"The last question" - (thread for intelligent people prepared to read the story)

[Auberge le Mouton Noir]

http://infohost.nmt.edu/~mlindsey/asimov/question.htm

Educated theists will probably enjoy the story

Agnostics will probably enjoy the story

Soft atheists will probably enjoy the story

Literalist Christians will probably not enjoy the story

Andy will probably not enjoy the story



You should read the story regardless

Then discuss it in here

So don't read the posts before you've read the story

it'll ruin the story

[pedro durruti]

God is a super computer?

It's kind of depressing really, in a nonexistent sort of depression. Puts into perspective not only how primitive we still are, but also that mortality is essentially the ending of the universe for every individual.

[PerpetualBurn]

It was alright. But I couldn't get past thinking that MultiVacs sounds like a hoover.

[Auberge le Mouton Noir]

:lol:

yeah

when asimov was young computers used valves and in america those are called vacum tubes

[PerpetualBurn]

Still, it's a nice story but I really can't take much deeper meaning from it.

[Der Übermensch]

Good story.

[Auberge le Mouton Noir]

Still, it's a nice story but I really can't take much deeper meaning from it.

I take it as an attempt to rationalise the concept of "god" and demonstrate that even an """omnipotent""" being could have rational origins, as well as yet another way of the universe oscillating and being eternal

[PerpetualBurn]

Yeah, I got that. But that's pretty bland.

[RockAndRoll]

Still, it's a nice story but I really can't take much deeper meaning from it.

This is sort of how I felt. It was a good story, but a little bit repetitive and not as amazing an end as I was lead to believe. It was good, but I didn't think it was really super great or anything.

[peeted]

Amusing story. The ending is kinda unclear. Is it suggesting that there was a new universe that consisted of the data collected by the supercomputer. A kind of Berkeley style thing were things existed because they were perceived by a sort of abstract god type thing? that's what i got out of it any way.

[Auberge le Mouton Noir]

Amusing story. The ending is kinda unclear. Is it suggesting that there was a new universe that consisted of the data collected by the supercomputer. A kind of Berkeley style thing were things existed because they were perceived by a sort of abstract god type thing? that's what i got out of it any way.

It's suggesting that eventually the supercomputer consisted of all the knowledge and intelligence in the universe and that once it did it became as god and created a new world which we are left to assume would also ultimately build another god


fair dice on the other comments

fair dice

[PerpetualBurn]

Yeah but if I start reading that deep into it then I get critical and realise that it doesn't make sense.

[Petros]

It feels dated. I suppose when Asimov wrote this he believed, like most scientists, that AI was just about to happen and human-like intelligence was just around the corner. 50 years later and scientists haven't yet found answers to some of the more profound problems in computer science. But as a whole, it's not a bad story, but it has too many flaws from a modern perspective, and at least a couple of plot flaws that I can see. Assuming we eventually do overcome some of the obstacles in computer science and do build a conscious AI. If the Universe turns out to be a computable function the story is interesting; if it turns out the Universe is not computable it's just an interesting story.

[fifi trixibell]

Nice story, but one thing about it is really bothering me.

The story assumes that when stars evntually collapse, all the matter and energy previously contained within them magically vanishes never to exist again.

In actuality, when a star collapses (unless it becomes a black hole) the matter that was contained in the star forms a "star-dust colud" called a nebula. Eventually, because of gravity, the material in this nebula contracts and forms a new star.

I assume that you all know this, but obviously the author did not, and It's annoying since it is one of the central premisses of the story.

[Auberge le Mouton Noir]

Nice story, but one thing about it is really bothering me.

The story assumes that when stars evntually collapse, all the matter and energy previously contained within them magically vanishes never to exist again.

In actuality, when a star collapses (unless it becomes a black hole) the matter that was contained in the star forms a "star-dust colud" called a nebula. Eventually, because of gravity, the material in this nebula contracts and forms a new star.

I assume that you all know this, but obviously the author did not, and It's annoying since it is one of the central premisses of the story.

this is not an indefinate process, because of radiation etc

all the energy contained in the star clearly does not collapse because we're enjoying it down on earth

[ringworm]

I enjoyed that :)

Man searching for anwers that sometimes cannot be answered

[fifi trixibell]

this is not an indefinate process, because of radiation etc

all the energy contained in the star clearly does not collapse because we're enjoying it down on earth

I never said that the energy is lost, the story assumes that. Towards the end, one of the characters in the story, since he is a very powerfull floating mind thingy, starts assembling stray gas into new stars. Since all the matter and energy in the universe is never destroyed, just "rearanged", this character, given his great abillities, should be able to reform all the stars as they originally were. The only way this couldn't be done, since this character can access and manipulate anything in the universe, is if some of the matter and energy in the universe had somehow dissapeared.