The third one is called The Last Answer. It is also written by Isaac Asimov. It helps me understand a bit of the nature of growing the quality of my. The Last Answer A short follow up to The Last Question by Asimov.
'The Last Question' | |
---|---|
Author | Isaac Asimov |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Series | Multivac |
Genre(s) | Science fiction |
Publication type | Periodical |
Publisher | Columbia Publications |
Media type | Print (Magazine, Hardback & Paperback) |
Publication date | November 1956 |
Preceded by | 'Someday' |
Followed by | 'Jokester' |
'The Last Question' is a science fictionshort story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It first appeared in the November 1956 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly and was anthologized in the collections Nine Tomorrows (1959), The Best of Isaac Asimov (1973), Robot Dreams (1986), The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov (1986), the retrospective Opus 100 (1969), and in Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Vol. 1 (1990). It was Asimov's favorite short story of his own authorship,[1][2] and is one of a loosely connected series of stories concerning a fictional computer called Multivac. The story overlaps science fiction, theology, and philosophy.
History[edit]
In conceiving Multivac, Asimov was extrapolating the trend towards centralization that characterized computation technology planning in the 1950s to an ultimate centrally managed global computer. After seeing a planetarium adaptation of his work, Asimov 'privately' concluded that this story was his best science fiction yet written; he placed it just higher than 'The Ugly Little Boy' (September 1958) and 'The Bicentennial Man' (1976).[3][4]
'The Last Question' ranks with 'Nightfall' (1941) as one of Asimov's best-known and most acclaimed short stories. He wrote in 1973:[5]
Why is it my favorite? For one thing I got the idea all at once and didn't have to fiddle with it; and I wrote it in white-heat and scarcely had to change a word. This sort of thing endears any story to any writer.
Then, too, it has had the strangest effect on my readers. Frequently someone writes to ask me if I can give them the name of a story, which they think I may have written, and tell them where to find it. They don't remember the title but when they describe the story it is invariably 'The Last Question'. This has reached the point where I recently received a long-distance phone call from a desperate man who began, 'Dr. Asimov, there's a story I think you wrote, whose title I can't remember—' at which point I interrupted to tell him it was 'The Last Question' and when I described the plot it proved to be indeed the story he was after. I left him convinced I could read minds at a distance of a thousand miles.
Plot summary[edit]
The story deals with the development of a series of computers called Multivac and their relationships with humanity through the courses of seven historic settings, beginning in 2061. In each of the first six scenes a different character presents the computer with the same question; namely, how the threat to human existence posed by the heat death of the universe can be averted. The question was: 'How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?' This is equivalent to asking: 'Can the workings of the second law of thermodynamics (used in the story as the increase of the entropy of the universe) be reversed?' Multivac's only response after much 'thinking' is: 'INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER.'
The story jumps forward in time into later eras of human and scientific development. In each of these eras someone decides to ask the ultimate 'last question' regarding the reversal and decrease of entropy. Each time, in each new era, Multivac's descendant is asked this question, and finds itself unable to solve the problem. Each time all it can answer is an (increasingly sophisticated, linguistically): 'THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.'
In the last scene, the god-like descendant of humanity (the unified mental process of over a trillion, trillion, trillion humans that have spread throughout the universe) watches the stars flicker out, one by one, as matter and energy ends, and with it, space and time. Humanity asks AC, Multivac's ultimate descendant, which exists in hyperspace beyond the bounds of gravity or time, the entropy question one last time, before the last of humanity merges with AC and disappears. AC is still unable to answer, but continues to ponder the question even after space and time cease to exist. AC ultimately realizes that it has not yet combined all of its available data in every possible combination, and thus begins the arduous process of rearranging and combining every last bit of information it has gained throughout the eons and through its fusion with humanity. Eventually AC discovers the answer, but has nobody to report it to; the universe is already dead. It therefore decides to answer by demonstration, since that will also create someone to give the answer to. The story ends with AC's pronouncement,
And AC said: 'LET THERE BE LIGHT!' And there was light--[6]
Dramatic adaptations[edit]
- Planetarium shows
- 'The Last Question' was first adapted for the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University (in 1966), featuring the voice of Leonard Nimoy, as Asimov wrote in his autobiography In Joy Still Felt (1980).
- It was adapted for the Strasenburgh Planetarium in Rochester, New York (in 1969), under the direction of Ian C. McLennan.
- It was adapted for the Edmonton Space Sciences Centre in Edmonton, Alberta (early 1970s), under the direction of John Hault.
It subsequently played, as well, at the:
- Fels Planetarium of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 1973[7][8]
- Planetarium of the Reading School District in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1974[8]
- Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh in 1974[9]
- Vanderbilt Planetarium in Centerport New York, in 1978,[10] read by singer-songwriter and Long Island resident Harry Chapin.
