# Isaac Asimov: The Last Question

An episode of [TheThinkingAtheist](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/412308695), 14 Nov 2025, 43 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/mgln.ai/e/711/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/68475274/podcast841_thelastquestion.mp3

Enjoy a 35-minute reading of one of sci-fi author and scientist Isaac Asimov's greatest stories. PDF of "The Last Question" Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/thethinkingatheist--3270347/support.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Understand the thinking atheist. It's not a person, it's a symbol,
[0:09] Speaker 1: an idea.
[0:10] Speaker 2: The population of atheists this country is going through the.
[0:13] Speaker 1: Rule, rejecting faith, pursuing knowledge, challenging the sacred. If I
[0:19] Speaker 1: tell the truth, it's because I tell the truth, not because.
[0:22] Speaker 2: I put my hand on a book and made a.
[0:24] Speaker 1: Wish and working together for a more rational world.
[0:29] Speaker 2: Take the risk of thinking. Feel so much more happiness.
[0:32] Speaker 2: Truth Fusian wisdom will come to you that way.
[0:35] Speaker 1: Assume nothing, question everything, and start thinking. This is the
[0:43] Speaker 1: Thinking Atheist podcast hosted by Seth Andrews.
[0:56] Speaker 2: So I was hosting the line with Forrest BALCAI wasn't
[1:00] Speaker 2: too long ago and we were talking about AI. A
[1:03] Speaker 2: caller was asking, well, do you think that AI will
[1:05] Speaker 2: develop to the point where human beings are pushed out
[1:09] Speaker 2: of the equation? AI starts making decisions based on its
[1:13] Speaker 2: own interests and we either become slaves or go extinct.
[1:19] Speaker 2: And by go extinct, I mean we are killed by
[1:21] Speaker 2: the technology that we have created. Have we created the monster?
[1:27] Speaker 2: And you know, obviously nobody knows the answer to the question.
[1:31] Speaker 2: We're all looking around wondering what does the future hold
[1:34] Speaker 2: for better and worse. I think Forrest and I agree
[1:38] Speaker 2: that we had hoped technology would exist so that the
[1:42] Speaker 2: more menial tasks that human beings do could be taken
[1:46] Speaker 2: over by the robots, so to speak, so that we
[1:49] Speaker 2: could be more human. We could create and build and
[1:52] Speaker 2: grow and evolve and make the world a better place.
[1:55] Speaker 2: Technology served us and sort of opened up the doors
[2:00] Speaker 2: for creators, and instead, what we have seen with AI
[2:04] Speaker 2: in many cases is that the AI is stealing from
[2:07] Speaker 2: the creators, stealing opportunities and often stealing the actual work,
[2:11] Speaker 2: going around and grabbing parts of creative works that were
[2:14] Speaker 2: made by human beings and mixing it all around and saying, oh, look,
[2:19] Speaker 2: you know here, take this. It's free or it's super cheap.
[2:22] Speaker 2: And our thinkers, our architects, our builders, our creators, our painters,
[2:28] Speaker 2: our musicians, our visionaries are then pushed to the back
[2:33] Speaker 2: of the line, and they're wondering, Wait a minute. I
[2:36] Speaker 2: thought technology was supposed to help us, not replace us.
[2:40] Speaker 2: This was the nature of the conversation, and Forrest brought
[2:44] Speaker 2: up a story that I had never heard of before,
[2:47] Speaker 2: written by the famous biochemistry professor and American writer Isaac Asimov. Now,
[2:54] Speaker 2: for the record, Isaac Asimov was an amazing science fiction writers,
[3:00] Speaker 2: considered one of the best of the twentieth century, perhaps
[3:03] Speaker 2: one of the best of all times. He wrote or
[3:06] Speaker 2: edited more than five hundred books in his lifetime. He
[3:10] Speaker 2: became a naturalized citizen of the United States in nineteen
[3:14] Speaker 2: twenty eight. Went to high school in New York, then
[3:17] Speaker 2: attended college several colleges, including Columbia, got a doctorate of
[3:22] Speaker 2: philosophy in chemistry, and then continued his education learning French
[3:28] Speaker 2: and German. He served in the United States Navy, was
[3:33] Speaker 2: an associate professor of biochemistry at the Boston University School
[3:37] Speaker 2: of Medicine. Won a series of awards for his work
[3:41] Speaker 2: in science, became a popular science communicator. He was invited
[3:46] Speaker 2: to speak for academics and for places like science fiction conventions.
[3:51] Speaker 2: You probably know, if you're a Star Trek fan, that
[3:53] Speaker 2: Isaac Asimov and Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek,
[3:57] Speaker 2: they were friends. I think Gene Roddenberry used to like
[4:00] Speaker 2: to play the Asimov card. Ah, yeah, you know, whenever
[4:03] Speaker 2: he's making a defense of how the science should work
[4:05] Speaker 2: in Star Trek, he would be like, well, my buddy,
[4:07] Speaker 2: Isaac Asimov says, it would be like this or that
[4:11] Speaker 2: couldn't happen. As I understand it, after reading so much
[4:15] Speaker 2: about the making of Star Trek. I guess that was just,
[4:17] Speaker 2: you know, it kind of irritated some people, like, oh God,
[4:21] Speaker 2: you know, here he goes again with Asimov. But the
[4:25] Speaker 2: guy was a sign He was a special science consultant
[4:28] Speaker 2: on Star Trek the motion picture, and he was a humanist.
