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001 26168
003 UtSlPG
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006 m
007 cr n
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040 _aUtSlPG
041 7 _aen
_2iso639-1
050 4 _aPS
100 1 _aSlesar, Henry,
_d1927-2002
245 1 4 _aThe Success Machine
264 1 _aSalt Lake City, UT :
_bProject Gutenberg,
_c2008
300 _a1 online resource :
_bmultiple file formats
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
490 1 _aProduced from Amazing Science Fiction Stories January 1960.
500 _aRelease date is 2008-08-01
508 _aProduced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
520 _a"The Success Machine" by Henry Slesar is a satirical science fiction novella written during the late 1950s. It presents a futuristic corporate environment centered around a machine called the Personnelovac, designed to evaluate employees and streamline the hiring and firing process. The main topic of the book explores the consequences of over-reliance on technology and the effects of mechanical decision-making on human resources. The story follows Ralph Colihan, a personnel manager at General Products, as he grapples with the unexpected and brutal efficiency of the Personnelovac, which often produces "pink cards" recommending employee dismissals based on its cold, analytical results. As the number of firings escalates, Colihan begins to question the machine's infallibility and the implications of its lack of human touch. The tension builds as he worries about becoming the machine's next victim. Ultimately, the story culminates in a poignant revelation about the dangers of relying solely on mechanistic evaluations that fail to account for human nuances, leading to Colihan's eventual dismissal as he becomes a casualty of the very system he has operated within. Through humor and irony, Slesar critiques the depersonalization of corporate culture and the inherent flaws of allowing machines to dictate human fates. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
534 _nOriginal publication data not identified
653 _aScience fiction, American
830 0 _aProduced from Amazing Science Fiction Stories January 1960.
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26168
999 _c67169
_d67169