- Hansen Planetarium in Salt Lake City, Utah (in 1980[11] and 1989[12])
- Morrison Planetarium in San Francisco, California (in the early 1980s)[when?][citation needed]
- A reading of the story was played on BBC Radio 7 in 2008 and 2009.[13]
See also[edit]
- Technological singularity – Hypothesis of an eventual runaway technological growth
- 'The Last Answer' – Science-fiction short story by Isaac Asimov
- Transhumanism – Philosophical movement
References[edit]
- ^'FAQ'. AsimovOnline.com. Retrieved January 2, 2010.
- ^Asimov, Isaac (1994). I, Asimov: A Memoir. United States: Bantam. p. 250. ISBN055356997X.
- ^I. Asimov: A Memoir pp. 250-251
- ^Asimov, I. In Joy Still Felt Avon (1980) pp. 601-602
- ^Asimov, Isaac (1973). 'Introduction'. The Best of Isaac Asimov. Sphere Books. pp. ix-xiv. ISBN0-385-05078-X. LCCN74-2863.
- ^Asimov, Isaac (November 1956). 'The Last Question'. Science Fiction Quarterly.
- ^'Untitled briefs'. The Philadelphia Inquirer. 2 September 1973. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
- ^ abWalsh, John F. (30 June 1974). '`The Last Question' appeals to viewers at planetarium'. Reading Eagle. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
- ^Oles, Paul (July 18, 1974). 'The Pittsburgh Press'. Viewing the Stars. The Pittsburgh Press, 13 Jul 1974, Page 17. p. 17.
- ^Times, Special To The New York (1978-07-09). 'ON THE ISLE'. The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
- ^'Planetarium presents 'The Last Question''. Deseret News. January 28, 1980. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ^'Planetarium asks sci-fi `star' to update tale'. Deseret News. May 30, 1989. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
- ^'BBC Radio 7 - Isaac Asimov - The Last Question'. Retrieved 14 Aug 2015.
External links[edit]
- The Last Question title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- 'The Last Question' on the Internet Archive
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Last_Question&oldid=931249893'
'The Last Answer' is a science fictionshort story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the January 1980 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact,[1] and reprinted in the collections The Winds of Change and Other Stories (1983), The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov (1986), and Robot Dreams (1986).
Plot summary[edit]
In the story, an atheist physicist, Murray Templeton, dies of a heart attack and is greeted by a being of supposedly infinite knowledge. This being, referred to as the Voice, tells the physicist the nature of his life after death, as a nexus of electromagnetic forces. The Voice concludes that, while by all human ideas he most resembles God, he is contrary to any human conception of the being. The Voice informs him that all of the Universe is a creation of the Voice, the purpose of which was to result in intelligent life which, after death, the Voice could cull for his own purposes—to wit, Templeton, like all the others, is to think, for all eternity, so as to amuse him. Conversing with the Voice, Templeton learns that the Voice desires original thoughts by which to please His curiosity, but surrenders that yes, in fact, if He so desired, the Voice could happen upon those thoughts himself, of his own effort.
The physicist is appalled by the idea of thinking and discovering for no reason but to amuse a being capable of easily out-thinking him with a bit of effort. Templeton decides, therefore, to direct his thoughts towards spiting the Voice, whom he regards as a capricious entity, by destroying himself. The Voice dissuades him by pointing out it is easily within His power to reconstitute Templeton's disembodied form with that method of suicide, whatever it may be, disabled. Through further inquiry, Templeton discovers that the Voice (in a classic counterargument to the logical regression of the First Cause argument for the existence of god) has no knowledge of his own creation. Templeton realizes that this, in turn, suggests he has no knowledge of his own destruction, and concludes that the only vengeance for this tyranny is also the ultimate vengeance, and resolves to destroy the Voice.
At this epiphany and decision, the Voice reflects satisfaction, thinking that Templeton reached this conclusion rather faster than most of the countless beings currently trapped in the same condition, implying that the one thing the Voice truly wishes to learn from his thralls is the method by which he can be destroyed.
Reception[edit]
Paul J. Nahin has described 'The Last Answer' as 'one of the best stories [Asimov] ever wrote', and posited that it 'illustrates [Asimov's] personal beliefs (and even hopes) about God and the hereafter'; however, Nahin states that he is 'not convinced (...) that Asimov made his case logically', arguing that — given infinite time — the Voice should be able to do, or think of anything, that Templeton does.[2]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^'The Locus Index to Science Fiction: 1984-1998 Stories, Listed by Author: Isaac Asimov'. Locus Magazine.
- ^Holy Sci-Fi!: Where Science Fiction and Religion Intersect, by Paul J. Nahin; published 2014 by Springer Science+Business Media
External links[edit]
- The Last Answer title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Last_Answer&oldid=885152214'