[4:32] Speaker 2: In fact, in nineteen eighty four, the American Humanist Association
[4:36] Speaker 2: named him Humanist of the Year. He was one of
[4:39] Speaker 2: the signers of a publication called the Humanist Manifesto. It
[4:45] Speaker 2: rejected theism, deism, the after life, It opposed racism, weapons
[4:51] Speaker 2: of mass destruction. It promoted human rights, courts of law,
[4:56] Speaker 2: unrestricted reproductive choice, contraception and ibiotics, the right to divorce,
[5:02] Speaker 2: death with dignity, etc. So that was Isaac Asimov and
[5:08] Speaker 2: Forrest Valki was mentioning this work that related to today's
[5:14] Speaker 2: conversation about AI, a short story called The Last Question,
[5:19] Speaker 2: and the pdf is free online. He just pulled it
[5:22] Speaker 2: up and I book marked it on my browser, and
[5:26] Speaker 2: I went back and I read it, and I thought,
[5:28] Speaker 2: oh my goodness, I would like to read this for you.
[5:33] Speaker 2: Isaac himself said, this is by far my favorite story
[5:37] Speaker 2: of all those I have written. After all, I undertook
[5:40] Speaker 2: to tell several trillion years of human history in the
[5:43] Speaker 2: space of a short story, and I leave it to
[5:46] Speaker 2: you as to how well I succeeded. I also undertook
[5:50] Speaker 2: another task, but I won't tell you what that was
[5:53] Speaker 2: lest I spoil the story for you. It is a
[5:56] Speaker 2: curious fact that innumerable readers have asked me if I
[6:00] Speaker 2: I wrote this story. They seem never to remember the
[6:03] Speaker 2: title of the story or for sure the author, except
[6:07] Speaker 2: for the vague thought it might be me. But of
[6:10] Speaker 2: course they never forget the story itself, especially the ending.
[6:15] Speaker 2: The idea seems to drown out everything, and I'm satisfied
[6:20] Speaker 2: that it should. So let me read this for you. Here.
[6:25] Speaker 2: It comes to about nine typed pages. I don't know
[6:29] Speaker 2: what the time on that is going to be. I'm
[6:31] Speaker 2: not going to take any commercial breaks to interrupt it.
[6:33] Speaker 2: We're just going to go front to back together. So
[6:36] Speaker 2: grab a glass of wine, a warm blanket, to comfy chair,
[6:40] Speaker 2: and let's take the journey together. The last question by
[6:44] Speaker 2: Isaac Asimov. The last question was asked for the first
[7:00] Speaker 2: time half in jest on May twenty first, twenty sixty one,
[7:04] Speaker 2: at a time when humanity first stepped into the light.
[7:09] Speaker 2: The question came about as a result of a five
[7:11] Speaker 2: dollars bet over high balls, and it happened this way.
[7:16] Speaker 2: Alexander Adele and Bertram Loophov were two of the faithful
[7:20] Speaker 2: attendants of MULTIVAC. As well as any human beings, could
[7:24] Speaker 2: they knew what lay behind the cold, clicking, flashing face
[7:28] Speaker 2: miles and miles of face of that giant computer. They
[7:33] Speaker 2: had at least a vague notion of the general plan
[7:36] Speaker 2: of relays and circuits that had long since ground past
[7:40] Speaker 2: the point where any single human could possibly have a
[7:43] Speaker 2: firm grasp of the whole. MULTIVAC was self adjusting and
[7:47] Speaker 2: self correcting. It had to be, for nothing human could
[7:51] Speaker 2: adjust and correct it quickly enough or even adequately enough.
[7:55] Speaker 2: So Adele and Loopov attended the monstrous giant only lightly
[8:00] Speaker 2: and superficially, yet as well as any men could. They
[8:05] Speaker 2: fed it data, adjusted questions to its needs, and translated
[8:09] Speaker 2: the answers that were issued. Certainly, they and all others
[8:13] Speaker 2: like them were fully entitled to share in the glory
[8:16] Speaker 2: that was MULTIVAC. For decades Multivac had helped design the
[8:21] Speaker 2: ships and plot the trajectories that enabled man to reach
[8:25] Speaker 2: the Moon, Mars, and Venus, but past that Earth's poor
[8:29] Speaker 2: resources could not support the ships. Too much energy was
[8:34] Speaker 2: needed for the long trips. Earth exploited its coal and
[8:38] Speaker 2: uranium with increasing efficiency, but there was only so much
[8:42] Speaker 2: of both. But slowly Multivac learned enough to answer deeper
[8:46] Speaker 2: questions more fundamentally, and on May the fourteenth, twenty sixty one,
[8:51] Speaker 2: what had been theory became fact. The energy of the
[8:56] Speaker 2: Sun was stored, converted, and utilized directly on a planet
[9:00] Speaker 2: wide scale. All Earth turned off its burning coal, its
[9:05] Speaker 2: fishing uranium, and flipped the switch that connected all of
[9:09] Speaker 2: it to a small station one mile in diameter, circling
[9:14] Speaker 2: the Earth at half the distance of the Moon. All
[9:17] Speaker 2: Earth ran by invisible beams of sun power. Seven days
[9:22] Speaker 2: had not sufficed to dim the glory of it, and
