"The Cosmic Computer" is a sci-fi novel by H. Beam Piper, published in 1963. Conn Maxwell, our hero, is returning from Terra to his poverty-stricken home planet of Poictesme, a.k.a "The Junkyard Planet", with news of the potential whereabouts of Merlin, a military super-computer said to have been dumped there after the last war. The people of Poictesme hope to find the super-computer, perhaps their only hope out of poverty. Will everything go according to plan and wishes, though?