Response to “All the Troubles of the World”

I thought that the story, “All the Troubles of the World” was very well written and intriguing. What got me really interested was the idea that people lived under a dictatorship government who was not even human. The fact that this computer can store so much data on everyone and outwit humans was a little frightening. To imagine Multivac was capable of recording such a large data base to foresee your possible actions gave me shivers. This computer was so well informed that it would have fallen under the act of invasion of privacy in present time. In contrast, today’s consensus usually questions in general categories that are private information, but not too personal. This story was definitely a great way to have a glimpse of a parallel world.

In my opinion, when I read this story, the very first thought that came to mind was the news article of China wanting to be able to read the Gmail of civilians. What made me relate this news article was that Multivac was to know everything, even if there was to be any criminal intentions or the destruction of Multivac itself. Meanwhile, in the news article, the purpose of the Chinese government accessing others’ Gmail accounts was to read if there were any plots or criticism against the government. Though there may be some similar cases of Multivac to modern government, I think it will be very hard to find anything as drastic.

In this story, I think that the protagonist is Multivac because there is more to sympathize for him as he was created by man to deal with troubles of everyone in the world. Although he may not be a living machine, Multivac developed the feelings and emotions that are displayed in people. With Multivac being the protagonist, mankind should be the antagonist as they were the ones who created it and exclaimed their troubles to it.