The Last Question
The Last Question is a short story by Isaac Asimov, first published in 1956 and often cited by the author as his personal favorite among his own works. It follows a single question asked of an ever-evolving computer across vast spans of time: can entropy be reversed, can the slow running-down of the universe be undone? Beginning with a casual bet between two technicians in the twentieth century, the story leaps forward through stage after stage of human and machine evolution, as people spread across galaxies and merge with the cosmic intelligence they have built. Each time the question is posed, the computer answers that it has insufficient data for a meaningful response. Spanning the birth and death of stars, the tale builds toward a closing line that recasts the whole narrative. In a few pages, Asimov delivers a meditation on time, intelligence, and the fate of everything.
Also by Isaac Asimov
What you might want to know about The Last Question
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Across trillions of years, humanity keeps asking a supercomputer whether the heat death of the universe can be reversed.
It is a short story, only a handful of pages long, though it spans trillions of years of cosmic history.
Yes; he repeatedly named The Last Question his favorite among all the stories he wrote.
The Last Question was written by Isaac Asimov, published in 2003 by Editorial Sigmar.
The Last Question is 72 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Last Question takes most readers 1 to 2 hours to finish.
The Last Question is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
