Why did the Ring betray Isildur?

[Olmer]

Originally Posted by Jon S.

Personally, I believe the Ring operated akin to a computer program as opposed to possessing sentience but I understand others feel differently.

Totally agree with you. It was also my thinking that the ring was a very crafty
device with complicated programming, but in no way with presence of sentience.
You can’t even compare it to a dog, because dogs are having some intellect. The Ring does not.
If you will look on most obvious abilities of the Ring, it will be:
1. to attract a potential ring-bearer ( Beats me, but I don't see the clewer reason in making a such creative way for your own destruction!)
2. to dispatch the whereabout of it to the Dark Forces.
3. to suck the life force out of the ring - bearer (Gollum, Bilbo, Frodo) turning him into the shell without his own will.
4. to establish mental connection between Sauron and the ring-bearer.
We have none evidence about this fabled magic power of the Ring, which gives the wielder “to rule them all�. Even the maker and owner himself has been overtaken by the plain mortal without any magic’s enhancement.
Judging by abovementioned characteristic, one could say that the Ring is a some kind of powerful computerized bio-magnetic transmitter, probably, working on couple miligramms of uranium (this explains the exhaustion of the bearers). Nothing magical, just different technology.

The whole book was written as a perception of things from hobbits point of view, and what for them looked like magic, for more advance race, as Elves, was just natural way of life . Similar to the perception on our use of mobil phone by people from a few cenuries ago.

By the way. Thanks for the link. Most interesting. Just need to find the time to read it all.
And welcome to the Moot! Hang around!