# Did any Science Fiction writer ever anticipate Google?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-science-fiction-writer-ever-anticipate-google/552314>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 1, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-science-fiction-writer-ever-anticipate-google/552314 "2010-09-01T21:34:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-science-fiction-writer-ever-anticipate-google/552314/61 "2010-09-04T22:07:40Z")

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There are a couple of stories which come to mind. Anne McCaffrey wrote one called Dull Drums about students auditing computer diaries and the like. Then there’s a story by Asimov or Clarke or someone of that era about all the computers of the galaxy being finally linked together. After the final link is made…

someone asks the computer, “Is there a God?” and the computer replies, “NOW there is.” and kills the person who tries to remove the vital link

There’s a similar story where someone distances himself from humanity to get closer to the computer system which now runs the Earth, because his speciality is complex networks and he’s found the weak point. As other humans teleconference in with the aim of telling him he’s ostracised…

he cuts the vital link, and reveals his plotting. He has now initiated he disabling of the computer and asks the others, “Well, that was what you wanted, wasn’t it?”

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**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-science-fiction-writer-ever-anticipate-google/552314/62 "2010-09-04T22:54:55Z")

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Quartz, the first story you mention is “Answer” by Fredric Brown.

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**Author:** ![Nightfall1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@Nightfall1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightfall1)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2010, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-science-fiction-writer-ever-anticipate-google/552314/63 "2010-09-05T01:11:14Z")

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Quartz, I think the second story is The Life and Times of Multivac by Isaac Asimov in his book The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories.

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**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-science-fiction-writer-ever-anticipate-google/552314/64 "2010-09-06T22:29:12Z")

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Thank you both.

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