Endless Possibilities of Time

Endless Possibilities of Time

Life as we know it comes and goes. Many, many years have past and the world that we are now living in has undergone several transformations. The story of "The Last Question" is about the future of civilization. It explored the technological advancements that will probably occur many years from now. But even if man had developed ways to make things "happen", a question was never answered until man and all other forms disappeared except the AC (automatic computer). "The Last Question" explored the scientific possibilities of life and showed us that even if we have attained the highest technological possibility there is, in this universe nothing can last forever. But with the helped of computers, something can still be done.

"The Last Question" is all about the changes that humans undergo in every life time; it also makes us see that even computers and the universe can undergo several transformations as the years fly by. It also gives technology an importance because it talks about the value of the "automatic computer" to human beings and how it was able to make life better and easier. The story is divided into many sections, and in every section the characteristics of human beings vary and their relationships with their AC's developed. At the first part (year 2061), humans were still independent and can think on their own without depending too much on the Multivac. (¶18) "I don't have to ask Multivac, I know that" said, Adell." (¶2 & 3)Alexander Adell and Bertram Lupov are faithful technicians of the Multivac and even if the Multivac was self-adjusting and self-correcting, they attended to it, fed it with data, adjusted questions to its needs and translated the answers that were issued. This shows that there was still a give and take relationship between the humans and the AC because the AC still needed the humans to be able to process more information and in return the Multivac helped the human beings solved theories and turned them into facts. Because of Multivac, (¶4) man was able to design ships and plot the trajectories that enabled man to reach the moon, Mars and Venus and other planets. Even though the earth was running out of coal and uranium, Multivac helped solved this problem of humans by giving them the fact about the energy resource of the sun and from then on all earth is ran by invisible beams of sun power. At the 2nd section, the AC has transformed from (¶58) an ancient and primitive machine taking up a hundred square miles of land to a more personal and complicated Microvac. The characters Jerodd, Jerrodine and Jerrodine I and II are on their way to a new planet called X-23. Because of the much advanced Microvac, interstellar travel was developed and human are now able to transfer from one planet to another which is good because the human race is growing fast. The third section of the story is now getting much advanced because now human are immortal. (¶85) The new Galactic AC that they have, solved many problems including old age and death. Humans also have their own pocket AC's called AC-contact that is only two inches cubed and is connected through hyperspace with the Great Galactic AC that served all man kind. VJ-23X of Lameth and MQ-17J of Nicron, the characters in this section have observed that the population doubles every ten years that is why, human beings at this point not only occupy the other planets but also the other galaxies as well. At this point, humans are now getting worried about running out of energy. The story now gets further interesting in the next section because the minds of humans can now moved and they even do more action than their actual bodies. From occupying the galaxies on the previous section of the story, mankind has now occupied the universe. The AC, now called Universal AC can now hear and respond to humans whichever world or galaxy they belong to like Zee Prime and Dee Sub Wun, the two humans in these section who are curious about the original Galaxy of the race of man. (¶132) The Universal AC said, "MAN'S ORIGINAL STAR HAS GONE NOVA. IT IS A WHITE DWARF.", at this point in time, the readers can now see that the sun had already exhausted its energy and had died down. And again after many years, human have changed and their minds combined forming MAN. The AC, (¶153) now called Cosmic AC surrounded Man and it is now in hyperspace made of something neither matter nor energy. Humans completely depended on their AC in this section. The stars and galaxies are now starting to die down and even if Man was able to build new ones, still the lost was greater. (¶165, 166))Finally after trillion years of lifetime, man and the AC fused together while the stars and Galaxies all died down forming a black, vast space.

In the story, many changes occurred, and I observed that humans transformed not only physically. Their names changed from having unique and complicated names like Alexander Adell to less simpler names like Jerodd, VJ-23X, Zee Prime and finally they were only called as one and that is "Man". Their environment and habitat also changed from living on the planet Earth, to other planets, galaxies and the whole universe in fact, was occupied by man alone because of immortality. The AC also undergone transformations from being a huge machine that still needed man for information and can also serve a few to an AC that can respond to all of mankind and finally to an AC that was more advanced than human itself in the fact that it was the only who existed after human kind was wiped out. But even if all these changes happened in the story, human beings never did get the answer to the question that was repeatedly asked to the AC's for about ten trillion years, and that is the question about the "reversal of entropy". This question worried human beings because they realized that even if they and their AC transforms and be very advanced, they still have to face the fact that nothing in this universe can last forever. This question had been asked from generation to generation and it only shows that even if some things changed, humans still have common insights inside their minds. Sometimes, as the famous line says "History repeats itself". And because of this question, a tension arises in the story especially in the part when the AC will answered them (¶42, 75 & 106) INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER and (¶43 & 155) THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL DATA. This mind boggling answer only adds tension to humans because they did not get the answer that they wanted to know. The tone of the story was serious and the different ideas are presented orderly. But even though the author wanted to create a serious tone, he did not make the story too deep. He made the events light and understandable