Isaac Asimov - The Last Question

the last question was asked for the first time half ingest a May 21st 2016 one at a time when humanity first stepped into the light the question came about as a result of a $5 bet over highballs and it happened this way alexander adel and bertram liubov were two of the faithful attendance of multi vac as well as any human beings could they knew what lay behind the cold clicking flashing face miles and miles of face of that giant computer multi FAC was self adjusting and self-correcting it had to be for nothing human could adjust and correct it quickly and offer even adequately enough so Adele and liubov attended the monstrous giant only likely and superficially they fed it Donna they adjusted questions to its needs and they translated the answers that were issued for decades multi vac had helped design the ships and plot the trajectories that enabled man to reach the moon Mars and Venus but past that Earth's poor resources could not support the ship's too much energy was needed for the long trips earth exploited its coal and uranium with increasing efficiency but there was only so much of both but slowly multi vac learned enough to answer deeper questions more fundamentally and on May 14 2016 1 what had been theory became fact the energy of the Sun was stored converted and utilized directly on a planet-wide scale all earth turned off its burning coal its fissioning uranium and flipped the switch that connected all of it to a small station one mile in diameter circling the Earth at half the distance of the moon all earth ran by invisible beams of Sun power seven days had not suffice to dim the glory of it and Adele and lupa finally managed to escape from the public functions and to meet in quiet where no one would think of looking for them in the deserted under chambers where portions of the mighty buried body of multi vac showed they brought a bottle with them and their only concern at the moment was to relax in the company of each other and the bottle it's amazing when you think of it said Adele his broad face had lines a weariness in it and he stirred his drink slowly with a glass rod watching the cubes of ice slurry clumsily above all the energy we could ever use forever and forever and forever huh loop of cocked his head sideways he had a trick of doing that when he wanted to be contrary and he wanted to be contrary now not forever he said oh hell just about forever till the Sun runs down Burt that is not forever all right then billions and billions of years ten billion maybe he satisfied loop off put his fingers through his thinning hair as though to reassure himself that some was still left and he stepped gently at his own drink ten billion years isn't forever while it lasts our time won't it so would the coal in the uranium all right but now we can hook up each individual spaceship to the solar station and it can go to Pluto and back a million times without ever having to worry about fuel you can't do that uncle and uranium ask bulk evac'd we don't believe me I don't have to ask multi think I know that then stop running down what multipacks done for us said adele blazing up it there all right who says it didn't what I say is that the Sun won't last forever we're safe for 10 billion years but then what loop off planted a slightly shaky finger at the other and don't say that we'll switch to another Sun there was silence for a while Adele put his glass to his lips only occasionally a loop of eyes slowly closed they rested then loop of zeiss snapped open your thinking will switch to another Sun when I was is done huh aren't you I'm not thinkin sure you are you're weak on logic that's the trouble with you you're like the guy in the story who was caught in a southern shower and ran to a grove of trees and got under one oh he wasn't worried you see because he figured that when one three got wet through he would just get under another one I get it said Adele don't shout when the Sun is done the other stars will be gone to them light they will not and loop off it all had the beginning in the original cosmic explosion whatever that was and it'll all have an end when all the stars run down some run down faster than the others her the Giants won't last a hundred billion years the Sun will last ten billion years and maybe the dwarfs will last two hundred billion for all the good they are but just give us a trillion years and everything will be dark entropy has to increase to the maximum that's all I know all about entropy said adele standing on his dignity the hell you do i know as much as you then you know everything's got to run down someday it was a Dells turn to be contrary maybe we can build things up again someday he said never why not someday never ask multi vac you ask multi vac I dare you five dollars says it can't be done Adele was just drunk enough to try just sober enough to be able to phrase the necessary symbols and operations into a question which in words might have corresponded to this will mankind one day without the net expenditure of energy be able to restore the Sun to its full youthfulness even after it had died of old age multi vac fell dead and silent the slow flashing of light ceased the distant sounds of clicking relays ended and then just as the frightened technicians felt that they could hold their breath no longer there was a sudden springing to life of the teletype attached to that portion of multi vac five words were printed insufficient data for meaningful answer know that whispered liubov and they left hurriedly Jared Jared Diamond Jared ed 1 & 2 watch the story picture in the visiplate change as the passage through hyperspace was completed and it's non time lapse at once the even powdering of stars gave way to the predominance of a single bright shining disc the size of a marble centered on the viewing screen that's x-23 said jared confidently the little jared deaths both girls had experienced the hyperspace passage for the first time in their lives and were self-conscious over the momentary sensation of inside honest they buried their giggles and chased one another wildly about their mother screaming we've reached x-23 we've reached x-23 we quiet children said Jura dean sharply I assured Jared what is there to be but Shaw as Jared glancing up at the Bulge of the featureless metal just under the ceiling Jared scarcely know a thing about the thick rod of metal except that it was called a micro vac that one asked it questions if one wished but if one did not it still had its task of guiding the ship to a preordered destination of feeding on energies from the various sub galactic power stations of computing the equations for the hyperspatial jumps Jared and his family had only to wait and live in the comfortable residence quarters of the ship someone had once told Jared that the AC at the end of micro vac stood for automatic