Multivac

Multivac is the name of a fictional supercomputer in many stories by Isaac Asimov. According to his autobiography In Memory Yet Green, Asimov coined the name in imitation of UNIVAC, an early mainframe computer. While he initially intended the name to stand for "Multiple vacuum tubes"^{[citation needed]}, his later short story "The Last Question" expands the AC suffix to be "automatic computer".^[1]

Like most of the technologies Asimov describes in his fiction, Multivac's exact specifications vary among appearances. In all cases, it is a government-run computer that answers questions, usually buried deep underground for security purposes. However, Asimov never settles on a particular size for the computer (except for mentioning it is very large) or the supporting facilities around it. "Franchise" states it is half a mile long and three stories high, at least as far as the general public knows, while "All the Troubles of the World" states it fills all of Washington D.C.. There are frequent mentions of corridors and people inside Multivac. Unlike the artificial intelligences portrayed in his Robot series, Multivac's interface is mechanized and impersonal, consisting of complex command consoles few humans can operate (with the exception of "Key Item"). Though the technology depended on bulky vacuum tubes, the concept – that all information could be contained on computer(s) and accessed from a domestic terminal – constitutes an early reference to the possibility of the Internet (see "Anniversary" for how it was used). In The Last Question, Multivac is shown as having a life of many thousands of years, growing ever more enormous with each section of the story, which can explain its different reported sizes as occurring further down the internal timeline of the overarching story.

Storylines

In the early Multivac story, "Franchise", Multivac chooses a single "most representative" person from the population of the United States, whom the computer then interrogates to determine the country's overall orientation. All elected offices are then filled by the candidates the computer deems acceptable to the populace. Asimov wrote this story as the logical culmination – and/or possibly the reductio ad absurdum – of UNIVAC's ability to forecast election results from small samples.

In possibly the most famous Multivac story, "The Last Question", two slightly drunken technicians ask Multivac if humanity can reverse the increase of entropy. Multivac fails, displaying the error message "INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER". The story continues through many iterations of computer technology, each more powerful and ethereal than the last. Each of these computers is asked the question, and each returns the same response until finally the universe dies. At that point Multivac's final successor, the Cosmic AC (which exists entirely in hyperspace) has collected all the data it can, and so poses the question to itself. As the universe died, Multivac drew all of humanity into hyperspace, to preserve them until it could finally answer the Last Question. Ultimately, Multivac did decipher the answer, announcing "Let there be light!" and essentially ascending to the state of God in the old testament. Asimov claimed this to be the favourite of his stories.^[2]

In "All the Troubles of the World", the version of Multivac depicted reveals a very unexpected problem. Having had the weight of the whole of humanity's problems on its figurative shoulders for ages it has grown tired, and sets plans in motion to cause its own death.

Influence on modern thought

Both Frank J. Tipler in his 1994 Omega Point Theory, and Ray Kurzweil in his 2005 book The Singularity is Near, have suggested that the human race will soon (by the mid 21st century) evolve into transhuman immortal humanoid robots which will work to eventually turn the entire universe into a gigantic supercomputer. They both suggest that this supercomputer will be able to reverse entropy so that the immortal robots can live inside the supercomputer in virtual reality forever.

Multivac bibliography

Asimov's stories featuring Multivac:

• "Question" (1955; withdrawn^[3])
• "Franchise" (1955)
• "The Dead Past" (1956)
• "Someday" (1956)
• "The Last Question" (1956)
• "Jokester" (1956)
• "All the Troubles of the World" (1958)
• "Anniversary" (1959)
• "The Machine that Won the War" (1961)
• "My Son, the Physicist" (1962)
• "Key Item" (1968)
• "The Life and Times of Multivac" (1975)
• "Point of View" (1975)
• "True Love" (1977)
• "It Is Coming" (1979)
• "Potential" (1983)

See also

• List of fictional computers

References