January 23, 2006

Isaac Asimov's The Last Question.
This is by far my favorite story of all those I have written. After all, I undertook to tell several trillion years of human history in the space of a short story and I leave it to you as to how well I succeeded.
posted by tracicle 18 years ago
  • It took just half of the first sentence for me to recall this story. That wasn't the first time he used that kind of ending. I know he did it in Fantastic Voyage II (which was much better than the first one). Personally, I think Nightfall is the greatest story he wrote, and quite possibly the greatest anyone has written. And although the novellization of Nightfall totally changed the moral/point, it was also a damn good story. Multivac reminds me of Google. Or rather, Google reminds me of Multivac
  • The way this is shaping up ~ it's a multiverse not a universe. There's an infinite number of universes and whatever humanity is eventually, if we're still around, will move to a new universe ( or possibly, create a situation where we go back to the universe we're in to a time when it was nice and warm ~ sort of " let's do the time-warp again " on a cosmic scale ) Wooo !
  • Good post! I had forgotten that story....one of my favorites from long, long ago. however, thanks to Cardinio I shall have the song in my head all day, will be unproductive, and will waste the evening watching the movie again! "It's just a jump to the left"
  • I like the way Multivac communicates through a teletype machine - out of minimalist retro chic, I like to think. Overall, though, I prefer to think that after a few billion years human beings would have evolved into about fifty different species, most of which would have advanced to a point where early hominid concepts like the "heat death of the Universe" evoked no more than an eyebrow raised in languid amusement.
  • *lower lip trembles* *sniff* My favourite author for a long, long time.
  • Tracicle, thanks for the post. It's been a long time since I read that story. Alnedra, I'm with you - I grew up on a steady diet of Asimov's fiction and non-fiction. His work had a great influence in forming the geek who be me.
  • I'll never forget that rainy weekend I read "I, Robot."
  • Yes, a diverting tale. Though my favorites Asimov stories are those dealing with the Laws of Robotics, Think he was never more eloquent than when writing of robots, and his robot tales often had an intricacy and depth that seemed the result of considerable reflection on the subject.
  • "Multivac reminds me of Google. Or rather, Google reminds me of Multivac". Mr. K, I give you: Isaac Asimov's The Last Query. BTW, great link, Monkeybashi. I loved this story when I read it oh, so many years ago.
  • And I still do, even now.
  • The ending is pretty obvious, but I liked reading: >NO PROBLEM IS INSOLUBLE IN ALL CONCEIVABLE CIRCUMSTANCES.
  • thank you, tracicle. i hadn't read that one before.
  • Thank you tracicle, that was really good!
  • Neither had I, thursday. I haven't read any Asimov in years, so I can't even say what I have read, but obviously I'll have to go find more.
  • The Foundation series. That-one-book-about-a-transport-system-between-realities I can't recall the title now. Oh, even while now some think he was overrated, Asimov will always mean some great reading experiences to me.
  • That-one-book-about-a-transport-system-between-realities I can't recall the title now.

    The End of Eternity?
  • Exactly, Bart!
  • thank you, ooga_booga. i hadn't read that one before.
  • You're most welcome, hugsnkisses. oooxxxooo!