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Posted by ColinWright 6 days ago

Isaac Asimov: The Last Question (1956)(hex.ooo)
772 points | 301 commentspage 7
globular-toast 6 days ago|
I've read it countless times. It still brought a tear to my eye.
CamperBob2 6 days ago||
Another Asimov classic that deserves a revisit these days, if not an actual reboot: https://www.mathfiction.net/files/Mathfiction-AsimovIssac-So... (1.8 MB .PDF)

    Yet through it all the little computer learned 
    that in the world there existed a great many
    computers of all sorts, great numbers of them. 
    Some were Bards like himself...
LetsGetTechnicl 6 days ago||
One of my favorite short stories
dang 6 days ago||
Related. Others?

'The Last Question' [Isaac Asimov; 1956] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41971740 - Oct 2024 (3 comments)

The Last Question by Issac Asimov [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31743151 - June 2022 (74 comments)

The Last Question - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31675727 - June 2022 (164 comments)

The Last Question (1956) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18839078 - Jan 2019 (18 comments)

Asimov: The Last Question (1956) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15691277 - Nov 2017 (2 comments)

The Last Question - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10146821 - Aug 2015 (5 comments)

The Last Question by Isaac Asimov (1956) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8376716 - Sept 2014 (18 comments)

The Last Question - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5584807 - April 2013 (63 comments)

The Last Question - Isaac Asimov - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3691113 - March 2012 (41 comments)

The Last Question by Isaac Asimov -- 1956 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2467703 - April 2011 (5 comments)

The Last Question by Isaac Asimov - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1485286 - July 2010 (23 comments)

"The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1290590 - April 2010 (7 comments)

The Last Question -- Isaac Asimov - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=595419 - May 2009 (24 comments)

(Reposts are fine after a year or so, and in the case of perennials like this one, it's good to have a thread every once in a while so new user cohorts learn the classics.)

suzukivenom 6 days ago||
what a beautiful story.
eschulz 6 days ago||
I love this story. When I first read it online in college many years ago I was surprised, and disappointed, when I suddenly realized it was a short story. It's a great one to recommend to people.
jjoonathan 6 days ago|
Outer Wilds, the video game, does a brilliant job expanding on this theme if you're hungry for more. "There's more to explore here."

Warning: progression is gated behind knowledge so spoilers are worse than usual and The Algorithm will aggressively try to spoil you if you start poking too deep into "outer wilds" searches. If you like The Last Question and can fit a game in your life, Outer Wilds is a solid bet.

butz 6 days ago||
Color me surprised, when gemma-4 provided this answer: "Based on our current understanding of the universe, the short answer is no, it is not possible."
BFV 6 days ago||
right now making no sense
ANTHONY6632 6 days ago|
[flagged]
appplication 6 days ago|
Running it now but don’t have sufficient data to make a recommendation yet
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