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The Last Question

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Re: The Last Question

#71

Post by gpvos »

gpvos wrote: post #56
codechicago277 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Thanks. I had read The Last Question already, but am among today's 10_000 for this story.

I have now read it. Interesting. The main theme is not entirely new to me; without spoiling anything, I hope I can say that the long-form, not yet finished web comic Gunnerkrigg Court[0] touches on a very similar idea as one of its main themes.

[0] https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1

Re: The Last Question

#72

Post by AndrewVos »

toombowoombo wrote: post #45
paraph1n wrote: post #27

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)

There's this really good animation on The Egg made by Kurzgesagt: https://youtu.be/h6fcK_fRYaI

Wow I didn't realise that Andy Weird wrote the short story behind this! Great job by Kurzgesagt - it was really moving.

Re: The Last Question

#73

Post by ciphol »

paraph1n wrote: post #27

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)

It's a good argument against murder, but not a good argument against theft.

Re: The Last Question

#74

Post by riffraff »

RajT88 wrote: post #25

This has a similar flavor to Arthur C. Clarke's 9 Billion Names of God https://archive.org/details/ninebillionnames00clar

ah-ha, I came here to see if someone else had mentioned this one, it's also one of my favourites.

But I would also bring up "Answer", by Frederic Brown[0], which is another take on the theme.

[0] https://archive.ph/jsRx9

Re: The Last Question

#75

Post by andybak »

Dammit. I'd conflated two stories in my head. Or imagined one entirely.

There's a similar story to the The Last Question (and it's not "The Last Answer")

In this story, the question was more "meaning of life" and the computer has the answer but those asking were incapable of understanding it. I seem to remember similar back and forth over time but that might be me getting mixed up between the two stories.

And no - I don't think it's Douglas Adams related.

Re: The Last Question

#77

Post by ciphol »

earthboundkid wrote: post #7
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.

It’s an atheist’s most religious dream to think of becoming one’s own creator. It’s nonsense, of course, but it definitely blew my mind reading it as a child. What set the parameters that the ultimate computer must work within? The ultimate computer can reverse entropy, but it can’t make its own reality. There are limits to the power of knowledge.

I think the issue is that Asimov uses "hyperspace" as a get-out-of-jail-free card for anything that seems to contradict physics. Faster than light travel? Possible through hyperspace. Infinitely powerful computers? Can exist in hyperspace.

Re: The Last Question

#78

Post by mcv »

TuringTest wrote: post #57
Thorrez wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point isn't about the dirt's abilities. The point is how did the dirt come to be in the first place (or really, the atoms, subatomic particles, and mass itself)?

Yeah but the missing point in the reasoning leading to that joke (and theological arguments) is, who created God? If you make the argument that a deity is its own creator and cause, that idea could be applied to the existing physical universe directly.

Which is kinda the idea behind the big bang.

Re: The Last Question

#79

Post by arethuza »

tshaddox wrote: post #49
evanb wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rabbi recently on the Lex Fridman podcast told a joke that went (roughly) like Scientists come to God and say "OK God, we've had a lot of progress lately in synthetic biology, genetics, engineering, etc. and we're pretty sure we know how you did it." God says "Oh really?". "Yes. We'll create living creatures out of dirt to show that we can do just as you did with Adam." God says "Wow, fantastic!" So the scientist…

Did God create the substrate he exists in?

No, it's virtualisation all the way down.
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