View source for The Machine That Won the War (short story)

{{Short description|Short story by Isaac Asimov}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2023}}
"'''The Machine That Won the War'''" is a [[science fiction]] [[short story]] by American writer [[Isaac Asimov]]. The story first appeared in the October 1961 issue of ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction]]'',<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Asimov |first=Issac |date=October 1961 |editor-last=Mills |editor-first=Robert P. |title=The Machine That Won the War |url=https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v021n05_1961-11_PDF |access-date=November 4, 2024 |magazine=Fantasy & Science Fiction |publisher=[[Mercury Press]] |page=51-56 |language=en |publication-place=New York |volume=21 |issue=4 |issn=1095-8258}}</ref> and was reprinted in the collections ''[[Nightfall and Other Stories]]'' (1969)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |url=https://archive.org/details/nightfallotherst00asim/mode/2up |title=Nightfall and Other Stories |publisher=[[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] |year=1969 |edition=1st |location=New York |publication-date=1969 |language=en |oclc=976576102}}</ref> and ''[[Robot Dreams]]'' (1986). It was also printed in a contemporary edition of ''[[Reader's Digest]]'', illustrated. It is one of a loosely connected series of such stories concerning a fictional [[supercomputer]] called [[Multivac]].
==Plot summary==
Three influential leaders of the human race meet in the aftermath of a successful war against the [[Deneb]]ians. Discussing how the vast and powerful [[Multivac]] computer was a decisive factor in the war, each of the men admits that in fact, he falsified his part of the decision process because he felt that the situation was too complex to follow normal procedures.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Johnson |first=George |date=February 20, 2005 |title=Who Do You Trust More: G.I. Joe or A.I. Joe? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/weekinreview/who-do-you-trust-more-gi-joe-or-ai-joe.html |url-access=registration |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150529192115/https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/weekinreview/who-do-you-trust-more-gi-joe-or-ai-joe.html |archive-date=May 29, 2015 |access-date=November 4, 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>
John Henderson, Multivac's Chief Programmer, admits that he altered the data being fed to Multivac, since the populace could not be trusted to report accurate information in the current situation.
Max Jablonski then admits that he altered the data that Multivac produced, since he knew that Multivac was not in good working order due to manpower and spare parts shortage.
Finally, Lamar Swift, executive director of the Solar Federation, reveals that he had not trusted the reports produced by Multivac, and had made the final decisions purely on the toss of a coin.
==References==
{{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* {{ISFDB title|62429}}
* [https://search.worldcat.org/title/976576102 ''The Machine That Won the War''] first edition title listing in [[WorldCat]] database
* ''[[openlibrary:works/OL46374W/Nightfall|The Machine That Won the War]]'' at the [[Internet Archive|Internet Archive's]] [[Open Library|OpenLibrary]]
{{Nightfall}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Machine That Won the War}}
[[Category:Fiction set around Deneb]]
[[Category:Multivac short stories by Isaac Asimov|Machine That Won the War, The]]
[[Category:1961 short stories]]
[[Category:Works originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction]]
[[Category:Fiction about artificial intelligence]]
{{1960s-sf-story-stub}}