EPICAC (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
- First Published: 1950
- Type of Plot: Science fiction
- Time of Work: An unspecified future
- Setting: A computer room
- Principal Characters: The narrator, Pat Kilgallen, EPICAC
- Genres: Short fiction, Science fiction
- Subjects: Love or romance, Suicide, Marriage, Poetry or poets, Emotions, War, Science fiction, Computers, Artificial intelligence
The Story
The greatest computer ever built, EPICAC has been designed for the purpose of rapid calculation, mainly for military purposes. It is a huge machine, described as plugged into the wall like a toaster or a vacuum cleaner. Soon, however, it is clear that EPICAC is far more than a machine.
The narrator, after repeatedly being turned down by his beloved, Pat, a mathematician as he is, sits down one night in front of the computer keyboard and playfully asks the computer for advice. To his great surprise, the computer responds, first asking for definitions of such...
[The entire page is 1432 words long]
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