The Feeling of Power Response

(source)

    The short story “The Feeling of Power” by Isaac Asimov shows the author’s idea of what the world might be like in the future. It depicts a world where “men have become dependent upon computers” (para 1).

    It is entirely possible that this could be our reality in a hundred years or so. One example of technology rapidly advancing towards being something we depend on is the existence of smartphones and other similar, portable computers. These closely resemble the “pocket computers” that the characters in the story always have with them. In the story, Congressman Brant needs to use his pocket computer to solve even the simplest of mathematical operations. When Aub answers from memory that nine times seven is equal to sixty-three (para 10), Brant takes out his pocket computer to check his answer (para 13). He is then amazed that Aub was able to get the correct answer without the assistance of a computer and wonders if Shuman has brought to him “an illusionist” (para 13).

    These computers have their benefits, of course, but what happens when, for example, the math students sitting in their classroom simply cease to care about engaging their minds with mental manipulation of numbers? What happens when they start to become slowly more and more dependent on their calculators until they cannot remember basic multiplication facts and cannot do a thing without their trusty computers? This can already be observed, even in our time, by the instinctive reach for a calculator whenever the teacher asks to compute something.

    

    In our society, these “pocket computers” have become commonplace. Nearly everyone uses them to retrieve information quickly and easily. Why flip through a dictionary when you can type the word into your smartphone? Why solve a math problem on paper, why figure out directions with a physical map, why look for a historical fact in a textbook, when a computer can do all this in a fraction of the time? In the story, Brant does not even know how to write numbers on paper, and after watching Aub do it he says, “I think I could make a passable seventeen myself, even without practice.” (para 24) as if it is something he simply does not bother to do anymore.

    It is true that this technology makes us more efficient, but our brains are our most important computer, as we could not function without them. Machines are unreliable. Machines can break or malfunction. Machines need a source of power. If all of the computers in the world were to break down in the world of this story, society would collapse, because no one would know how to do a thing. The president even said, “...how can anyone know how a computer works?” (para 75) No one even remembers how computers work or how they are built, so humanity would be stuck in a state of confusion, with an inability to make progress.

    It is for these reasons that we must remember that relying on computers alone is dangerous. As Congressman Brant put it while presenting Aub’s discoveries to the president, “...we have in our hands a method for going beyond the computer, leapfrogging it, passing through it. We will combine the mechanics of computation with human thought.” (para 68)