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All The Troubles In The World Meaning

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Many people often dream of a utopia, a perfect world with no poverty, crime, or disease. This is made possible in the short story, “All the Troubles of the World,” by Issac Asimov, in which a super computer named Multivac is able to rid the world of crime by predicting them beforehand. One day, Multivac decides to commit suicide by giving instructions to a young boy named Ben Manners on how to turn itself off. However, Multivac is unable to not report its own crime, tipping off the government and sending the civil servants in charge of him in a panic. Ultimately, Multivac is unsuccessful with its attempt, but ends up letting the government know that he is sentient, and tired of constantly monitoring the world. In this story, Issac Asimov reveals …show more content…

When the story is first read, the reader jumps to the obvious meaning of the title, which is that Multivac is capable of erasing all of the troubles in the world, thus creating a utopian society. This is indeed what Multivac is designed for, but the title has a second meaning which relates more to the conflict of the story. The story revolves around Multivac wanting to end its own life because it has all the troubles of the world thrust upon it. One of the civil servants in charge of Multivac says,“Each of us brings his troubles to it, adding his bit to the burden” (Issac Asimov 280), which reveals that every single issue of every single human in the world is too much of a burden even for a super computer. The title refers to the side of the humans, stating that all the troubles that they could ever have are being erased, giving them happiness and a utopian society. However, it has the opposite meaning for Multivac. The fact that he has all of the troubles of the world loaded onto it is too much of a burden, leading to it trying to commit suicide. The title is chosen to represent both sides of the story and highlights the plot in an intriguing

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