"Question" is a science fiction short story by American writer

Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...

. The story first appeared in the March 1955 issue of '' Computers and Automation'' (thought to be the first computer magazine), and was reprinted in the April 30, 1957, issue of '' Science World''. It is the first of a loosely connected series of stories concerning a fictional

supercomputer A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second ( FLOPS) instead of million instructions ...

called Multivac. The story concerns two technicians who are servicing Multivac, and their argument over whether or not the machine is truly intelligent and able to think. Multivac, however, supplies the answer on its own. After the reprint, another author,

Robert Sherman Townes The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

, noticed the climax in the last sentence was very similar to one of his own stories, "Problem for Emmy" (''

Startling Stories ''Startling Stories'' was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1955 by publisher Ned Pines' Standard Magazines. It was initially edited by Mort Weisinger, who was also the editor of ''Thrilling Wonder Stories'', S ...

'', June 1952), and wrote to Asimov about it. After searching in his library, Asimov did find the original story and, although he did not recall having read it, admitted that the endings were pretty similar. He then replied to Townes, apologizing and promising the story would never again be published, and it never was. Asimov mentioned "Question" in an editorial called "Plagiarism" which appeared in the August 1985 issue of '' Asimov's Science Fiction'' (although he did not mention Townes' name or the title of either story). "Plagiarism" was reprinted in Asimov's collection '' Gold'' (1995).

Sources

"Question"
at AsimovReviews.net

External links

*
"Question"
at the Internet Archive * {{DEFAULTSORT:Question (Short Story) Multivac short stories by Isaac Asimov 1955 short stories Works originally published in American magazines Works originally published in science and technology magazines