"The Last Question"

Author	Isaac Asimov
Country	USA
Language	English
Series	Multivac
Genre(s)	science fiction short story
Published in	Science Fiction Quarterly
Publisher	Columbia Publications
Media type	Magazine
Publication date	November 1956
Preceded by	Someday
Followed by	Jokester

The Last Question is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It first appeared in the November 1956 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly and was reprinted in the collections Nine Tomorrows (1959), The Best of Isaac Asimov (1973) and Robot Dreams (1986), as well as the retrospective Opus 100 (1969). It is one of a loosely connected series of stories concerning a fictional computer called Multivac. Isaac Asimov (January 2?, 1920? – April 6, 1992, IPA: , originally Исаак Озимов but now transcribed into Russian as Айзек Азимов) was a Russian-born American author and professor of biochemistry, a highly successful and exceptionally prolific writer best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Multivac is the name of a fictional computer in many stories by Isaac Asimov from 1955 to 1975. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... This article is in need of attention. ... Someday is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. ... Jokester is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... This article is in need of attention. ... Isaac Asimov (January 2?, 1920? – April 6, 1992, IPA: , originally Исаак Озимов but now transcribed into Russian as Айзек Азимов) was a Russian-born American author and professor of biochemistry, a highly successful and exceptionally prolific writer best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. ... Nine Tomorrows is a collection of nine short stories and two pieces of comic verse by Isaac Asimov. ... The Best of Isaac Asimov, published in 1973, is a collection of 12 short stories by Isaac Asimov, chosen by Asimov himself. ... Robot Dreams (1986) is a collection of Isaac Asimovs short stories, intended largely to show a series of Asimov robot-inspired drawings by Ralph McQuarrie. ... Opus 100 is Isaac Asimovs one hundredth book. ... A BlueGene supercomputer cabinet. ... Multivac is the name of a fictional computer in many stories by Isaac Asimov from 1955 to 1975. ...

History

In conceiving Multivac, Asimov was extrapolating the trend towards centralization that characterised computation technology planning in the 1950s to an ultimate centrally managed global computer. Asimov considered this story to be the best he wrote, placing it just higher than "The Ugly Little Boy" and "The Bicentennial Man." After seeing a planetarium adaptation, Asimov "privately" concluded that this story was his best science fiction yet written. "The Last Question" ranks with the other stories and "Nightfall" as one of Asimov's best-known and most acclaimed short stories. The Ugly Little Boy is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. ... The Bicentennial Man is a novella in the Robot Series by Isaac Asimov. ... // A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. ... Nightfall (1990), a novel which Robert Silverberg produced by expanding and updating Asimovs original story. ...

The story was adapted for the Strasenburgh Planetarium in Rochester, New York in 1969, under the direction of Ian C. McLennan, although it was first adapted for the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University in 1966, as Asimov wrote in his autobiography In Joy Still Felt. The Abrams Planetarium show is voiced by Leonard Nimoy. The Strasenburgh Planetarium is located in the city of Rochester, NY. This is a Stub for further updating. ... Nickname: Motto: Rochester: Made for Living Location of Rochester in New York State Country United States State New York County Monroe Government  - Mayor Robert Duffy Area  - City  37. ... Michigan State University (MSU) is a co-educational public research university in East Lansing, Michigan USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act. ... In Joy Still Felt is the second part of Isaac Asimovs biography, the first being In Memory Yet Green. ... Leonard Simon Nimoy (born March 26, 1931) is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. ...

A reading of the story can also be periodically heard on BBC 7 radio. The most recent was Saturday the 10th of March 2007.

Synopsis

This particular story deals with the development of a computer called Multivac and its relationship with humanity through the course of seven historic settings. The first is set in the year 2061. In each of the first six scenes a character presents the computer with a question, namely as to how the threat to worthwhile continued human existence posed by heat death can be averted. As the characters in the story recognize, the question is equivalent to: "Can the second law of thermodynamics, used in the story as entropy, be reversed?" In each case the computer finds itself unable to reply due to "insufficient data for a meaningful answer". Humanity refers to the human race or mankind as a whole, to that which is characteristically human, or to that which distinguishes human beings from other animals or from other animal species primal nature. ... The heat death is a possible final state of the universe, in which it has reached maximum entropy. ... The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy. ... Ice melting - classic example of entropy increasing[1] described in 1862 by Rudolf Clausius as an increase in the disgregation of the molecules of the body of ice. ...

In the last scenes, the god-like descendants of humanity watch the universe finally approach the state of heat death and ask the Cosmic AC, Multivac's descendant, the question one last time before it merges with "Man." Cosmic AC is still unable to answer, but continues to ponder the question after space and time cease to exist. Eventually the Cosmic AC discovers the answer, but has nobody to report it to; the universe is already dead. It therefore decides to show the answer by demonstrating the reversal of entropy, creating the universe anew; the story ends with AC's pronouncement, "LET THERE BE LIGHT!" And there was light—" The heat death is a possible final state of the universe, in which it has reached maximum entropy. ... Let there be light is a common English translation of the Latin phrase fiat lux, which describes the creation of light by God near the beginning of Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. ...

Motifs

The Number Seven

There are seven days between May 14th, when Multivac uses light to solve Earth's energy crisis, and May 21st, when the last question is first asked. There are also seven parts to the story, in which man and the Automatic Computer system each assume six different states. The seventh part to the story depicts AC exists alone in the entropy filled universe. This bears an obvious resemblence to the bible story of Genesis in which God creates the world in six days and rests on the seventh.

See also

• Technological singularity

When plotted on a logarithmic graph, 15 separate lists of paradigm shifts for key events in human history show an exponential trend. ...

External links

• Review of The Last Question

Nine Tomorrows is a collection of nine short stories and two pieces of comic verse by Isaac Asimov. ... Isaac Asimov (January 2?, 1920? – April 6, 1992, IPA: , originally Исаак Озимов but now transcribed into Russian as Айзек Азимов) was a Russian-born American author and professor of biochemistry, a highly successful and exceptionally prolific writer best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. ... I Just Make Them Up, See! is a comic poem by Isaac Asimov written in 1957. ... Profession is a short story by Isaac Asimov. ... The Feeling of Power is a 1958 Isaac Asimov short story that appeared in his collection Nine Tomorrows. ... The Dying Night was a 1956 short story by Isaac Asimov, first published in Fantasy And Science Fiction in July 1956, and originally collected in Nine Tomorrows. ... Im in Marsport Without Hilda is a short story by Isaac Asimov. ... The Gentle Vultures is a 1957 Isaac Asimov short story that appeared in his collection Nine Tomorrows. ... All the Troubles of the World is a science fiction short story written by Isaac Asimov. ... Spell My Name with an S is a short story by Isaac Asimov. ... The Ugly Little Boy is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. ...

Opus 100 is Isaac Asimovs one hundredth book. ... The Feeling of Power is a 1958 Isaac Asimov short story that appeared in his collection Nine Tomorrows. ... Thiotimoline is a fictitious chemical compound conceived by science fiction author Isaac Asimov and described in a spoof scientific paper entitled The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline in 1948. ...