People always tend to seek the easy way out looking for something thatwould make their lives easier. Machines and tools have given us theability to do more in less time giving us, at the same time, more comfort. As the technology advances, computers become faster and more powerful. These new machines are enabling us to do more in less time making our liveseasier. The increased use of computers in the future, however, might havenegative results and impact on our lives.
In the novel Nine TomorrowsIsaac Asimov often criticizes our reliance on computers by portraying afuturistic world where computers control humans. One of the images which Asimov describes in the book is that humansmight become too dependent on computers. In one of the stories,Profession, Asimov writes about people being educated by computer programsdesigned to educate effortlessly a person. According to the Professionstory people would no longer read books to learn and improve theirknowledge.
People would rely on the computers rather than “try to memorizeenough to match someone else who knows” (Nine Tomorrows, Profession 55). People would not chose to study, they would only want to be educated bycomputer tapes. Putting in knowledge would take less time than readingbooks and memorizing something that would take almost no time using acomputer in the futuristic world that Asimov describes. Humans might beganto rely on computers and allow them to control themselves by lettingcomputers educate people. Computers would start teaching humans whatcomputers tell them without having any choice of creativity.
Computer ouldstart to control humans’ lives and make humans become too dependent on thecomputers. Another point that is criticized by Asimov is the fact that peoplemight take their knowledge for granted allowing computers to take over andcontrol their lives. In a story called The Feeling of Power, Asimovportrays how people started using computers to do even simple mathematicalcalculations. Over a long period of time people became so reliable oncomputers that they forgot the simplest multiplication and division rules.
If someone wanted to calculate an answer they would simply use their pocketcomputer to do that (The Feeling of Power 77). People became tooindependent from the start making them forget what they have learned in thepast. People in the story The Feeling of Power would take for granted whatthey have learned over centuries of learning and chose computers because oftheir ability to do their work faster. The lack of manual mathematics,which people chose to forget in the story, caused computers to be the onesto solve simple mathematics problems for the p le taking control of thehumans by doing the work for them (The Feeling of Power 81-82).
Thereliance of computers went to such an extent that even Humans began to usecomputers in all fields of study and work allowing computers to controltheir lives by taking over and doing everything for them. According to another story in the book, Asimov also describes howcomputers would be able to predict probabilities of an event, future. Inthe story All the Troubles of the World one big computer predicted crimebefore it even happened, allowing the police to take the person who wasgoing to commit the crime and release him/her after the danger has passed(All The Troubles of The World 144-145). This computer, called Multivac,controlled humans by telling the authorities about who was going to commita crime causing someone to be imprisoned until the danger has passed. Itwas the computer that made the decision of someone’s freedom orimprisonment and that controlled others to arrest a person it suspected ofcommitting a crime controlling his/her destiny. The decision ofimprisoning someone for a crime a person did not commit was all in thehands of a computer.
It was the computer that controlled humans and theirdestiny and controlling other humans who believed in everything thatcomputer told them. Multivac could not only predict the future but it also could answermany questions that would normally embarrass people if they would have toask someone else about it. Multivac could access its vast database oftrillions of pieces of knowledge and find the best solution for one’sproblem (All The Troubles of The World 153). All the people believed thatMultivac knows the best and allowed a computer to control their lives byfollowing the solutions Multivac had given them (All the Troubles
