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Franchise

114 statements
21 feature instances
15 referencing feature instances

Franchise	type	TVTItem
Franchise	label	Franchise
Franchise	page	Franchise
Franchise	comment	First published in IF (August 1955 issue), by Isaac Asimov, this is a Science Fiction Short Story about the power of voting. It was republished in 1985 as a 33 page children's book with illustrations by David Shannon.Norman Muller is chosen, a department store clerk in Indiana. Chosen by the massive computer Multivac to represent the opinions and views of the entire American people in this year's election. Characters provide political commentary, not on partisan politics, but rather on the nature of voting and how it could change with computer simulation software. The story starts when political speculation guesses that Indiana will be representing America's opinions, and ends on Election Day, 4 November 2008.Franchise has been reprinted several times; The First World of If (1957), Earth is Room Enough (1957), Galaxy (issue 55, Italian edition, 1962), Alien Earth And Other Stories (1969), Political Science Fiction An Introductory Reader (1974), Histoires De Demain (1975), Inside Information (1977), Election Day 2084: Science Fiction Stories About the Future of Politics (1984), The Best Science Fiction Of Isaac Asimov (1986), Robot Dreams (1986), The Asimov Chronicles Fifty Years Of Isaac Asimov (1989), and The Complete Stories, Volume 1 (1990).Not to be mistaken for Franchise, an index for works that have been adapted into multiple media formats. See Series Franchise for franchises of literature.
Franchise	fetched	2023-06-20T22:49:29Z
Franchise	parsed	2023-06-20T22:49:29Z
Franchise	processingComment	Dropped link to TheNamesake: Not a Feature - ITEM
Franchise	isPartOf	DBTropes
Franchise / int_2479af9	type	Prescience by Analysis
Franchise / int_2479af9	comment	Prescience by Analysis: Multivac has almost every datapoint it needs to predict how the citizens of America would vote in the election, and selects Muller to fill in the gaps of its predictive abilities, thereby negating the need for anyone to vote at all.
Franchise / int_2479af9	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_2479af9	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_2479af9
Franchise / int_3bc92960	type	Flag Drop
Franchise / int_3bc92960	comment	Flag Drop: Downplayed Trope because bunting is used rather than the national flag. When published as a children's book in 1985, David Shannon's front cover has Muller in the foreground (with three electrodes attached to his head) and a bunting of red, white, and blue as background. The focus of the story is on his part in the American presidential election of 2008, ending on a strongly patriotic note.
Franchise / int_3bc92960	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_3bc92960	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_3bc92960
Franchise / int_4df647d9	type	Billed Above the Title
Franchise / int_4df647d9	comment	Billed Above the Title: When published in IF, Isaac Asimov's name appeared above the title to catch the reader's eye first (and James L Quinn put it first in the magazine). At this point, Dr Asimov had been successfully publishing Science Fiction for over twenty years, so editors were eager to use the Asimov name to sell issues. When published as a children's book in 1985, a yellow box gives three lines of detail; "Isaac Asimov", "Franchise", and "A Creative Classics".
Franchise / int_4df647d9	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_4df647d9	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_4df647d9
Franchise / int_6ca5a8c2	type	Master Computer
Franchise / int_6ca5a8c2	comment	Master Computer: Muller doesn't actually meet with the Multivac, he's taken to a nearby hospital instead to use peripheral devices that communicate with it, so the narration tells us what he's heard of. He's heard that Multivac is half a mile long, and three stories high, that about fifty programmers/engineers are inside it at any one time, day or night. The senior programmer explains that there are too many security precautions to allow Norman to meet Multivac directly.
Franchise / int_6ca5a8c2	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_6ca5a8c2	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_6ca5a8c2
Franchise / int_6de438eb	type	The Everyman
Franchise / int_6de438eb	comment	The Everyman: Every year, Multivac chooses someone to ask apparently random opinion questions. These opinions (and their intensity) are missing data points that Multivac uses to extrapolate the entire election process. The person chosen is the most average example of America that the Multivac can identify for that year.
