The Last Question

[Milo]

--
You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I'll tell you
what his 'pinions is.
--Mark Twain, Corn-Pone Opinions
mi...@netcom.com

[Sir Hans]

mi...@netcom.com (Milo) writes:

Duh...?

--
_ _ ____________________...@fwi.uva.nl_
(_ . |_) |_| |\| (_ Tear the mask of peace from God, )
__) | | \ | | (| | | __) _And_hear_the_roar_of_souls_in_hell_--_D._Mims___/

[Milo]

Sorry for the blank posting. "The Last Question" is a short story
by Isaac Asimov. I saw it a long time ago in a collection of his
short stories that I borrowed from the library. I have never been
able to find it since then.

It begins: "The last question was asked for the first time ..."

As soon as humankind had tapped solar energy for all energy needs
one person says, "we have enough energy forever", the other replies,
"well, not forever, the sun will burn out some day." So they
ask Multivac, a powerful computer, "Is there a way to reverse
entropy?" Multivac answers, "There is as yet insufficient data
for a meaningful reply."

This last question is asked many times as the centuries pass
always getting the same answer from ever smaller and more
powerfull computers.

Finally, after the energy in the universe has all degraded to
an even low level and humans have died out, only the computer
(though not in a physical form) remains -- only to answer the
last question.

And finally it does.

[Justin K. Werfel]

The Last Question is among Asimov's most popular stories. You can find
it in a good number of his short story collections, although the only
one that comes to mind right now is _Nine_Tomorrows_ =) ...

-Justin Werfel

[C/D Eskridge]

In article <Uge4BFy00WB95J=m...@andrew.cmu.edu>,

I saw this story as a Planaterium show around 1979 at the
Fels Planetarium in the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.

It was an Asimov story that I didn't recall at the time.

Curt

[ric...@nextwork.rose-hulman.edu]

In article <Uge4BFy00WB95J=m...@andrew.cmu.edu> "Justin K. Werfel"

I also found it in
The Best of Isaac Asimov
The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov
The Best Science Fiction Stories 18(1956), edited by Martin Greenberg and
Issac Asimov

john rickert
ric...@nextwork.rose-hulman.edu

[Carlos A. Olguin R.]

>john rickert
>ric...@nextwork.rose-hulman.edu

Hi Asimov fans!

I found another book which contains that story , the book is "Robot Dreams"
Printed in the U.K. about 1988

--
Carlos A. Olguin Richter
mfa...@malloco.ing.puc.cl //
#include <disclaimer.h> //

[Lewis Stiller]

In article <1993Oct8.1...@tolten.puc.cl>,

Carlos A. Olguin R. <mfa...@ing.puc.cl> wrote:
>ric...@NeXTwork.Rose-Hulman.Edu wrote:
>>In article <Uge4BFy00WB95J=m...@andrew.cmu.edu> "Justin K. Werfel"
>><jw...@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>>> The Last Question is among Asimov's most popular stories. You can find
>>> it in a good number of his short story collections, although the only
>>> one that comes to mind right now is _Nine_Tomorrows_ =) ...
>

I think I'm replying to Justin here, anyway, this has nothing to do
with this topic at all, but the mention of "Nine Tomorrows" does take
me back. I remember reading that when I was a boy still learning to
read without patience for novels, and how totally immersed I'd get in
the stories. Somehow it seemed easier to really love science fiction
before I learned just how science really works. That was even before
we knew how hard it would be even to build a robot to say understand
speech, much less follow the three laws, for example. I probably have
a greater appreciation for the artistry now, but then I found it much
easier to suspend disbelief. Anyway it is a good collection.

--
Lewis Stiller
Dept. of Computer Science, The Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD 21218-2194
email: sti...@cs.jhu.edu