One of my favorite short stories

[Nick Rubashov]

The Last Question, by Isaac Asimov is a really great short sci-fi story that I though I'd post for those who have never read it. The link to the story below starts off with a little history of the short read which makes The Last Question even that much more interesting. It might very well be the best 15 minutes of your day. I think Asimov's works are a great example of what a short story is able to accomplish. Check it out and tell me what you think...

http://filer.case.edu/dts8/thelastq.htm

[AuntShecky]

Thank you for informing us about this short story.
After just having finished reading it, I have more questions
than answers! A few comments:
1. What separates a "great" SF writer from a merely good one is similar to what makes a work a "classic." That means that the work is true for all ages and cultures. Even
if the work is inextricably imbedded in a particular place and time -- say, "A Tale of Two Cities," we can learn much about the world and ourselves even a century or two later.
The scope of this short story sweeps over trillions (!) of years, yet the issues raised are universal.
2. When I saw that Asimov's short story had been written
in 1956, I was astonished. The starting point, the premise,
the world's running out of energy, and later in the story, "room," are problems with which the world is facing fifty years later. That Asimov was able to "see" these problems coming marks him as a true "visionary." Asimov may have been the first to cast the computer as a "Deus ex machina."
I did notice that in the story the "AC" get larger and larger--planet-sized, galaxy-sized! Asimov wrote this story in the age of Univac, when computers took up entire rooms, so I do not fault him -- it was, after all 1956 -- for not envisioning the trend toward nanotechnology and micro-computers. In an interview shortly before his death, Asimov said that "real" science is more visionary than science fiction, in the context of the first moon landing in 1969. He said that science fiction authors had been able to
imagine television, and of course even early authors like H.G.Wells saw man one day landing on the moon, BUT Asimov said, noone had ever imagined that people all over
the world would see man land on the moon -- by watching the event on television!
3. The human brain -- mine, at least --cannot easily wrap itself around entities that are very small (sub-nuclear particles, say) or very large (the vastness of the universe, an idea of "eternity," the possible endlessness of Time.)
4. Yet for the past century at least physicists have pondered the notion of "entrophy," how the Universe is running down -- and some, such as Hawking in his Brief History of Time suggests that the "Big Bang" could possibly be more than a one-time event or a "singularity." That even if the Universe finishes expanding and then implodes in on itself, there might be another "Big Bang" and that the cosmos may be -- forgive the expression-- born again. Which the story seems to suggest. Asimov's an optimist, rare among SF writers.
5. The idea that I appreciate the most about Asimov's story is its understanding of the human condition -- our perpetual fascination with immortality (not merely for
individual souls but also for the continuation of the human species.) Even more than that is the human predilection to
"wonder," to ponder what may happen in the future, to ask
"What if ----?" Since the first philosopher walked the sandy earth of Greece, we have been asking "The Last Question."
Sorry that this response was so lengthy! Thanks again for
posting it.
Auntie

[Nick Rubashov]

You bring up some great comments AuntShecky, I was thinking some of the same things when I read the story. Mostly about Sci-Fi being considered classic literature, Asimov really wrote something that can be passed down generations and still have the same effect on the reader. I also loved how the story brings to light the constant human struggle to survive. Even at the end of the story, when man is "immortal", humans are still attempting to go even further, to reverse entropy completely in order for man to live infinitely.

[AimusSage]

How did I miss this thread? Asimov, afterall is my favourite author, and this short story perfectly illustrates his genius.