computer in ancient English but he was on the edge of forgetting even that jared eens eyes were moist as she watched the visiplate i can't help it i feel funny about leaving us why demanded jared we had nothing there we have every single next twenty three we won't be alone he won't be a pioneer there are over a million people on the planet already and then after a reflective pause I tell you it's a lucky thing the computers worked out interstellar travel the way the race is growing I know I know said Jared Dean miserably Jared debt one said promptly Oh microfolk is the best microphone in the world I think so too said Jared hustling her hair it was a nice feeling to have a micro vac of your own and Jared was glad that he was part of his generation and no other and his father's youth the only computers had been tremendous machines taking up a hundred square miles of land there was only one - a planet a planetary a seas they were called and they've been growing in size steadily for a thousand years and then all at once came refinement in place of transistors had come molecular valves so that even the largest planetary a/c could be now put into a space only half the volume of a spaceship Jared felt uplifted as he always did when he thought that his own personal micro vac was many times more complicated than the ancient and primitive multi vac that had first tamed the Sun and almost as complicated as Earth's planetary a/c that had first sold the problem of hyperspatial travel and it made trips to the star as possible so many stars so many planets side Jared Dean I suppose families will be going out to new planets forever the way we are now not forever said Jared with a smile it will all stop someday but not for billions of years even the stars run down you know entropy must increase what's entropy daddy shrilled the Jared debt - entropy a little sweet is just a word which means the amount of running down of the universe everything runs down you know like your walkie-talkie robot remember can't you just put in a new power unit like with my robot well in the universe the stars are the power units and once they're gone there are no more power units Jared at once set up a howl don't let them daddy don't let the stars run down now look what you've done whispered Jared Dean exasperated how was I to know it would frighten them Jared whispered back ask the micro vac wailed Jared dead one - ask him how to turn the stars on again go ahead said Tara Dean it work whiten them dawn Jared shrugged now I'll ask Mike Rebecca don't worry he'll tell us he asked the micro vac adding quickly print the answer Jared cupped the strip of the thin cell you film and said cheerfully see now the micro vac says it'll take care of everything when the time comes so don't worry Tara Dean said and now children it's time for bed we'll be in our new home soon Jared read the words on the cell you film again before destroying it insufficient data for meaningful answer vijay 23 x of l'm f stared into the black depths of the three-dimensional small-scale map of the galaxy and said are we ridiculous i wonder in being so concerned about the matter mq 17 j of micron shook his head I think not you know the galaxy will be filled in five years at the present rate of expansion both seemed in their early 20s both were tall and perfectly formed still subbed Vijay 23x I hesitate to submit a pessimistic report to the Galactic Council I wouldn't consider any other kind of report stir them up a bit Vijay 23 x side space is infinite a hundred billion galaxies are there for the taking a hundred billion is not infinite it's getting less infant at all the time consider 20,000 years ago mankind first solved the problem of utilizing stellar energy and a few centuries later interstellar became possible it took mankind a million years to fill one small world and then only fifteen thousand years to fill the rest of the galaxy and now the population doubles every 10 years VGA 23 X interrupted we can thank immortality for that the Galactic AC has solved many problems for us but is solving the problem of preventing old age and death it has undone all its other solutions yet he wouldn't want to abandon life I suppose not at all snapped MQ 17g a softening it at once - not yet I by no means old enough how old are you 223 and you I'm still under 200 but to get back to my point population doubles every 10 years once this galaxy is filled will have filled another in ten years another 10 years and will fill two more in 10,000 years the entire known universe and then then what vijay 23x sent as a side issue there's a problem of transportation I wonder how many Sun power units it'll take to move galaxies of individuals from one galaxy to the next a very good point already mankind consumes two Sun power units per year most of its wasted after all our own galaxy alone pours out a thousand Sun power units a year and we only use two of those granted but even with a hundred percent efficiency we only stave off the end our energy requirements are going up in a geometric progression even faster than our population will run out of energy even sooner than we run out of galaxies well there may be some way to reverse entropy we ought to ask the Galactic a C V J 23 X was not really serious but MQ 17 J pulled out his AC content from his pocket and placed it on the table before him I've half a mind to he said it's something the human race will have to face someday he stared sombrely at his small AC contact it was only two inches cubed and nothing in itself but it was connected through hyperspace with the great galactic AC that served all mankind MQ 17 J paused to wonder at some day in his immortal life he would get to see the Galactic AC he asked suddenly of his AC contact can entropy ever be reversed VGA 23 X looks startled and said at once oh I say I didn't really mean to have you ask that why not we both know entropy can't be reversed you can't turn smoke and ash back into a tree do you have trees on your world asked M Q 17 J the sound of the galactic a/c startled him into silence its voice came Finland beautiful out of the small AC contact on the desk it said there is insufficient data for a meaningful answer VJ 23 X said C Z Prime's mine spanned the new galaxy with a faint interest in the countless twists of stars that powdered it he had never seen this one before would he ever see them all so many of them each with its load of humanity but a load that was almost a dead weight more and more the real essence of men was to be found out here in space minds not bodies the immortal bodies remained back on the planets in suspension over the eons sometimes they aroused for material activity but that was growing rarer few new individuals were coming into existence but what matter there was little room in the universe for new individuals Z prime was roused out of his reverie upon coming