Most interesting was that Ellison managed to make me feel sorry for the torture machine by the end too. He writes "the machine hated us as no sentient creature had ever hated before". Horrific, to think that with AI, we have as much opportunity to create new levels of suffering as of ease. 

Extremely visceral descriptions of pain, fear, awfulness too. Incredible how much of an impression of unending torment it conveys despite being a half-hour read at most.