I detect two theories relevant to HN readers. Spoilers ahead... . . . You have been warned... . The story moves towards a technological singularity [1].

I detect two theories relevant to HN readers. Spoilers ahead... . . . You have been warned... . The story moves towards a technological singularity [1]. This is a term Asimov could have been familar with at the time of writing. The name MULTIVAC is obviously inspired by the ENIAC and UNIVAC. So it's safe to assume Asimov was aware of the writings of Von Neumann. The unintended consequence of creating this artificial intelligence is creation as described in Genesis. I interpret the underlying message of this story to be 'our reality is a simulated reality [2]' since it was created by AI. I don't know if Asimov would have agreed. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_reality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_reality