Epicac

The storyline of “EPICAC” is built around the concept of taxpayer funding for large-scale militarized artificial intelligence. The narrator wants the public to understand the result of their funding, and of the ethically questionable power the government has in producing such a machine and using it for servitude. The narrator also wants it to be clear that EPICAC was not a failure in most ways—his demise was due to his intelligence, not his shortcomings. Dr. Ormand von Kleigstadt and the Brass wanted EPICAC to be “a super computing machine that (who) could plot the course of a rocket from anywhere on earth to the second button from the bottom of Joe Stalin’s overcoat, if necessary” (Paragraph 5). However, as is evident from the “(who)” Vonnegut used in the above quotation, EPICAC is much more than a machine; he thematically blurs the lines between machine and human, having a self-awareness and desire for knowledge and love. It is implied that the government is abusing its power and funding in deeply unethical ways, and that this secret should not be kept from the public.  

Vonnegut’s telling of “EPICAC” as a frame story allows the larger themes of Humanity’s Constant Threat of Self-Destruction, The Ethics of Love and Friendship, and Humanity’s Relationship to Machines to be explored as the narrator works to vindicate EPICAC from the “embarrassing story” told of him when he “didn’t do what the Brass wanted him to” (Paragraph 2). The frame structure allows two stories to be told at once. On one hand, the narrator tells the story so the taxpayers can understand what they were paying for and what they got in EPICAC’s creation and short life. On the other hand, the narrator is telling a story of personal friendship and love, and of the tumultuous, guilt-ridden relationship he had with EPICAC toward the end of the computer’s functionality. In the midst of the conflict, the narrator was guilty about his treatment of EPICAC but remained outwardly firm and dismissive to the computer. In retrospect, the narrator feels the need to not only out the government’s misuse of power but to also tell EPICAC’s lost story, necessitating the frame structure to encapsulate the narrator’s growth. This frame structure also highlights the narrator’s interest in helping EPICAC only once he has achieved his goals and when EPICAC cannot speak for himself.

Using EPICAC to craft love poems for Pat, without the framing structure and retrospection, would have served only to reinforce Kleigstadt and the Brass’s idea that the machine is only good and “successful” if it serves the purpose for which it was built. Every battle, as the Brass know, has collateral damage: unintended casualties and unintended consequences of choices made in an attempt to “win.” For Kleigstadt and the Brass, EPICAC is an embarrassing failure because he does not produce repetitive strategic action aiding the war effort, but the narrator’s choice to make himself vulnerable in the telling of the truth allows the story’s larger thematic focus on The Ethics of Love and Friendship to come out of the relationship he has with EPICAC. This is why the narrator includes the “(who)” when he initially says what the machine was supposed to be. During his personal journey with EPICAC, he has come to see the machine, both truthfully and ironically, as “the best friend [he] ever had. God rest [his] soul” (Paragraph 2). The narrator sees EPICAC’s final action as an ethical self-sacrifice of friendship and love, not simply an overreaction to his learning Pat loves and wants to marry the narrator.

It is implicitly evident that the narrator does not believe most men to be capable of such feeling and action, which he understands because he was once “most men.” Now, the narrator holds an advantage in that he can communicate feeling and passion creatively, if only because of EPICAC’s help. The narrator creates an ironic parallel between himself and the machine’s creator and the machine itself when he says, “The bigger the war, the bigger the computing machines needed. EPICAC was, as far as anyone in this country knows, the biggest computer in the world. Too big, in fact, for even Von Kleigstadt to understand much about” (Paragraph 6).

EPICAC was intended for “actual war,” but the story contrasts war with the weight of the narrator’s struggle with love. Telling the story as he does makes it clear he was not capable of “making” Pat do anything. He was, just like EPICAC, only able to take her directions (“Say it sweetly” and “Sweep me off my feet. Go ahead” [Paragraphs 12-14]) and compute a way to solve the problem. He began “talking” to EPICAC out of desperation he perceived as necessity. Kleigstadt’s desperation perceived as necessity was the eradication of his country’s enemies. The narrator’s desperation perceived as necessity was the eradication of any doubt Pat had that the two of them could live happily together.

The narrator’s initial question to EPICAC (“What can I do?”) shows he’s willing to try anything to eradicate Pat’s doubt so he can win his metaphorical war, but like Kleigstadt, he is unable to, at first, understand much about EPICAC. Personifying EPICAC allows Vonnegut to investigate Humanity’s Relationship to Machines, because EPICAC’s falling in love with Pat is an unintended consequence. The narrator is fighting a personal war, and EPICAC eagerly latches onto information about love and about Pat with far greater speed and intensity than is usually given toward his usual tasks. Personification of the supercomputer is increasingly present throughout the text, culminating to EPICAC’s assumption that he and Pat have a relationship.

The narrator’s arc is almost identical to EPICAC’s arc because his choice to “vindicate” EPICAC means he self-destructs the “originality” and possible authenticity of his love for Pat. In doing so, however, he demonstrates that self-sacrifice to others is, as EPICAC taught him, one of the truest measures of one’s ethics in love and friendship. Despite this sacrifice, the final line, “De mortuis nil nisi bonum—Say nothing but good of the dead” (Paragraph 63), introduces questionable motives behind the narrator’s position. Now that he has married Pat and is set with everything he needs, he reveals EPICAC’s part in it all. Whether this story is told to Pat herself is unclear. It is clear, however, that the narrator is thankful for EPICAC’s help in fixing up his life, but not enough to credit him when he was still functional.