

Isaac Asimov: The Last Answer - ehsanul
http://www.scritube.com/limba/engleza/books/THE-LAST-ANSWER-by-Isaac-Asimo1625192311.php

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tfh
You may want to read this too: The Last Question

<http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html>?

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EricBurnett
I would also recommend The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect:

<http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/mopiall.html>

It is a (quite graphic) novella about the human race after the technological
singularity, and I think one of the best pieces of writing on the subject that
I have ever read.

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donw
Asimov and his works had a huge influence on me growing up, and very likely
sparked my interest in mathematics. Glad to see some of his lesser-known short
stories making their way to HN.

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whimsy
Lesser known? The only Asimov stories I'm cognizant of having read are The
Last Question and The Last Answer.

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Tycho
I've read several collections of Asimov's short stories and I've never even
heard of _The Last Answer._ I guess maybe it's not considered one of his best,
but with its titular connection to his very best story possibly it is famous.

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anonymousDan
Ha thanks for that. I thought I'd read most of his stuff but I've not seen
that before. Do you know whether it was taken from a particular book, or was
it published in a magazine or something?

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almost
From wikipedia: "It first appeared in the November 1956 issue of Science
Fiction Quarterly and was reprinted in the collections Nine Tomorrows (1959),
The Best of Isaac Asimov (1973), Robot Dreams (1986), the retrospective Opus
100 (1969), and in Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Vol. 1"

I personally read it in Robot Dreams, which is a great collection of stories.

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almost
Pardon me, that answer was for 'The Last Question' (also a truly awesome short
story). I'm sure I read this one in one of his collections but I don't
remember which and Wikipedia is no help in this case.

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ars
The earliest publication I can find is 1971.
[http://books.google.com/books?id=gzwrAQAAIAAJ&q=Isaac+As...](http://books.google.com/books?id=gzwrAQAAIAAJ&q=Isaac+Asimov+%2B%22The+Last+Answer%22)

Edit: 1971 may be a typo for 1981.

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donaq
Brilliant. Such a shame he had to go.

~~~
rbanffy
It certainly appears so, from our point of view ;-)

If, however, we think of time as another dimension, we can still see him,
right over there, a couple years in the direction we came from.

From here, it looks like a remarkable life.

~~~
hartror
I think he would appreciated that thought, a lot.

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crazydiamond
Regarding the para of the nexus. What if _all_ we are is a nexus of sensations
and thoughts/feelings/experiences. What if even the physical plane is only an
experience this nexus goes through. No separate body. The nexus goes through
an experience of death, and maybe something after that, too.

That nexus could be what we call consciousness. (Or it could be the human
mind.)

And each consciousness could be a part of a larger nexus, one cosmic nexus
with millions of child nexi. At some stage, the nexus merges back with the
cosmic nexus like a river into the ocean. Perhaps the cosmic nexus is what
some people call God.

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AmericanOP
It's fun because it's circular. His purpose becomes the same as the entity- to
think up how to learn beyond discovered knowledge.