[9:25] Speaker 2: Adele and Loupov finally managed to escape from the public
[9:29] Speaker 2: functions and to meet in quiet where no one would
[9:32] Speaker 2: think of looking for them, in the deserted underground chambers,
[9:36] Speaker 2: where portions of the mighty buried body of Multivac showed
[9:41] Speaker 2: unattended idling sorting data with contented, lazy clickings. Multivac two
[9:48] Speaker 2: had earned its vacation, and the boys appreciated that they
[9:52] Speaker 2: had no intention originally of disturbing it. They had brought
[9:57] Speaker 2: a bottle with them, and their only concerned at the
[9:59] Speaker 2: moment was to relax in the company of each other
[10:02] Speaker 2: and the bottle. It's amazing when you think of it,
[10:06] Speaker 2: said Adele. His broad face had lines of weariness in it,
[10:10] Speaker 2: and he stirred his drink slowly with a glass rod,
[10:13] Speaker 2: watching the cubes of ice slur clumsily. About all the
[10:18] Speaker 2: energy we can possibly ever use for free, enough energy
[10:22] Speaker 2: if we wanted to draw on it, to melt all
[10:25] Speaker 2: earth into a big drop of impure liquid iron, and
[10:29] Speaker 2: still never missed the energy. So used all the energy
[10:34] Speaker 2: we could ever use, forever and ever and ever. Loupov
[10:38] Speaker 2: cocked his head sideways. He had a trick of doing
[10:41] Speaker 2: that when he wanted to be contrary, and he wanted
[10:44] Speaker 2: to be contrary now, partly because he had to carry
[10:47] Speaker 2: the ice and glassware. Not forever, he said, oh, hell,
[10:53] Speaker 2: just about forever till the sun runs down. Bert, that's
[10:58] Speaker 2: not forever, all right, then, billions and billions of years.
[11:02] Speaker 2: Ten billion? Maybe, are you satisfied? Lupov put his fingers
[11:07] Speaker 2: through his thinning hair as to reassure himself that some
[11:11] Speaker 2: was still left, then sipped gently at his own drink.
[11:15] Speaker 2: Ten billion years isn't forever? Well? It will last our time,
[11:21] Speaker 2: won't it? So would the coal and uranium? All right,
[11:25] Speaker 2: but now we can look up each individual spaceship to
[11:29] Speaker 2: the solar station and it can go to Pluto and
[11:32] Speaker 2: back a million times without ever worrying about fuel. You
[11:36] Speaker 2: can't do that on coal and uranium. Ask Multivac. If
[11:40] Speaker 2: you don't believe me, I don't have to ask Multivac.
[11:44] Speaker 2: I know that. Then stop running down what Multivac's done
[11:48] Speaker 2: for us, said Adele, blazing up. It did, all right?
[11:53] Speaker 2: Who says it didn't? What I say is that a
[11:56] Speaker 2: sun won't last forever? That's all I'm saying. We're for
[12:00] Speaker 2: ten billion years? But then what Loopov pointed a slightly
[12:05] Speaker 2: shaky finger at the other, and don't say we'll switch
[12:09] Speaker 2: to another sun. There was silence for a while. Adele
[12:14] Speaker 2: put his glass on his lips only occasionally, and Loopov's
[12:18] Speaker 2: eyes slowly closed. They rested. Then Loopov's eyes snapped open
[12:25] Speaker 2: you're thinking we'll switch to another sun when ours is done,
[12:29] Speaker 2: aren't you. I'm not thinking, Sure you are. You're weak
[12:35] Speaker 2: on logic. That's the trouble with you. You're like the
[12:38] Speaker 2: guy in the story who was caught in a sudden shower,
[12:41] Speaker 2: who ran to a grove of trees and got under one.
[12:44] Speaker 2: He wasn't worried, you see, because he figured when one
[12:47] Speaker 2: tree got wet through, he would just get under another one.
[12:52] Speaker 2: I get it, said Adele. Don't shout. When the sun
[12:55] Speaker 2: has done, the other stars will be gone too, aren't right?
[13:00] Speaker 2: They will muttered lupwon It all had a beginning in
[13:04] Speaker 2: the original cosmic explosion, whatever that was, And it'll all
[13:07] Speaker 2: have an end when the stars run down. Some run
[13:11] Speaker 2: down faster than others. Hell, the giants won't last one
[13:15] Speaker 2: hundred million years, The sun will last ten billion years,
[13:19] Speaker 2: and maybe the dwarfs will last two hundred billion, for
[13:22] Speaker 2: all the good they are, but just give us a
[13:25] Speaker 2: trillion years and everything will be dark. Entropy has to
[13:29] Speaker 2: increase two maximum. That's all I know all about entropy,
[13:36] Speaker 2: said Adele, standing on his dignity. The hell you do.
[13:40] Speaker 2: I know as much as you do. Then you know
[13:43] Speaker 2: everything's got to run down someday, all right, who says
[13:48] Speaker 2: they won't? You did your poor sap. You said we
[13:52] Speaker 2: had all the energy we needed forever. You said forever.
[13:57] Speaker 2: It was Adele's turn to be contrary. Maybe we can
[14:01] Speaker 2: build things up again someday, he said, never, Why not? Someday?
