The last question, what does it say about religion ?

[Max power]

The Last Question by Isaac Asimov © 1956


The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way:
Alexander Adell and Bertram Lupov were two of the faithful attendants of Multivac. As well as any human beings could, they knew what lay behind the cold, clicking, flashing face -- miles and miles of face -- of that giant computer. They had at least a vague notion of the general plan of relays and circuits that had long since grown past the point where any single human could possibly have a firm grasp of the whole.

Multivac was self-adjusting and self-correcting. It had to be, for nothing human could adjust and correct it quickly enough or even adequately enough -- so Adell and Lupov attended the monstrous giant only lightly and superficially, yet as well as any men could. They fed it data, adjusted questions to its needs and translated the answers that were issued. Certainly they, and all others like them, were fully entitled to share In the glory that was Multivac's.

For decades, Multivac had helped design the ships and plot the trajectories that enabled man to reach the Moon, Mars, and Venus, but past that, Earth's poor resources could not support the ships. Too much energy was needed for the long trips. Earth exploited its coal and uranium with increasing efficiency, but there was only so much of both.....
http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html

[hobbit709]

1. I counter with The Nine Billion Names of God.

[lastlib]

2. Or "The Star"

"We could not tell, before we reached the nebula, how long ago the explosion took place. Now, from the astronomical evidence and the record in the rocks of that one surviving planet, I have been able to date it very exactly. I know in what year the light of this colossal conflagration reached our Earth. I know how brilliantly the supernova whose corpse now dwindles behind our speeding ship once shone in terrestrial skies. I know how it must have blazed low in the east before sunrise, like a beacon in that oriental dawn.

There can be no reasonable doubt: the ancient mystery is solved at last. What was the need to give these people to the fire, that the symbol of their passing might shine above Bethlehem?"

All great stories from great writers!!

[ismnotwasm]

3. Ok that was just a badass post

[CBGLuthier]

4. I have read all three stories mentioned so far.

The best of the three is probably The Nine Billion Names of God.

I did get to see, at the Cincinnati Planetarium many, many years ago, a presentation of The Last Question and i think it was read, on tape at least, by Asimov himself but time blurs the memories.

Not sure what Asimov meant but I want to throw Heinlein into the mix the penultimate line from Stranger in a Strange Land

Foster said, "Skip the Formalities, please. I've left you a load of work and you don't have all eternity to fiddle with it. Certainly 'Thou Art God' but who Isn't?"

[Chan790]

5. I don't know.

We spent an entire day of high school on it. A multidisciplinary unit.

First, we read it during Physics and had a discussion of the Big Bang. Then, literary analysis in English class. Finally, a discussion of its themes in Theology.

It might be a good time to simply state that it ruined Asimov for me for life.