Epicac

Poetry is used throughout “EPICAC” as a motif and a symbol helping to explore the story’s question about the difference between men and machines. Poetry stands as the antithesis of “cold” and “mechanical.” When Pat routinely halts the narrator’s advances, she commonly cites the fact that they are both mathematicians as the prevailing reason “why [they] could never be happily married” (Paragraph 10). The narrator tries so often with Pat that eventually, “one night, she didn’t even look up from her work when [he] said it” (Paragraph 12).

Poetry and romance are linked in the story. Pat wants a man who will sweep her off her feet, but she is just stuck working on EPICAC around men who are soldiers, scientists, and/or mathematicians. She wants something more exciting and fulfilling—Pat wants deep, human connection. Poetry is the key to her heart because it stands in stark contrast to the science/mechanical world. The narrator is told he’s not poetic and he lamentingly describes himself that way to EPICAC in Paragraph 22. This moment serves as another example of poetry as the antithesis of “cold,” because up until this point, the narrator has used Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary to give EPICAC definitions of human concepts like “love.”

Following the narrator’s definition of poetry, EPICAC writes the “two-hundred-and-eighty-line poem entitled simply, ‘To Pat’” (Paragraph 24). This poem, along with another entitled “The Kiss,” are the tipping points that give the narrator Pat’s attention. The poems are also the center of the story’s exploration of the difference between men and machines because neither Pat, nor anyone else in the story, ever suspects the poems could be written by EPICAC. The machine is not supposed to be able to create artistically, but the fact that he can and does is part of what also helps the narrator come to see the “humanity” in EPICAC.

Poetry is at the center of EPICAC and the narrator’s last conversation when the computer learns Pat is in love with the narrator. When he says, “She loves me. She wants to marry me,” EPICAC’s first response is, “your poems were better than mine?” (Paragraphs 34 and 35). The narrator’s response “I signed my name to your poems” is followed with “I admitted […] covering up for a painful conscience, I became arrogant” (Paragraph 36). This is the point where the narrator first acknowledges his own emotional relationship with EPICAC and where he can no longer explain for himself or EPICAC what exactly is the difference between humans and machines. EPICAC’s ability to make such moving poetry not only wins Pat’s heart, but also deepens the relationship between him and the narrator because the narrator can no longer perceive EPICAC as a mere machine; EPICAC, it seems is able to be more human than the human.