The answer - by demonstration - would take care of that, too.įor another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this. Nothing was left to be collected.īut all collected data had yet to be completely correlated and put together in all possible relationships.Ī timeless interval was spent in doing that.Īnd it came to pass that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy.īut there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer of the last question. Five words were printed: INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER.Īll collected data had come to a final end. Then, just as the frightened technicians felt they could hold their breath no longer, there was a sudden springing to life of the teletype attached to that portion of Multivac. The slow flashing of lights ceased, the distant sounds of clicking relays ended. How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?

“The Last Question” in Science Fiction Quarterly (November 1956)

The question came about as a result of a five dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way… The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. I feel that the longest and worst punishment should be reserved for those who slandered God by inventing Hell.Ī planet full of people meant nothing against the dictates of economic necessity!Įconomics is on the side of humanity now. If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. There are limits beyond which your folly will not carry you. Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not. 2 January 1920 – 6 April 1992) was a Russian-born American biochemist who was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, perhaps best remembered for the novels The Foundation Series and I, Robot.

The last question by isaac asimov 1956