Conflicts

Conflicts:

The main conflicts in this story is Man vs. Self, because all three executives had to wrestle with the fact that they tampered with the machine's capability and might have caused the humans' untimely demise. However, after the war, they all wanted to claim that they were the reason for the victory over their age-old rivals, the Denebians. Henderson had changed the data itself which was fed to the machine. In the beginning, he said that he was scared out of his mind making minor changes, but closer to the end, he scarcely cared. Jablonsky  also said that he lost faith in Multivac's calculations, but due to the fact that he got a report that someone had tampered with the material. Instead of reporting it, he claimed that it never mattered anyway because he always disregarded all of the information given to him by the machine. Swift, was the most complex character as he had the most responsibility of the group. He was said to look older and more worn out by the war than the other two. He is given the title Chief of the Solar Federation even though the details of his position are not  specified. It is, however implied that he made all the final decisions when it came to the war.

A secondary conflict in this story is Man vs. Society. This conflict is not as apparent, but important nonetheless. It is said that Multivac was made in order to take the weight of decision off of a person's shoulders, therefore taking out of the equation the factor of human error. Thereby, in extension, Swift's job was cut out for him, because he just needed to take whatever Multivac said and turn it into a command. This leads the reader to question the very existence of Swift's position. Is it just a fancy title and a figurehead, and no more? Well, then it is revealed that Swift does not in fact heed the reports that he is given by Jablonsky. Even though he says it is because he does that because he doesn't trust Multivac's data, it can also be inferred that he disregards the reports in order to maintain at least a semblance of power over his position, or to show that he still has the power. Swift admits that he was always old fashioned, and that is supported by the fact that he still carries around metallic coins, even after the rest of the world had made the switch to electronic currency. It can also be inferred by the reactions of his colleagues that the coins were not only uncommon to carry around, but contraband. This could possibly mean that everything that Swift did was to show society (however covertly) that he didn't agree with what they were doing.