[14:09] Speaker 2: Never ask multivac. You ask multivac, I dare you? Five
[14:15] Speaker 2: dollars says it can't be done. Adele was just drunk
[14:20] Speaker 2: enough to try, just sober enough to be able to
[14:23] Speaker 2: phrase the necessary symbols and operations into a question, which,
[14:27] Speaker 2: in words, might have corresponded to this, will mankind one
[14:32] Speaker 2: day without the net expenditure of energy be able to
[14:36] Speaker 2: restore the Sun to its full youthfulness, even after it
[14:41] Speaker 2: had died of old age, Or maybe it could be
[14:45] Speaker 2: put more simply like this, how can the net amount
[14:48] Speaker 2: of entropy of the universe be massively decreased? Multivac fell
[14:54] Speaker 2: dead and silent, The slow flashing of light ceased, the
[14:59] Speaker 2: distant sound of clicking relays ended. Then, just as the
[15:04] Speaker 2: frightened technicians felt they could hold their breath no longer,
[15:07] Speaker 2: there was a sudden springing to life of the teletype
[15:11] Speaker 2: attached to that portion of multivac. Five words were printed,
[15:16] Speaker 2: insufficient data for meaningful answer. No bets, whispered Loopov. They
[15:23] Speaker 2: left hurriedly. By next morning, the two, plagued with throbbing
[15:28] Speaker 2: head and cottony mouth, had forgotten the incident. Jared, Jaredine
[15:43] Speaker 2: and Jaredetts one and two watched the starry picture in
[15:47] Speaker 2: the visiplate change as the passage through hyperspace was completed
[15:52] Speaker 2: in its non time laps, and once the even powdering
[15:57] Speaker 2: of stars gave way to the predominance a single bright,
[16:01] Speaker 2: shining disc the size of a marble, centered on the
[16:04] Speaker 2: viewing screen. That's X twenty three, said Jared confidently, His
[16:10] Speaker 2: thin hands clamped tightly behind his back and the knuckles
[16:14] Speaker 2: whitened the little jardettes. Both girls had experienced the hyperspace
[16:20] Speaker 2: passage for the first time in their lives and were
[16:23] Speaker 2: self conscious over the momentary sensation of inside out ness.
[16:28] Speaker 2: They buried their giggles and chased one another wildly about
[16:32] Speaker 2: their mother, screaming, we've reached X twenty three. We've reached
[16:37] Speaker 2: X twenty three. We've quiet children, said Jareddine sharply. Are
[16:43] Speaker 2: you sure, Jared? What is there to be? But sure?
[16:47] Speaker 2: Asked Jared, glancing up at the bulge of featureless metal
[16:52] Speaker 2: just under the ceiling. It ran the length of the room,
[16:55] Speaker 2: disappearing through the wall at either end. It was as
[16:58] Speaker 2: long as the ship. Jared scarcely knew about the thick
[17:03] Speaker 2: rod of metal, except that it was called a MICROVAC,
[17:07] Speaker 2: that one asked it questions if one wished that if
[17:11] Speaker 2: one did not, it still had its task of guiding
[17:14] Speaker 2: the ship to a pre ordered destination, of feeding on
[17:18] Speaker 2: energies from the various subgalactic power stations, of computing the
[17:23] Speaker 2: equations for the hyperspatial jumps. Jared and his family had
[17:28] Speaker 2: only to wait and live in the comfortable residence quarters
[17:32] Speaker 2: of the ship. Someone had once told Jared that the
[17:35] Speaker 2: AC at the end of MICROVAC stood for automatic computer
[17:41] Speaker 2: in ancient English, but he was on the edge of
[17:44] Speaker 2: forgetting even that. Jareddine's eyes were moist as she watched
[17:50] Speaker 2: the visiplate. I can't help it. I feel funny about
[17:55] Speaker 2: leaving Earth. Why for Pete's sake, demanded Jared. We had
[18:00] Speaker 2: nothing there. We'll have everything on X twenty three. You
[18:04] Speaker 2: won't be alone, you won't be a pioneer. There are
[18:07] Speaker 2: over a million people on the planet already. Good Lord,
[18:11] Speaker 2: our great grandchildren will be looking for new worlds because
[18:15] Speaker 2: X twenty three will be overcrowded. Then, after a reflective pause,
[18:21] Speaker 2: I tell you it's a lucky thing. The computers worked
[18:23] Speaker 2: out interstellar travel the way the race is growing. I know,
[18:28] Speaker 2: I know, said Jeredine miserably. Jared at one said promptly,
[18:34] Speaker 2: our microvac is the best microvac in the world. I
[18:39] Speaker 2: think so too, said Jared, tussling her hair. It was
[18:43] Speaker 2: a nice feeling to have a microvac of your own,
[18:46] Speaker 2: and Jared was glad he was part of his generation
[18:49] Speaker 2: and no other. In his father's youth, the only computers
[18:53] Speaker 2: had been tremendous machines, taking up one hundred square miles
[18:57] Speaker 2: of land. There was only one to a planet, planetary
[19:00] Speaker 2: acs they were called. They'd been growing in size steadily
[19:05] Speaker 2: for a thousand years, and then all at once came refinement.
[19:09] Speaker 2: In place of transistors had come molecular valves, so that
[19:14] Speaker 2: even the largest planetary AC could be put into a
[19:17] Speaker 2: space only half the volume of a spaceship. Jared felt uplifted,
[19:24] Speaker 2: as he always did when he thought his own personal
[19:26] Speaker 2: microvac was many times more complicated than the ancient and
[19:30] Speaker 2: primitive multivac that had first tamed the Sun, and almost
[19:34] Speaker 2: as complicated as Earth's planetary ac, the largest that had
[19:39] Speaker 2: first solved the problem of hyperspatial travel and had made
[19:43] Speaker 2: trips to the stars possible. So many stars, so many planets,
[19:49] Speaker 2: sighed Jeredine, busy with her own thoughts. I suppose families
[19:54] Speaker 2: will be going out to new planets forever the way
[19:56] Speaker 2: we are now. Not forever, said Jared with a smile.
