I think a strong argument could be made that Isaac Asimov predicted with his story of Multivac how expansive and integrated into our lives computers and technology and especially the internet has become. Multivac is an all-powerful computer that’s reminiscent of an all-powerful father figure. Everyone is monitored and no one has complete privacy from Multivac except when it’s processing power is completely being used to solve a complicated problem.

While the life and times of Multivac published in 1975 was made over 50 years ago, the aspect of the internet and how everyone is connected now shows the same lack of privacy and possibility for mass control that the story of Multivac showed. We live in a world where I’ve seen several people cover up the front camera of their laptops with tape in order to prevent surveillance from some organization like the FBI or some other more dangerous third party organization. The idea that we can’t even trust our property and something we own that’s connected to the internet is crazy and the fact that we also have technology that is proven to be able to hack into computers with the click of a random link or just because they can is equally crazy. Bakst deals with a similar problem as he was contacting Noreen and the other members and he has to worry about his conversation being monitored by Multivac. From what we can tell Multivac can access all computers on the planet and can monitor every frequency and wavelength humans can access. It’s very similar to how the internet connects everyone and because of this you can potentially be watched or checked at any time even with firewalls and security built in into our devices.

There is also a struggle of whether Multivac is good or bad for the society that Asimov portrays. The humans seems to have a general consensus that they don’t want Multivac but when the time comes to finally take action they are hesitant to do so. This leads the audience to believe that subconsciously they either never wanted to be free from Multivac or they never believed the task could be done. People in the real world now are similar to this concept as well. While everyone uses the internet and a lot of people believe it’s a positive influence in terms of information, communication, and making our lives easier; countless articles are written all the time about the millennial generations dependence on technology and how this could have many negative effects and that we could potentially be better off without it. However I’m sure if you asked the majority of the populace that feels this way, they would never say something along the lines of we should tech human technological advancement back to the days of the Stone Age. It’s become interconnected in arguably all aspects of our life like education, family, work, and communication. We’d be lost without it which must be similar to the way that the people at the end of the life and times of Multivac feel as well.