La máquina que ganó la guerra

by Isaac Asimov

Three influential leaders of the human race meet in the aftermath of a successful war against the Denebians. 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.

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fiction

7 pages, ebook

First published October 1, 1961

About the author

Works of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles, The Foundation Trilogy (1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.

Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.

Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).

People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.

Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.

Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...

Reviews

[Austin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Machine That Won The War by Isaac Asimov is about three generals, Swift, Henderson, and Jablonsky, that talk about their super computer, Multivac. Multivac is a strategic computer that made decisions for them during their war with the Debebians, but all three of the generals didn’t trust the computer and made their own decisions. At first, Swift says that the Multivac won the war, but the generals made all of the decisions and they won the war. This is an example of irony. Irony means that something the opposite that one would expect would happen. This short story was good I guess.

[Jacob Seely · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good short story, you should read it.

[Riguelis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Estos cuentos de Asimov son ligeros y muy fáciles de leer y entender. La lectura de algunos es bastante estimulante y creo que en todos prevalece lo propiamente humano para resolver una dificultad o un problema.

Mis favoritos fueron Historia "bélica" y "Lunares verdes", pues están llenos de suspenso y con un carácter muy cinematográfico.

Destaco especialmente la presentación que el propio autor hace a cada uno de sus cuentos. Este aspecto fue espectacular y permite disfrutar en un mayor nivel de profundidad sus relatos.

La máquina que ganó la guerra ★★★★★
Lunares verdes ★★★★★
Historia bélica ★★★★★
Por Dios y por la Patria ★★★✩✩
Rompehuelgas ★★★✩✩
Mi hijo, el físico ★★★✩✩

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I too work like a machine that reading this story - given the data initially offered by Asimov, the textual implications perceived and the hints towards what interpretation to make - would have been faulty in my conclusion.

Unexpected plot twist endings constitute the pleasant surprise I always find reading Asimov.

[Santi · Rating 3 out of 5]

complicacion de varios cuentos lijeros de Asimov, el que da nombre al libro quizá es de los flojitos, pero hay unos muy interesantes y hasta con acción. Vale la pena pero muy a secas.
https://www.buscalibre.com.co?afiliad...

[Iván Acosta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buenas combinación de Scifi e IA, pero en ocaciones no engancha al lector a pesar de ser cuentos cortos.

[Juli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entretenido

[Austin Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

1961. Full-on Cold War Literature.

MULTIVAC VS DENEBIANS!

[Raymond 8E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny that everyone thought that the war was going to be a fight between the machines and humans. But ends up getting decided by a coin. Very ironic

[Stephanie 8y · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was a really interesting story but it took a while to understand

[Arris (areesespieces) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like this book and therefore have no further comments.

[Apisan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This piece of literature is built with many examples of irony that can be used for a lesson

[Onetwofoureight · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick four pages. Not really impressive.

[Karen K - Ohio · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent example of Asimov’s sense of irony.

[Kareen · Rating 5 out of 5]

En este cuento nos habla de la ya conocidísima computadora Multivac que se ganó la batalla cambiando, falsificando ciertos datos esto lo confiesa un cientifico.

[Alejandro Baena Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este ha sido de los libros que he leído y no me pude conectar muy bien con la historia, creo que después tendré que volverlo a leer

[Forked Radish · Rating 5 out of 5]

The placebo effect is the same as a computers operational principle.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Irony in a story about a war meant to be fought between machines. Narrated by George Guidell.

[María José · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha encantado

[Storm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collected in Nightfall and Other Stories and Robot Dreams, 3 leaders of the human race meet in the aftermath of victory against the Denebians. Multivac is credited with winning the war, until all 3 of the men confess to having fudged their part of the decision process due to pragmatism. The chief programmer changed the data fed into Multivac because the populace was only reporting extra good news, and none of the bad news so he had to insert his version of "truth" into it. The other 2 also do their own part to make up for the lack of spare parts that may impact Multivac's operation and judgments. In other words, the twist can be attributed to the source.

[Kerri · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ok short story about how machines are fallible because the humans that made them are fallible, plus a little something else.

[Kharen · Rating 3 out of 5]

El amante de los cohetes siderales y de los monstruos de color verduzco con antenas en la cabeza puede alejarse inmediatamente de este libro. Asimov es un escritor con un importante bagaje científico que escribe para adultos ambiciosos.

Una serie de cuentos cortos y casi chistosos sobre inteligencias extraterrestres, artificiales y mas escasamente, humanas.

Los relatos de Asimov son análisis del comportamiento; enfrentados a infecciones espaciales, guerras interestelares o problemas de comunicación galáctica, los terrícolas siempre recurrimos a lo básico: Los consejos de mamá, la suerte en una moneda, la intuición o el olvido.

[Maggie Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hail computers! Oh wait... none of us actually trusted the computers who supposedly did all these great things for us? Hail humanity! Or at least hail flipping coins!

Another classic Asimov. Short, heavy on dialogue, and with a heavy dose of wit.

[EruDani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelentes cuentos cortos y cortísimos con comentarios previos del autor. :)

[Hernan Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Siempre dije, si uno quiere adentrarse en cierto autor en particular, no hay nada mejor que leer algún libro el cual compile una cierta cantidad de cuentos cortos. Muchas veces, para no decir siempre, la narrativa de una persona se evidencia tanto en trabajos de grandes extensiones, como en cuentos que tal vez, no ocupen mas de 10 hojas.

Justamente, este es el caso del libro en cuestión. En total, contamos con 6 historias, de las cuales, 3 son muy cortas, y las restantes, algo mas largas, pero que no llegan a ocupar mas de 30 hojas cada una.

Sin mucho para decir, creo que la lectura que mas disfrute fue "Lunares verdes", aunque admito que al principio se me hizo un poco complicada la comprensión de lo que estaba pasando.