[20:01] Speaker 2: It will all stop someday, but not for billions of years,
[20:05] Speaker 2: many billions. Even the stars run down. You know, entropy
[20:09] Speaker 2: must increase. What's entropy, Daddy, shrilled jaredet two. Entropy, little
[20:18] Speaker 2: sweet is just a word which means the amount of
[20:21] Speaker 2: running down of the universe. Everything runs down, you know,
[20:25] Speaker 2: like you're a little walkie talkie robot. Remember can't you
[20:30] Speaker 2: just put in a new power unit like with my robot?
[20:34] Speaker 2: The stars are power units, dear. Once they're gone, there
[20:37] Speaker 2: are no more power units, jaredet one. At once set
[20:42] Speaker 2: up a howl. Don't let them, daddy, don't let the
[20:46] Speaker 2: stars run down. Now, look what you've done, whispered Jaredine. Exasperated.
[20:52] Speaker 2: How was I to know it would frighten them? Jared
[20:55] Speaker 2: whispered back, ask the microvac whale jaredet one ask him
[21:00] Speaker 2: how to turn the stars on again. Go ahead, said jaredine,
[21:06] Speaker 2: it will quiet them down. Jaredat too, was beginning to
[21:10] Speaker 2: cry also. Jared shrugged. Now, now, honeys, I'll ask microvac.
[21:16] Speaker 2: Don't worry, He'll tell us. He asked the microvac, adding
[21:21] Speaker 2: quickly print the answer. Jared cupped the strip of thin
[21:27] Speaker 2: cell you film and said, cheerfully. See now, the microvac
[21:31] Speaker 2: says it will take care of everything when the time comes.
[21:34] Speaker 2: So don't worry, Jaredine said, And now, children, it's time
[21:40] Speaker 2: for bed. We'll be in our new home soon. Jared
[21:45] Speaker 2: read the words on the cell you film again before
[21:48] Speaker 2: destroying it. There is insufficient data for a meaningful answer.
[21:56] Speaker 2: He shrugged and looked at the visiplate X twenty three
[22:00] Speaker 2: was just ahead VJ twenty three x of la Mef
[22:13] Speaker 2: stared into the black depths of a three dimensional small
[22:17] Speaker 2: scale map of the galaxy and said, are we ridiculous?
[22:21] Speaker 2: I wonder in being so concerned about the matter MQ
[22:26] Speaker 2: seventeen j of Nikron shook his head. I think not.
[22:30] Speaker 2: You know, the galaxy will be filled in five years
[22:33] Speaker 2: at the present rate of expansion. Both seemed in their
[22:37] Speaker 2: early twenties. Both were tall and perfectly formed. Still, said
[22:42] Speaker 2: VJ twenty three X. I hesitate to submit a pessimistic
[22:46] Speaker 2: report to the Galactic Council. I wouldn't consider any other
[22:51] Speaker 2: kind of reports. Stir them up a bit. We've got
[22:53] Speaker 2: to stir them up. VJ twenty three X. Side space
[22:59] Speaker 2: is infinite. Te hundred billion galaxies are there for the taking.
[23:04] Speaker 2: More one hundred billion is not infinite, and it's getting
[23:09] Speaker 2: less infinite all the time. Consider twenty thousand years ago,
[23:13] Speaker 2: mankind first solved the problem of utilizing stellar energy, and
[23:18] Speaker 2: a few centuries later enter stellar travel became possible. It
[23:23] Speaker 2: took mankind a million years to fill one small world,
[23:27] Speaker 2: and then only fifteen thousand years to fill the rest
[23:30] Speaker 2: of the galaxy. Now the population doubles every ten years.
[23:36] Speaker 2: VJ twenty three X interrupted. We can thank immortality for that.
[23:42] Speaker 2: Very well. Immortality exists, and we have to take it
[23:45] Speaker 2: into account. I admit it has its seamy side, this immortality.
[23:51] Speaker 2: The Galactic ac has solved many problems for us, but
[23:55] Speaker 2: in solving the problem of preventing old age and death.
[23:59] Speaker 2: It has undone and all its other solutions. Yet you
[24:03] Speaker 2: wouldn't want to abandon life, I suppose, not at all,
[24:07] Speaker 2: snapped MQ seventeen J softening it at once too. Not yet,
[24:13] Speaker 2: I'm by no means old enough. How old are you
[24:17] Speaker 2: two hundred twenty three and you I'm still under two hundred.
[24:22] Speaker 2: But to get back to my point, population doubles every
[24:26] Speaker 2: ten years. Once this galaxy is filled, will have filled
[24:30] Speaker 2: another in ten years, Another ten years and we will
[24:33] Speaker 2: have filled two more, another decade, four more, and one
[24:38] Speaker 2: hundred years will have filled one thousand galaxies in a
[24:42] Speaker 2: thousand years, a million galaxies in ten thousand years, the
[24:47] Speaker 2: entire known universe than what VJ twenty three X said.
