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readingwhilemommying 's review for:
The Last Question
by Isaac Asimov
What a fascinating story! Asminov himself considered this the best story he had written and I can see why.
In this tale, we get six different histories that begin on May 21, 2061. In that first history, two men, slightly drunk, share that Earth finally figured out how to use the energy of the sun to power everything, no coal or uranium needed. They go on to ask Multivac, Earth’s main computer, the question, “When will entropy end?” Meaning when will the heat energy of the sun/stars that runs the universe finally die out for good? No more sun, no more stars, no energy at all. They get the answer: INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER. As humans and Multivac evolve in the next histories, things change but that answer continues to get asked and the answer is always the same.
How Asminov imagines humans and the computer evolving over time is pretty neat. First humans are bodies living on Earth until they’re eventually consciousnesses that exist independent of their actual bodies. By the end, Multivac has evolved into AC, the only computer on Earth. At that point, all human consciousnesses have merged with AC to create one collective being that is the only thing left when space and time have ended. Now, with all the data finally collected since nothing else exists, AC does an analysis and is able to answer how to “restart” life. With no one left to tell the answer to, AC “shows” it instead. “Let there be light.”
This intriguing mix of science and theology poses a compelling idea: That we are both the created and the creator. It also prescribes to the idea that life--in this case the life of life itself--is cyclical. I love how Asminov thought about this. Not only did he, like the best sci-fi writers of his generation, predict some futuristic ideas that have actually come to pass, he gave them a profundity that makes this story both entertaining and enlightening. I also love the idea that the beliefs of evolution and creation can coexist and, in a way, work together to create the world. Read this one! It’s really good.
In this tale, we get six different histories that begin on May 21, 2061. In that first history, two men, slightly drunk, share that Earth finally figured out how to use the energy of the sun to power everything, no coal or uranium needed. They go on to ask Multivac, Earth’s main computer, the question, “When will entropy end?” Meaning when will the heat energy of the sun/stars that runs the universe finally die out for good? No more sun, no more stars, no energy at all. They get the answer: INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER. As humans and Multivac evolve in the next histories, things change but that answer continues to get asked and the answer is always the same.
How Asminov imagines humans and the computer evolving over time is pretty neat. First humans are bodies living on Earth until they’re eventually consciousnesses that exist independent of their actual bodies. By the end, Multivac has evolved into AC, the only computer on Earth. At that point, all human consciousnesses have merged with AC to create one collective being that is the only thing left when space and time have ended. Now, with all the data finally collected since nothing else exists, AC does an analysis and is able to answer how to “restart” life. With no one left to tell the answer to, AC “shows” it instead. “Let there be light.”
This intriguing mix of science and theology poses a compelling idea: That we are both the created and the creator. It also prescribes to the idea that life--in this case the life of life itself--is cyclical. I love how Asminov thought about this. Not only did he, like the best sci-fi writers of his generation, predict some futuristic ideas that have actually come to pass, he gave them a profundity that makes this story both entertaining and enlightening. I also love the idea that the beliefs of evolution and creation can coexist and, in a way, work together to create the world. Read this one! It’s really good.