Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question": Humanity's Quest to Reverse Entropy Through AI
By
ColinWright
The kind of bagel that ruins lesser bagels for you.
Summary
This appears to be the beginning of Isaac Asimov's classic science fiction short story "The Last Question," which explores humanity's relationship with an increasingly powerful supercomputer called Multivac. The story begins in 2061 when two technicians, Alexander Adell and Bertram Lupov, ask Multivac a profound question about entropy and whether the universe's eventual heat death can be reversed. The narrative follows humanity's evolution alongside increasingly advanced versions of Multivac over billions of years, as the computer continuously works on solving this ultimate question about reversing entropy and preserving existence.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledThe 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.
Alexander Adell and Bertram Lupov were two of the faithful attendants of Multivac.
As well as any human beings could, they knew what lay behind the cold, clicking, flashing face — miles and miles of face — of that giant computer.
They had at least a vague notion of the general plan of relays and circuits that had long since grown past the point whe
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