[24:54] Speaker 2: As a side issue, there's a problem of transportation. I
[24:58] Speaker 2: wonder how many sun power units it will take to
[25:00] Speaker 2: move galaxies of individuals from one galaxy to the next.
[25:05] Speaker 2: A very good point. Already, mankind consumes two sun power
[25:10] Speaker 2: units per year, most of it is wasted. After all.
[25:14] Speaker 2: Our own galaxy alone pours out a thousand sun power
[25:18] Speaker 2: units a year, and we only use two of those. Granted,
[25:23] Speaker 2: But even with one hundred percent efficiency. We only stave
[25:26] Speaker 2: off the end. Our energy requirements are going up in
[25:31] Speaker 2: a geometric progression even faster than our population. We'll run
[25:35] Speaker 2: out of energy even sooner than we'll run out of galaxies.
[25:40] Speaker 2: A good point, A very good point. We'll just have
[25:44] Speaker 2: to build new stars out of interstellar gas or out
[25:49] Speaker 2: of dissipated heat. Ask MQ seventeen J sarcastically, there may
[25:56] Speaker 2: be some way to reverse entropy. We ought to ask
[25:59] Speaker 2: the galactic AC. VJ twenty three X was not really serious,
[26:05] Speaker 2: but MQ seventeen J pulled out his AC contact from
[26:09] Speaker 2: his pocket and placed it on the table before him.
[26:13] Speaker 2: I've half a mind to he said. It's something the
[26:16] Speaker 2: human race will have to face someday. He stared somberly
[26:21] Speaker 2: at his small AC contact. It was only two inches
[26:24] Speaker 2: cubed and nothing in itself, but it was connected through
[26:28] Speaker 2: hyperspace with the great Galactic AC that served all mankind
[26:34] Speaker 2: hyperspace considered, it was an integral part of the Galactic AC.
[26:40] Speaker 2: MQ seventeen J paused to wonder if someday, in his
[26:44] Speaker 2: immortal life he would get to c the Galactic AC.
[26:49] Speaker 2: It was on a little world of its own, a
[26:51] Speaker 2: spider webbing of force beams holding the matter, within which
[26:55] Speaker 2: surges of submessons took the place of the old, clumsy
[26:59] Speaker 2: molecular valves. Yet, despite its sub etheric workings, the galactic
[27:06] Speaker 2: AC was known to be a full thousand feet across.
[27:10] Speaker 2: MQ seventeen J asked suddenly of his AC contact. Can
[27:15] Speaker 2: entropy ever be reversed? VJ twenty three X looked startled
[27:21] Speaker 2: and said at once, Oh, say, I didn't really mean
[27:24] Speaker 2: to have you asked that? Why not? We both know
[27:28] Speaker 2: entropy can't be reversed. You can't turn smoke and ash
[27:32] Speaker 2: back into a tree. Do you have trees on your world?
[27:37] Speaker 2: Ask MQ seventeen J. The sound of the galactic AC
[27:41] Speaker 2: startled them into silence. Its voice came thin and beautiful
[27:46] Speaker 2: out of the small AC contact on the desk. It said,
[27:50] Speaker 2: there is insufficient data for a meaningful answer. VJ twenty
[27:57] Speaker 2: six X said c. The two men thereupon returned to
[28:02] Speaker 2: the question of the report they were able to make
[28:05] Speaker 2: to the Galactic Council. Z Prime's mind spanned the new
[28:22] Speaker 2: galaxy with a feigned interest, and the countless twists of
[28:26] Speaker 2: stars that powdered it he had never seen this one before.
[28:30] Speaker 2: Would he ever see them all? So many of them,
[28:33] Speaker 2: each with its load of humanity, but a load that
[28:37] Speaker 2: was almost a dead weight. More and more, the real
[28:41] Speaker 2: escence of men was to be found out here in space, minds,
[28:45] Speaker 2: not bodies. The immortal bodies remained back on planets in
[28:50] Speaker 2: suspension over the cons Sometimes they roused for material activity,
[28:55] Speaker 2: but that was growing rarer. Few new individuals were coming
[29:00] Speaker 2: into existence to join the incredibly mighty throng, But what matter?
[29:05] Speaker 2: There was little room in the universe for new individuals.
[29:10] Speaker 2: Z Prime was rised out of his reverie upon coming
[29:14] Speaker 2: across the wispy tendrils of another mind. I am, z Prime,
[29:19] Speaker 2: said z Prime, and you, I am d sub wound.
[29:24] Speaker 2: Your galaxy we call it only the galaxy, and you
[29:30] Speaker 2: we call ours the same. All men call their galaxy
[29:34] Speaker 2: their galaxy, and nothing more. Why not true, since all
[29:39] Speaker 2: galaxies are the same, not all galaxies on one particular galaxy.
