By Isaac Asimov
Humanity asks computers to reverse entropy
Subject
Themes
Across trillions of years of cosmic history, humanity repeatedly poses one fundamental question to increasingly sophisticated computers: can entropy be reversed? From the first solar power stations to the final dissolution of matter itself, this question echoes through time as both a scientific puzzle and an existential prayer.
Across trillions of years of cosmic history, humanity repeatedly poses one fundamental question to increasingly sophisticated computers: can entropy be reversed? From the first solar power stations to the final dissolution of matter itself, this question echoes through time as both a scientific…
Published in 1956, The Last Question represents Isaac Asimov at the height of his powers as a science fiction writer and public intellectual. The story emerged during the Golden Age of Science Fiction, a period when writers explored the implications of rapid technological advancement and humanity's…
The progression of computing technology across cosmic timescales reveals profound questions about the relationship between creator and creation. Beginning with Multivac, a massive computer requiring human attendants and occupying miles of space, the narrative traces technological development through…
The concept of entropy serves as both scientific principle and existential threat throughout the narrative, representing the universe's inevitable progression toward disorder and heat death. From the earliest scenes in 2061 to the final moments beyond time itself, entropy functions as the antagonist…
The narrative traces humanity's evolving relationship with mortality across cosmic timescales, revealing how the achievement of immortality transforms rather than resolves existential anxieties. From the earliest scenes where death remains an accepted reality to the era of achieved physical…
The narrative structure relies on repetition as its central organizing principle, with the same question asked across vastly different contexts and receiving the same answer until the final revelation. This pattern creates both thematic resonance and narrative tension, transforming what might be…
The story's climax deliberately fuses scientific speculation with theological imagery, suggesting that sufficiently advanced understanding of physical law might be indistinguishable from divine power. This synthesis challenges conventional boundaries between secular and sacred, proposing that the…
On May 21, 2061, humanity achieves a transformative breakthrough in energy technology. For the first time, solar power is harnessed directly and efficiently on a planetary scale. A small station circling Earth at half the Moon's distance collects, converts, and distributes solar energy, allowing the…
Generations after Multivac's first encounter with the entropy question, the Jerrodd family experiences hyperspace travel for the first time. Jerrodd, his wife Jerrodine, and their two daughters (Jerrodette I and II) watch as their ship completes its passage through hyperspace, emerging to see planet…
VJ-23X of Lameth and MQ-17J of Nicron, both appearing in their early twenties and perfectly formed, stare into a three-dimensional map of the Galaxy. They face a crisis of success: at current expansion rates, the Galaxy will be filled within five years. VJ-23X wonders whether their concern about…
Zee Prime's mind spans across a new Galaxy, observing with faint interest the countless stars powdering it. He has never seen this particular Galaxy before and wonders whether he will ever see them all. So many exist, each carrying its load of humanity. Yet that load has become almost a dead weight.…
Man considers with himself, for in a way, Man mentally is one. He consists of a trillion trillion trillion ageless bodies, each resting quiet and incorruptible, each cared for by perfect automatons, whilst the minds of all the bodies freely melt one into the other, indistinguishable. Individual…
By Isaac Asimov
Subject
Themes
Across trillions of years of cosmic history, humanity repeatedly poses one fundamental question to increasingly sophisticated computers: can entropy be reversed? From the first solar power stations to the final dissolution of matter itself, this question echoes through time as both a scientific puzzle and an existential prayer.