
The Last Question (1956) - throwaway2419
http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html
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jdmoreira
I read this when I was a pre-teen because my grandmother's brother gave me a
compilation of asimov stories named '9 Tomorrows' and this story is one of
them. The whole book really blew my mind!

I always wanted a laptop sticker saying 'My other computer is the multivac'

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krispbyte
There's also another short story by Asimov called The Last Answer
[https://www.thrivenotes.com/the-last-
answer/](https://www.thrivenotes.com/the-last-answer/)

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daverdo
I can't explain it exactly, but somehow being written over 60+ years ago adds
this other layer where you have this funny feeling of looking into the past to
see the future.

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not2b
The story was written after the invention of the transistor, but it seems
Asimov hadn't heard of them or didn't grasp the implications, and assumed that
computers would be based on tubes (or valves, the word used in the story) for
billions of years into the future (but eventually they would be "molecular
valves" and a powerful computer could be only half the size of a spaceship).

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rohit2412
Well, aren't transistors vavles for electric flow, that is valves for
electrons

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tauwauwau
Manga adaption

[https://mangadex.org/chapter/39016/1](https://mangadex.org/chapter/39016/1)

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btschaegg
Ooh, I didn't know that yet. Thank you very much for the link!

I really like how it's built around the scrolling one has to do in order to
read it.

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joejerryronnie
My favorite short story, I re-read probably once a year when I stumble across
a random reference to it.

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hprotagonist
“For a Breath I Tarry” is also wonderful.

[http://www.kulichki.com/moshkow/ZELQZNY/forbreat.txt](http://www.kulichki.com/moshkow/ZELQZNY/forbreat.txt)

~~~
overlordalex
That was a wonderful story but has a somehow unsatisfactory conclusion to the
question. Spoilers below

 _SPOILER_

The story appears to assert that to be human you need to have the imperfect
faculties of a human body, but I would say that Frost started becoming human
upon his creation which gave him curiosity

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hprotagonist
I don't think that's the human criterion. The criterion mordel asserts is,
more or less, qualia.

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winchling
Audio version I:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojEq-
tTjcc0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojEq-tTjcc0)

(with British accents for Jerrodd, Jerrodine & the Jerrodettes)

Audio version II:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XOtx4sa9k4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XOtx4sa9k4)

(read by Leonard Nimoy for added gravitas)

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pupppet
This is one of those stories I randomly think about a few times a year.

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SomeHacker44
Long my favorite short story of all time. Greg Egan has some great short
stories too.

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lostmsu
A song on the subject:

1\. Russian: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMJNta-
okRw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMJNta-okRw)

2\. French:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DynLBcmOTGs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DynLBcmOTGs)

Nerdiness warning.

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jagger11
Oh man, Asimov was so bad with futuristic ideas. If you'd like to read good
thoughts about future, go for Stanislaw Lem (Summa Technologiae, Golem XIV)

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JohnJamesRambo
What was bad about them?