across the wispy tendrils of another mind I am Z prime he said and you I am d sub1 your galaxy or we call it only the galaxy and you we call ours the same all men called our galaxy their galaxy and nothing more true since all galaxies are the same not all galaxies on one particular galaxy the race of man must have originated and Z prime said on which one I cannot say the universal AC would no shall we ask him I am suddenly curious Z Prime's perceptions broadened until the galaxy's themselves shrank and became a new more diffuse powdering on a much larger background so many hundreds of billions of them all with their immortal beings all carrying their load of intelligences with minds that drift its freely through space and yet one of them was unique among them all one of them had in its vague and distant past a period when it was the only galaxy populated by Man Z prime was consumed with curiosity to see this galaxy and he called out universal a see on which galaxy did mankind originate the universal AC heard for on every world and throughout space it had its receptors ready and each receptor led through hyperspace to some unknown point where the universal AC kept itself aloof that they had long since passed Z prime knew when any man had any part of the making of a universal AC each Universal AC designed and constructed its successor in which its own store of dada and individuality would be submerged the universal AC interrupted Z Prime's wandering thoughts not with words but with guidance C Prime's mentality was guided into the dim sea of galaxies and one in particular enlarged into stars a thought came infinitely distant but infinitely clear this is the original galaxy of man but it was the same after all the same as any other and c-prime stifled his disappointment d sub1 whose mind had accompanied the other said suddenly and is one of these stars the original star of man the universal AC said man's original star has gone Nova it is a white dwarf did the men applaud I asked Z Prime startled him without thinking the universal AC said a new world as in such cases was constructed for their physical bodies in time yes of course said C prime but a sense of loss overwhelmed him even so his mind released its hold on the original galaxy of man he never wanted to see it again d sub1 said what is wrong the stars are dying the original star is dead they must all die why not but when all energy is gone our bodies will finally die and you and I with them it will take billions of years I do not wish it to happen even after billions of years Universal AC how may stars be kept from dying and the universal AC answered there is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer Z Prime's thoughts fled back to his own galaxy he gave no further thought to d sub1 whose body might be waiting on a galaxy a trillion light years away or on the star next to Z Prime zone it didn't matter unhappily Z prime began collecting interstellar hydrogen out of which to build a small star of his own if the stars must someday die at least some could yet be built ma'am considered with himself for it away man mentally was one he consisted of a trillion trillion trillion ageless bodies each in its place each resting quiet and incorruptible each cared for by perfect automatons equally incorruptible all the minds of all the bodies freely melted one into the other indistinguishable man said the universe is dying men looked about the dimming galaxies almost all the stars were white dwarves they were fading to the end and new stars had been built of the dust between the stars some by natural processes some by man himself and those were going to white dwarves might yet be crashed together out of the mighty forces so released new stars built but only one star for every thousand white dwarves destroyed and those would come to an end to man said carefully husbanded as directed by the cosmic AC the energy that is left will last for billions of years but even so said man eventually it will all come to an end however it may be husbanded however stretched out the energy once expended is gone and cannot be restored entropy must increase forever to the maximum and said can entropy not be reversed let us ask the cosmic AC the cosmic AC surrounded them but not in space not a fragment of it was in space it was in hyperspace and made of something that was neither matter nor energy man said how my entropy be reversed the cosmic AC said there is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer man said collect additional data the cosmic AC said I will do so I have been doing so for a hundred billion years my predecessors and I have been asked this question many times all the data I have remains insufficient will there come a time when data will be sufficient or is the problem insoluble the cosmic AC said no problem is insoluble man said when will you have enough data to answer the question the cosmic AC said there is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer will you keep working on it asked man the cosmic AC said I will man said we shall wait the stars and galaxies died and snuffed out and space crew black after 10 trillion years of running down one by one man fused with AC each physical body losing its mental identity in a manner that was somehow not a loss but again man's last mind paused before a fusion looking over a space that included nothing but the dregs of one last dark star and nothing besides but incredibly thin matter agitated randomly by the tag ends of heat wearing out asymptotic ly to the absolute zero man said AC is this the end can this chaos not be reversed into the universe once more can that not be done AC said there is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer man's last mind fused and only AC existed and that in hyperspace matter and energy had ended and with its space and time even AC existed only for the sake of the one last question that it had never answered from the time a half-drunken computer technician 10 trillion years before asked the question all other questions have been answered and until this last question was answered ac might not release his own consciousness all collected data had come to a final end nothing was left to be collected but all collected data had yet to be completely correlated and put together in all possible relationships a timeless interval was spent in doing that and it came to pass that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy but there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer to the last question no matter the answer by demonstration would take care of that too and for another timeless interval AC thought how best to do this the consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had once been a universe and brooded over what was now chaos step-by-step it must be done and AC said let there be light and there was light