Franchise / int_6de438eb	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_6de438eb	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_6de438eb
Franchise / int_75f626a5	type	Nostalgia Filter
Franchise / int_75f626a5	comment	Nostalgia Filter: Matthew Hortenweiler is old enough to remember when everyone voted, and is prepared to loudly declaim the current system of voting. One of his complaints is that there is more money spent on campaigns now that the politicians don't know who will be voting for them.
Franchise / int_75f626a5	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_75f626a5	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_75f626a5
Franchise / int_80ed013b	type	The Chooser of the One
Franchise / int_80ed013b	comment	The Chooser of the One: The massive computer, Multivac, chooses the perfectly average Norman Millar to represent the opinions and views of the entire American people in this year's election. Data about his opinions will be used to extrapolate everyone's votes in every city/county of the country.
Franchise / int_80ed013b	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_80ed013b	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_80ed013b
Franchise / int_8cb844c6	type	Mr. Exposition
Franchise / int_8cb844c6	comment	Mr. Exposition: Matthew Hortenweiler, Muller's father-in-law, provides most of the explanation for how voting has changed between the "now" of publication and the near-future changes. Although a crotchety old man, he's providing some of the details to his Constantly Curious granddaughter because she's excited about this year's election.
Franchise / int_8cb844c6	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_8cb844c6	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_8cb844c6
Franchise / int_8db4988a	type	Unusual User Interface
Franchise / int_8db4988a	comment	Unusual User Interface: When Muller is being asked questions by Multivac, the questions pop out as punch card tape. The tape is then fed through another machine that converts the holes into English. Muller's responses are written down, fed into the second machine (which spits out punch card tape), and then sent back to Multivac. While this is going on, Muller is also hooked up to various cords that monitor his blood pressure, heartbeat, sweat, and brain-wave activity. It takes three computer programmers/engineers to operate all of this, which is merely a peripheral, not Multivac itself. Going to the bathroom is said to be uncomfortable.
Franchise / int_8db4988a	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_8db4988a	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_8db4988a
Franchise / int_97dc1c6d	type	Outsourcing Fate
Franchise / int_97dc1c6d	comment	Outsourcing Fate: Elections are done, not by asking everyone one question ("who are you voting for?"), but by asking one person a whole bunch of questions (mostly unrelated to the election itself) then inputting all the answers into a computer and calculating the election results from it. Multivac is so powerful that it can extrapolate national trends from a single person, but it needed that one "everyman"'s opinions to base its calculations on.
Franchise / int_97dc1c6d	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_97dc1c6d	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_97dc1c6d
Franchise / int_97ee3a58	type	Vicariously Ambitious
Franchise / int_97ee3a58	comment	Vicariously Ambitious: When Mr Muller tries to say he'll pretend to be sick, Mrs Muller angrily tells him what he will do instead. At the very least, after this event, he's going to be promoted to branch manager with a big fat pension plan.
Franchise / int_97ee3a58	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_97ee3a58	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_97ee3a58
Franchise / int_a1d753b6	type	Featureless Plane of Disembodied Dialogue
Franchise / int_a1d753b6	comment	Featureless Plane of Disembodied Dialogue: Most of the main characters get a line or two of description when they're introduced, but rooms are completely bare of details unless a character interacts with the furniture.
Franchise / int_a1d753b6	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_a1d753b6	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_a1d753b6
Franchise / int_a3049ac6	type	The Chosen Zero
Franchise / int_a3049ac6	comment	The Chosen Zero: Norman Muller, a milquetoast department store clerk in Indiana, is chosen by the massive computer Multivac to represent the opinions and views of the entire American people in this year's election. If he was exceptional in any way, he wouldn't have been chosen, although his wife plans to make him exceptional now that he's cast the deciding vote for this year's presidential election.
Franchise / int_a3049ac6	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_a3049ac6	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_a3049ac6
Franchise / int_a46eb25d	type	Election Day Episode
Franchise / int_a46eb25d	comment	Election Day Episode: America is about to hold another presidential election, but since the creation of Multivac, elections are a bit different. In an election year, there's only one person voting, and they don't know who they are until just before the Election Day (to minimize the influence from political figures). They don't even vote for candidates directly, instead answering Multivac's questions about minutia such as "What did you think of the price of milk last year?"
