

The Last Answer - ari_elle
http://www.thrivenotes.com/the-last-answer/

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gamegoblin
This genre is my favorite. For anyone who wants to read more similar to it:

Three Worlds Collide (Metaethics, moral relativism, etc)

[http://robinhanson.typepad.com/files/three-worlds-
collide.pd...](http://robinhanson.typepad.com/files/three-worlds-collide.pdf)

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect (Thinking machines, brains-in-vats
experience machine, a world without death) This one is my favorite of the
three

<http://localroger.com/prime-intellect/mopiall.html>

The Last Question (Thinking machines, the end state of a universe full of
technologically powerful beings)

<http://filer.case.edu/dts8/thelastq.htm>

Not as relevant as the previous three, but still brain tickling (and not as
long):

Relevant scene from Star Trek: The Next Generation (Episode: The Measure of a
Man) <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PMlDidyG_I>

Let's Help Germinate This Seed <http://www.thrivenotes.com/lets-help-
germinate-this-seed/>

The Egg <http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html>

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new299
Thanks for these recommendations, "The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect" made
great reading.

~~~
gamegoblin
I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's pretty weird but very good food for thought.

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minopret
Really, Mr. Asimov? If our mortality did not exist, it would be necessary to
invent it? And is existing throughout time such a grand and limitless
condition? Georg Cantor proved that there are always much greater infinities
that we could not begin to approach, even if we would never die. So I am not
convinced that it's a compelling puzzle to find our own limitations, even if
we were unlimited in the dimension of time. That's still only one dimension.

Anyway, the story appears to be reproduced without permission in violation of
copyright.

~~~
gamegoblin
I think that you are taking this a bit too seriously.

I believe it's better read merely as food for thought, not as a philosophical
treatise.

~~~
minopret

        At code review one hacker guy
        Was asked to relax, or to try.
        "I'm not naming names,
        But all's fun and games
        Until someone loses an i!"
    

(I felt like responding this way just because Asimov wrote limericks.)

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Tycho
A very short but superb story in a similar vein: The Egg by Andy Weir

<http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html>

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mikecane
Heh. All variables cannot be factored in until all variables have ended.

