The Last Question • Hacker News Board

Re: The Last Question

#21

Post by captn3m0 » Thu, Jun 09, 2022, 4:14 AM UTC

pfarrell wrote: post #2

If you haven’t read it before, don’t read the Wikipedia summary; read the actual story. It’s easy to google and pretty short. Isaac Asimov said it was his favorite story he’d written. He imagines the entire history of the future of humanity, to the end of time, in a few pages. Really a marvelous story.

There's some recordings on YouTube as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojEq-tTjcc0

Re: The Last Question

#22

Post by ekianjo » Thu, Jun 09, 2022, 4:15 AM UTC

acheron wrote: post #17

If you've already read the story, this illustrated version is a good adaptation: https://imgur.com/gallery/9KWrH (Read the original first though.)

> "Imgur is temporarily over capacity. Please try again later."

First time I see this

Re: The Last Question

#23

Post by technocratius » Thu, Jun 09, 2022, 4:15 AM UTC

There's an audio book version available on YouTube https://youtu.be/ojEq-tTjcc0

Re: The Last Question

#24

Post by cyounkins » Thu, Jun 09, 2022, 4:30 AM UTC

https://physics.princeton.edu/ph115/LQ.pdf

Re: The Last Question

#25

Post by RajT88 » Thu, Jun 09, 2022, 4:34 AM UTC

This has a similar flavor to Arthur C. Clarke's 9 Billion Names of God

https://archive.org/details/ninebillionnames00clar

Re: The Last Question

#26

Post by zw123456 » Thu, Jun 09, 2022, 4:48 AM UTC

One of my favorite things about HN, is how, every once in a while, some obscure cool thing I have not hear about before gets pointed out, which, I find cool. But then, we "hug it to death" in the HN vernacular. Which is also really cool. Some neglected corner of the web that someone cared about, suddenly, a bunch of us nerds jump on it and recognize the nerd-coolness of it. I love that. Hope this was OK to say and not too off topic. I just love that.

Re: The Last Question

#27

Post by paraph1n » Thu, Jun 09, 2022, 4:52 AM UTC

A similarly thought-provoking short story, perhaps my favorite, is The Egg[1] by Andy Weir.

[1]: http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Egg_(Weir_short_story)

Re: The Last Question

#28

Post by codechicago277 » Thu, Jun 09, 2022, 4:55 AM UTC

jjice wrote: post #4

pfarrell wrote: post #2

If you haven’t read it before, don’t read the Wikipedia summary; read the actual story. It’s easy to google and pretty short. Isaac Asimov said it was his favorite story he’d written. He imagines the entire history of the future of humanity, to the end of time, in a few pages. Really a marvelous story.

Damn it, I wish I read this comment before I read the summary. I had chills at the end. Maybe I should read some Asimov...

See also “The last answer” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Answer

Full text: https://highexistence.com/the-last-answer-short-story/

These 2 are my favorite Asimov stories.

Re: The Last Question

#29

Post by zw123456 » Thu, Jun 09, 2022, 4:57 AM UTC

TMWNN wrote: post #5

pfarrell wrote: post #2

If you haven’t read it before, don’t read the Wikipedia summary; read the actual story. It’s easy to google and pretty short. Isaac Asimov said it was his favorite story he’d written. He imagines the entire history of the future of humanity, to the end of time, in a few pages. Really a marvelous story.

>If you haven’t read it before, don’t read the Wikipedia summary; read the actual story. Read it from the original publication: https://archive.org/details/Science_Fiction_Quarterly_New_Se... >

OMG, I loved the original scan of this, wow, flash backs for me!!! Thank you soooo much.

BTW, anyone just cruising by this post, it might be just me, but the advertisements at the very end of it are so dear. Just take a peek, so funny!

Re: The Last Question

#30

Post by ido » Thu, Jun 09, 2022, 5:08 AM UTC

zw123456 wrote: post #26

One of my favorite things about HN, is how, every once in a while, some obscure cool thing I have not hear about before gets pointed out, which, I find cool. But then, we "hug it to death" in the HN vernacular. Which is also really cool. Some neglected corner of the web that someone cared about, suddenly, a bunch of us nerds jump on it and recognize the nerd-coolness of it. I love that. Hope this was OK to say and no…

I remember first experiencing that in the early days of slashdot (must have been late 90s). It subjectively feels like such moments were more common back then.