[29:45] Speaker 2: The race of man must have originated. That makes it different,
[29:50] Speaker 2: z Prime said, on which one I cannot say. The
[29:55] Speaker 2: universal ac would know, Shall we ask him? I am
[30:00] Speaker 2: suddenly curious. Z Prime's perceptions broadened until the galaxies themselves
[30:06] Speaker 2: shrank and became a new, more diffuse powdering on a
[30:10] Speaker 2: much larger background. So many hundreds of billions of them,
[30:14] Speaker 2: all with their immortal beings, all carrying their load of intelligences,
[30:19] Speaker 2: with minds that drifted freely through space. And yet one
[30:23] Speaker 2: of them was unique among them all in being the
[30:27] Speaker 2: original galaxy. One of them had in its vague and
[30:31] Speaker 2: distant past, a period when it was the only galaxy
[30:35] Speaker 2: populated by man. Z Prime was consumed with curiosity to
[30:41] Speaker 2: see this galaxy, and he called out Universal AC. On
[30:45] Speaker 2: which galaxy did mankind originate? The Universal AC heard for
[30:52] Speaker 2: on every world and throughout space. It had its receptors ready,
[30:57] Speaker 2: and each receptor led through hyperspace to some unknown points
[31:01] Speaker 2: where the Universal AC kept itself aloof z Prime knew
[31:07] Speaker 2: of only one man whose thoughts had penetrated within sensing
[31:10] Speaker 2: distance of Universal AC, and he reported only a shining
[31:15] Speaker 2: globe two feet across. Difficult to see, But how can
[31:20] Speaker 2: that be all of Universal AC? Z Prime had ask,
[31:25] Speaker 2: most of it had been. The answer is in hyperspace.
[31:29] Speaker 2: In what form it is there? I cannot imagine, nor
[31:33] Speaker 2: could anyone, for the day had long passed. Z Prime
[31:37] Speaker 2: knew when any man had any part of the making
[31:40] Speaker 2: of a universal AC. Each universal AC designed and constructed
[31:45] Speaker 2: its successor. Each, during its existence of a million years
[31:50] Speaker 2: or more, accumulated the necessary data to build a better
[31:53] Speaker 2: and more intricate, more capable successor, in which its own
[31:58] Speaker 2: store of data and in the visuality would be submerged.
[32:02] Speaker 2: The universal AC interrupted z primes wandering thoughts, not with words,
[32:08] Speaker 2: but with guidance. Z Prime's mentality was guided into the
[32:13] Speaker 2: dim sea of galaxies, and one in particular enlarged into stars.
[32:19] Speaker 2: A thought came infinitely distant, but infinitely clear. This is
[32:25] Speaker 2: the original galaxy of man. But it was the same,
[32:30] Speaker 2: after all, the same as any other, And z Prime
[32:34] Speaker 2: stifled his disappointment. D sub Wound, whose mind had accompanied
[32:41] Speaker 2: the other, said, suddenly, and is one of these stars
[32:45] Speaker 2: the original star of man? The universal AC said, Man's
[32:51] Speaker 2: original star has gone nova. It is a white dwarf.
[32:57] Speaker 2: Did the men upon it die? Asked z Prime. I'm startled,
[33:01] Speaker 2: and without thinking, the universal AC said, a new world,
[33:05] Speaker 2: as in such cases, was constructed for their physical bodies
[33:10] Speaker 2: in time. Yes, of course, said z Prime, but a
[33:15] Speaker 2: sense of loss overwhelmed him. Even so, his mind released
[33:19] Speaker 2: its hold on the original galaxy of Man. Let it
[33:22] Speaker 2: spring back and lose itself among the blurred pinpoints. He
[33:27] Speaker 2: never wanted to see it again. D sub Wound said,
[33:31] Speaker 2: what is wrong? The stars are dying? The original star
[33:36] Speaker 2: is dead. They must all die? Why not? But when
[33:41] Speaker 2: all energy is gone, our bodies will finally die, and
[33:45] Speaker 2: you and I with them. It will take billions of years.
[33:49] Speaker 2: I do not wish it to happen, even after billions
[33:52] Speaker 2: of years. Universal Ac how many stars may be kept
[33:57] Speaker 2: from dying? D sub wound and said, in amusement, you're
[34:01] Speaker 2: asking how entropy might be reversed in direction? And the
[34:07] Speaker 2: Universal Ace answered, there is as yet insufficient data for
[34:12] Speaker 2: a meaningful answer. Z Prime's thoughts fled back to his
[34:17] Speaker 2: own galaxy. He gave no further thought to d sub Wound,
[34:21] Speaker 2: whose body might be waiting on a galaxy a trillion
[34:25] Speaker 2: light years away, or on the star next to z
[34:28] Speaker 2: Prime's own. It didn't matter. Unhappily, z Prime began collecting
[34:33] Speaker 2: interstellar hydrogen, out of which to build a small star
[34:37] Speaker 2: of his own. If the stars must someday die, at
[34:41] Speaker 2: least some could yet be built. Man considered with himself
[34:55] Speaker 2: or in a way Man mentally was one instead of
[35:00] Speaker 2: a trillion, trillion, trillion ageless bodies, each in its place,
[35:05] Speaker 2: each resting, quiet and incorruptible, each cared for by perfect automatons,
[35:11] Speaker 2: equally incorruptible, while the minds of all the bodies freely
[35:16] Speaker 2: melted into one another, indistinguishable. Man said, The universe is dying.
[35:24] Speaker 2: Man looked about at the dimming galaxies. The giant stars
[35:29] Speaker 2: spend thrifts were gone long ago, back in the dimmest
[35:33] Speaker 2: of the dim far past. Almost all stars were white dwarfs,
[35:39] Speaker 2: fading to the end. New stars had been built of
[35:42] Speaker 2: the dust between the stars, some by natural processes, some
[35:47] Speaker 2: by man himself, and those were going too. White dwarfs
[35:52] Speaker 2: might yet be crashed together, and of the mighty forces
[35:55] Speaker 2: so released. New stars built, but only one star for
[35:59] Speaker 2: every thousand white dwarfs destroyed, And those would come to
[36:05] Speaker 2: an end too, Man said, carefully, husbanded, as directed by
[36:11] Speaker 2: the cosmic ac the energy that is even yet left
[36:15] Speaker 2: in all the universe will last four billions of years.
