Franchise by Isaac Asimov:
Science Fiction Inventions, Technology and Ideas

"It was a frightening thing to happen to a person; the responsibility was just too great. But Norman Muller couldn’t back out. Multivac had chosen him, and the entire nation waited . . ."


('Franchise' by Isaac Asimov)

In the story, the United States has become an "electronic democracy" where the computer Multivac selects a single person to answer a set of questions. Multivac uses the answers and other data to determine what the results of an election would be, avoiding the need for an actual election to be held.

Select an invention:

Electronic Voting
A system of elections that used the responses of a statistically average voter.

Interviewed by a Computer
An interview conducted by a computer with a person.

Multivac
A computer with millions of facts.

 

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Science Fiction
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