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Point of View

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Point of View is a short story by Isaac Asimov that first appeared in Boys' Life magazine in July 1975. It is one of a loosely connected series of such stories concerning a fictional computer called Multivac.

7 pages, ebook

First published July 1, 1975

32 people want to read

About the author

Isaac Asimov

4,473 books27.4k followers
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...

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5 stars
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4 stars
12 (20%)
3 stars
24 (41%)
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13 (22%)
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
Profile Image for Gladimore.
647 reviews20 followers
August 29, 2023
I need to read this again. I'm not sure I completely understood this.
Profile Image for Storm.
2,323 reviews7 followers
December 12, 2021
Collected in The Complete Robot. Roger's father and their team can't figure out what is wrong with Multivac or why it gives inconsistent answers until Roger tells them to look at it from a different point of view. A clever story, but I'm not sure if the solution will hold up.
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Profile Image for Alice.
763 reviews97 followers
January 28, 2021
The humanity Asimov imbues into his technology is more than many people reserve for humans.
Profile Image for Antonella.
286 reviews3 followers
October 1, 2023
Certezza di esperto è un racconto di fantascienza di Isaac Asimov che narra di un padre che lavora con un computer multifunzionale, il Multivac, e di suo figlio che gli suggerisce una soluzione al problema del computer che fornisce risposte diverse alla stessa domanda.
Il racconto ha alcuni aspetti positivi, come l'idea originale di paragonare il computer a un bambino che ha bisogno di divertirsi e di esprimere la sua creatività.
Tuttavia, il racconto è poco credibile e poco coerente, perché non spiega come il Multivac possa avere una propria personalità e una propria emotività, e perché nessuno se ne sia accorto prima. Inoltre non è probabile, perché non tiene conto del fatto che il computer non può provare le stesse emozioni umane, come la stanchezza e la noia, che sono il motivo delle sue risposte errate.
11 reviews
August 7, 2025
Pretty interesting observation and pretty human writing.
This story was a pretty good one. I do like how the entire story is just framed through the lens of a single conversation between a father and son. I think that they make an interesting observation on the way that companies place this huge amounts of pressure placed on both people and equipment which causes them to crack under the weight of the work.
The solution being so elegantly simple is kind of blunt, but I do think that they managed to get an idea of the value of the less jaded and more innocent view of a child.
so yeah, this is pretty damn good.
Profile Image for SunKen_Sun.
16 reviews
May 14, 2025
Cute ending, does not overstay its welcome, and the view of having a city and the workers needed to keep the multivac working were all strong positives for this story. Nothing about it stands out too much to me, but overall I am glad I read this. Found in: The Complete Robot
Profile Image for Kareen.
726 reviews4 followers
October 17, 2022
muy buena historia de nuevo paa variar de isaac asimov sobre un niño que opina que las máquinas en este caso Multivac debería descansar un poco.
Profile Image for Vaishali.
1,154 reviews314 followers
July 7, 2016
Quite interesting to see how far programming and technology has progressed in such a short time.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews

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