[36:21] Speaker 2: But even so, said Man, eventually it will all come
[36:25] Speaker 2: to an end, however it may be husbanded, however stretched out.
[36:30] Speaker 2: The energy once expended is gone and cannot be restored.
[36:35] Speaker 2: Entropy must increase forever to the maximum. Man said, can
[36:42] Speaker 2: entropy not be reversed? Let us ask the cosmic ac.
[36:47] Speaker 2: The cosmic ac surrounded them, but not in space. Not
[36:51] Speaker 2: a fragment of it was in space. It was in hyperspace,
[36:56] Speaker 2: made of something that was neither matter nor energy. The
[37:00] Speaker 2: question of its size and nature no longer had any
[37:04] Speaker 2: meaning in terms that man could comprehend. Cosmic ac said, Man,
[37:09] Speaker 2: how may entropy be reversed? The cosmic ac said, there
[37:15] Speaker 2: is yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer. Man said,
[37:22] Speaker 2: collect additional data. The cosmic ac said, I will do so.
[37:27] Speaker 2: I have been doing so for one hundred billion years.
[37:31] Speaker 2: My predecessors and I have been asked this question many times.
[37:35] Speaker 2: All the data I have remains insufficient. Will there come
[37:41] Speaker 2: a time, said man, when data will be sufficient? Or
[37:45] Speaker 2: is the problem insoluble in all conceivable circumstances? The cosmic
[37:52] Speaker 2: ac said, no problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
[37:59] Speaker 2: Man said, when will you have enough data to answer
[38:02] Speaker 2: the question. The cosmic ac said, there is as yet
[38:07] Speaker 2: insufficient data for a meaningful answer. Will you keep working
[38:12] Speaker 2: on it? Said man the cosmic AC said, I will
[38:18] Speaker 2: Man said, we shall wait. The stars and galaxies died
[38:23] Speaker 2: and snuffed out, and space grew black. After ten trillion
[38:28] Speaker 2: years of running down, one by one, Man fused with AC,
[38:34] Speaker 2: each physical body losing its mental identity in a manner
[38:38] Speaker 2: that was somehow not a loss. But again, Man's last
[38:42] Speaker 2: mind paused before fusion, looking over a space that included
[38:47] Speaker 2: nothing but the dregs of one last dark star, and
[38:51] Speaker 2: nothing besides incredibly thin matter agitated randomly by the tag
[38:57] Speaker 2: ends of heat wearing out as symptoms to the absolute zero.
[39:03] Speaker 2: Man said, AC, Is this the end? Can this chaos
[39:08] Speaker 2: not be reversed into the universe once more? Can that
[39:12] Speaker 2: not be done? Ac said, there is as yet insufficient
[39:18] Speaker 2: data for a meaningful answer. Man's last mind fused, and
[39:24] Speaker 2: only AC existed, and that in hyperspace, matter and energy
[39:32] Speaker 2: had ended, and with its space and time, even AC
[39:37] Speaker 2: existed only for the sake of the one last question
[39:40] Speaker 2: that it had never answered. From the time a half
[39:44] Speaker 2: drunken computer technician ten trillion years before had asked the
[39:49] Speaker 2: question of a computer that was to AC far less
[39:53] Speaker 2: than was a man to man. All other questions had
[39:57] Speaker 2: been answered and until this last question was answered, also,
[40:01] Speaker 2: AC might not release its consciousness. All collected data had
[40:07] Speaker 2: come to a final end. Nothing was left to be collected.
[40:12] Speaker 2: But all collected data had yet to be completely correlated
[40:16] Speaker 2: and put together in all possible relationships. A timeless interval
[40:21] Speaker 2: was spent in doing that, and it came to pass
[40:25] Speaker 2: that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy.
[40:30] Speaker 2: But now there was no man to whom AC might
[40:33] Speaker 2: give the answer to the last question. The answer by
[40:38] Speaker 2: demonstration would take care of that too. For another timeless interval,
[40:45] Speaker 2: AC thought how best to do this? Carefully, AC organized
[40:50] Speaker 2: the program. The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what
[40:55] Speaker 2: had once been a universe and brooded over what was
[40:59] Speaker 2: now chaos. Step by step, it must be done, and
[41:07] Speaker 2: AC said, let there be light. And there was light.
[42:13] Speaker 2: The last question by the late great Isaac Asimov, written
[42:17] Speaker 2: so many decades ago, but certainly relevant in the era
[42:22] Speaker 2: of AI, and just a fun journey to take something
[42:25] Speaker 2: to think and talk about with each other. Okay, thank
[42:28] Speaker 2: you so much for listening. The PDF link to the
[42:31] Speaker 2: written version is in the description box of the broadcast
[42:35] Speaker 2: in case you would like to go browse and share
[42:37] Speaker 2: and I appreciate you listening very much, and I'll see
[42:40] Speaker 2: you next time.
[42:41] Speaker 1: Follow the Thinking Atheist on Facebook and Twitter for a
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[42:55] Speaker 1: and conventions. Log onto our website, The Thinking Atheist dot com.

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