h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hey, no problem! That's what friends are for (erm...). Anyways, I think that what you were saying earlier about having a huge article with loads of researchers would be easier if you all (me included, if noone objects ) wrote articles on one particular facet, and then cross-referenced them in the way what i have done.
We could then have a huge contents article, containing links to each of the pages to make it at least reasonably structured.

Me again! (Sorry.)

The story in which Multivac was designed to fight a war is titled, imaginatively, "The Machine that won the war". I haven't got around to reading it yet, but I will. Don't you worry.

I really need to re-read my Asimov collection!

One of my Favourite Asimovs is where society is so reliant on Computers to do everything that they have completely forgoten Mathematics, and some guy rediscovers Maths, and this eventually leads to "human piloted" missiles (I think) which win the war, because the Machines weren't expecting that!
I like it because it looks like that's where we might be headed if we're not careful. I imagine a day when we get fed up with Computers and turn back to Paper as an information storage medium as it doesn't require any power to run, has no Batteries to run out, and is incredibly portable.

On a different matter:
I reckon the only chronology that can be placed on Multivac is that of Asimov's life and of the advance in computing power around him. It seems to me to be a "conceptual crutch" he used to represent an all knowing entity, which is nevertheless subject to various failings.

By the way do you reckon DNA got the TEA concept from when Multivac was answering the "Ultimate question" and ends up after the end of the Cosmos creating the new Cosmos by saying ... "Let there be light" ... Well maybe not.

Well, let me think, did Multivac run on a small cupcake?

Anyway, your comment about reversion to paper isn't as absurd as you think. In "The Machine that Won the War", the computer operator supplied Multivac with fake data, as he believed the reports to be untrue. The person who received the printout didn't think the computer was up to the task of running the war, and would make substitutions. The person whose job it was to act on the decisions was wary of the computer as well, so he flipped a coin. This then was the computing power behind the war effort.

Wasn't that short story about people re-discovering Mathmatics called "Feeling of Power", and the "inventor" of mathmatics commited suicide when it was made into a weapon...

In a similar vein is a story in which an alien race prevents all nuclear reactions on the planet, and makes the whole world forget about nuclear physics except for one or two scientists. Can you remember what it's called? I've been trying to remember and can't.

I'm afraid I don't remember...

DAMN YOUR HIDE!

My favourite, though, is one about a war in which one side lost because their technology was overwhelmingly superior to the other side's.

Wasn't that called "Vietnam"....

Oh yes - I forgot that they actually put the production on stage...

The reason that Asimov created the three laws and their related stories is because he hated that kind of machine vs human mentality. As you can see in his writings, it was that motivation that snuck its ways into many of his stories in which robots with very human characteristics and personalities took care of Humans. (Mininote: That’s why though I Robot was a pretty cool looking movie it went directly against the spirit of the actual book and the author.)

Talk about reviving Threads from the Dead...