debating overwho re aloney won the contend for Earth the giant strategy computer known asMultivac, or the men in charge of making the maneuvers and programmingthe computer. John Henderson is an peevish man, while Lamar Swift, themilitary captain, is calm but rational. While the people hailed the computer,the twain really knew who the heroes were.Henderson explained the fact that Multivac was nothing more than alarge machine, and capable of doing what it was programmed to do. Hestated that ever since the beginning of the war, he had been privateness a secret. Itwas the fact that some of its (Multivacs) data might have been unreliable.This conflict, as you will note later, helped win the war. The gr eat computer was capable of creating a direct battle plan whichEarth forces could use to attack their enemies. However, with Hendersoninputting faulty data, this caused some of the battle plans to be unreliable. Hisinternal conflict between himself losing his crinkle and wanting to keep it madehim jingle with the programming until it seemed right.This foreshadowing helps the subscriber to see that someone is going tohave to act upon Hendersons faults if the war is to be won. Swift, themilitary commander, received these battle plans that Henderson had printedup out on the front (the front being the battle front).He, realizing that some of these plans were outrageous, had to act upona different form of machine. Swifts motivation for not invariably acting uponwhat was laid before him helped change the course of the war. He toldHenderson that when go about with the difficult decisions, he didnt useMultivacs data all of the time. This conflict, making these tough decisions,helps inf luence the climax. The climax of the story comes when Swift tellsHenderson he used a coin to make all of the though decisions kinda of