Franchise / int_a46eb25d	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_a46eb25d	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_a46eb25d
Franchise / int_ab5eea65	type	Dramatic Irony
Franchise / int_ab5eea65	comment	Dramatic Irony: The story ends with Muller believing his answers are an expression of a public, political vote. Readers, on the other hand, are expected to notice that Muller is never asked a question about political platforms or political candidates. The story is a Satire on the idea of computer programs being used to model elections.
Franchise / int_ab5eea65	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_ab5eea65	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_ab5eea65
Franchise / int_b3a49cdb	type	Satire
Franchise / int_b3a49cdb	comment	Satire: Dr Asimov explores the idea of computer programs that predict voting habits based on broad swaths of information. The story itself ends on a bit of irony; Muller sees himself as being the expression of open and political voting, while the reader is expected to notice that Muller is never asked a question about political platforms or political candidates.
Franchise / int_b3a49cdb	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_b3a49cdb	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_b3a49cdb
Franchise / int_cbe32f62	type	Decided by One Vote
Franchise / int_cbe32f62	comment	Decided by One Vote: Multivac is able to select one single individual that is representative of the entire country. He doesn't get to 'vote' so much as he's subjected to a lengthy questioning on assorted electoral and other issues (one voter was, among other things, grilled at length about his feeling on the current price of eggs), which together with existing data on demographics and political opinion is used to calculate what everyone would have voted. (In other words, when you hear about "the man in the street", or "the voice of the people"... Multivac picks one person TO BE that man/voice.)
Franchise / int_cbe32f62	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_cbe32f62	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_cbe32f62
Franchise / int_d0f0a80d	type	One-Word Title
Franchise / int_d0f0a80d	comment	One-Word Title: This story is about voting, one of the meanings of Franchise.
Franchise / int_d0f0a80d	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_d0f0a80d	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_d0f0a80d
Franchise / int_ecf4f7ce	type	Constantly Curious
Franchise / int_ecf4f7ce	comment	Constantly Curious: Linda Muller, Norman's daughter, is more excited than curious, but this excitement feeds into curiosity and she asks plenty of questions, mostly about the implications of daddy going to vote.
Franchise / int_ecf4f7ce	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_ecf4f7ce	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_ecf4f7ce
Franchise / int_f32d85ab	type	20 Minutes into the Future
Franchise / int_f32d85ab	comment	20 Minutes into the Future: The introduction of Multivac is really the only bit of technology added to 1950s culture/technology. The story is about Multivac being used to "streamline" elections by asking one citizen their opinions on current economics and extrapolating how the population would vote from that.
Franchise / int_f32d85ab	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_f32d85ab	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_f32d85ab
Franchise / int_name	type	ItemName
Franchise / int_name	comment
Franchise / int_name	featureApplicability	1.0
Franchise / int_name	featureConfidence	1.0
Franchise	hasFeature	Franchise / int_name
Franchise / int_name	itemName	Franchise

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Franchise	hasFeature	American Literature (E to I) / int_6f775c30
Franchise	hasFeature	Billed Above the Title / int_6f775c30
Franchise	hasFeature	Children's Literature / int_6f775c30
Franchise	hasFeature	Decided by One Vote / int_6f775c30
Franchise	hasFeature	Dramatic Irony / int_6f775c30
Franchise	hasFeature	Election Day Episode / int_6f775c30
Franchise	hasFeature	Featureless Plane of Disembodied Dialogue / int_6f775c30
Franchise	hasFeature	Master Computer / int_6f775c30
Franchise	hasFeature	Prescience by Analysis / int_6f775c30
Franchise	hasFeature	Robot and A.I. Works / int_6f775c30
Franchise	hasFeature	Satire / int_6f775c30
Franchise	hasFeature	The Chooser of the One / int_6f775c30
Franchise	hasFeature	20 Minutes into the Future / int_6f775c30
Franchise	hasFeature	Unusual User Interface / int_6f775c30
franchise	sameAs	Franchise

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