The Life and Times of Multivac

"The Life and Times of Multivac" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. The story first appeared in the 5 January 1975 issue of The New York Times Magazine, and was reprinted in the collections The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories and The Best of Creative Computing in 1976. It is one of a loosely connected series of stories concerning a fictional supercomputer called Multivac. In terms of tone it bears more resemblance perhaps to The Dead Past than any of the other Multivac stories.

Asimov's original title for the story was "Mathematical Games", but after the story appeared under the new title he decided he liked it. In his commentary on the story in the Bicentennial Man collection, Asimov stated, "More people came up to me over the next few weeks to tell me they had read that story than had ever been the case for any other story I had ever written." Asimov also states his belief that "The Life and Times of Multivac" was the first piece of fiction ever commissioned and published by The New York Times.