Channel: undefined

Views: 546,561

Rating: 4.9324374 out of 5

Keywords: Isaac Asimov, The Last Question

Id: ojEq-tTjcc0

Length: 28min 6sec (1686 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 28 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/mcscom]

Yup. Not only is this my favourite short story, but its probably my favourite story.

It amazes me how as soon as we had an inkling of the almost unfathomable longevity of the universe our minds instantly ran to the end of it. And what did we find there? Awe and despair.

[u/ZedsBread]

I love this story, however I think it is also incredibly terrifying once you remember that there is never once any mention of any alien species. There is only Man, the Terran, who colonizes the universe. The thought that perhaps we are the only seed of life in the universe, destined to germinate the whole of it, is very scary, because it illustrates how important this period of time is; the transition period, the crossroads between self-destruction and transcendence. This is make it or break it time.

aaaaaaaaaaa

[u/saucecode]

Definitely one of the better stories I've ever read.

The Last Question

[u/Savannahbobanna1]

The first time I read this story, I got so excited when I finished and ran down to tell my roommates all about it. I got about two sentences in before I realized that there was no way I could give them the TL;DR. I made them read it and then we all sat in whoaoaoahoaoa mode for a good long while. The best.

[u/Spades54]

... ... Oh my god.

[u/MrTizl]

Siri, can we reverse entropy?

"I suppose it's possible."

She seems more optimistic than the AC.

[u/[deleted]]

Amazing. I wish I knew this story sooner.

[u/kyle2143]

This was an awesome short story, I always loved the ending and how mindblowing it is. I think about it often.

[u/[deleted]]

Since I first read this and now every time I'm reminded of it, a chill runs down my spine.