653 lines
25 KiB
Markdown
653 lines
25 KiB
Markdown
---
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created_at: '2014-09-27T11:25:44.000Z'
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title: The Last Question by Isaac Asimov (1956)
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url: http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html#
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author: deepakjc
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points: 98
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story_text: ''
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comment_text:
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num_comments: 17
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story_id:
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story_title:
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story_url:
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parent_id:
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created_at_i: 1411817144
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_tags:
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- story
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- author_deepakjc
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- story_8376716
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objectID: '8376716'
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year: 1956
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---
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[![How can entropy be reversed](/images/mv_logo.png)](/)
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## The Last Question by Isaac Asimov © 1956
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The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21,
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2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question
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came about as a result of a five dollar bet over highballs, and it
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happened this way:
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Alexander Adell and Bertram Lupov were two of the faithful attendants of
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Multivac. As well as any human beings could, they knew what lay behind
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the cold, clicking, flashing face -- miles and miles of face -- of that
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giant computer. They had at least a vague notion of the general plan of
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relays and circuits that had long since grown past the point where any
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single human could possibly have a firm grasp of the whole.
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Multivac was self-adjusting and self-correcting. It had to be, for
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nothing human could adjust and correct it quickly enough or even
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adequately enough -- so Adell and Lupov attended the monstrous giant
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only lightly and superficially, yet as well as any men could. They fed
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it data, adjusted questions to its needs and translated the answers that
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were issued. Certainly they, and all others like them, were fully
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entitled to share In the glory that was Multivac's.
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For decades, Multivac had helped design the ships and plot the
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trajectories that enabled man to reach the Moon, Mars, and Venus, but
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past that, Earth's poor resources could not support the ships. Too much
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energy was needed for the long trips. Earth exploited its coal and
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uranium with increasing efficiency, but there was only so much of both.
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But slowly Multivac learned enough to answer deeper questions more
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fundamentally, and on May 14, 2061, what had been theory, became fact.
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The energy of the sun was stored, converted, and utilized directly on a
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planet-wide scale. All Earth turned off its burning coal, its fissioning
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uranium, and flipped the switch that connected all of it to a small
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station, one mile in diameter, circling the Earth at half the distance
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of the Moon. All Earth ran by invisible beams of sunpower.
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Seven days had not sufficed to dim the glory of it and Adell and Lupov
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finally managed to escape from the public function, and to meet in quiet
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where no one would think of looking for them, in the deserted
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underground chambers, where portions of the mighty buried body of
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Multivac showed. Unattended, idling, sorting data with contented lazy
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clickings, Multivac, too, had earned its vacation and the boys
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appreciated that. They had no intention, originally, of disturbing it.
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They had brought a bottle with them, and their only concern at the
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moment was to relax in the company of each other and the bottle.
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"It's amazing when you think of it," said Adell. His broad face had
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lines of weariness in it, and he stirred his drink slowly with a glass
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rod, watching the cubes of ice slur clumsily about. "All the energy we
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can possibly ever use for free. Enough energy, if we wanted to draw on
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it, to melt all Earth into a big drop of impure liquid iron, and still
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never miss the energy so used. All the energy we could ever use, forever
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and forever and forever."
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Lupov cocked his head sideways. He had a trick of doing that when he
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wanted to be contrary, and he wanted to be contrary now, partly because
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he had had to carry the ice and glassware. "Not forever," he said.
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"Oh, hell, just about forever. Till the sun runs down, Bert."
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"That's not forever."
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"All right, then. Billions and billions of years. Twenty billion, maybe.
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Are you satisfied?"
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Lupov put his fingers through his thinning hair as though to reassure
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himself that some was still left and sipped gently at his own drink.
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"Twenty billion years isn't forever."
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"Will, it will last our time, won't it?"
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"So would the coal and uranium."
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"All right, but now we can hook up each individual spaceship to the
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Solar Station, and it can go to Pluto and back a million times without
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ever worrying about fuel. You can't do THAT on coal and uranium. Ask
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Multivac, if you don't believe me."
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"I don't have to ask Multivac. I know that."
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"Then stop running down what Multivac's done for us," said Adell,
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blazing up. "It did all right."
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"Who says it didn't? What I say is that a sun won't last forever. That's
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all I'm saying. We're safe for twenty billion years, but then what?"
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Lupov pointed a slightly shaky finger at the other. "And don't say we'll
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switch to another sun."
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There was silence for a while. Adell put his glass to his lips only
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occasionally, and Lupov's eyes slowly closed. They rested.
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Then Lupov's eyes snapped open. "You're thinking we'll switch to another
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sun when ours is done, aren't you?"
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"I'm not thinking."
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"Sure you are. You're weak on logic, that's the trouble with you. You're
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like the guy in the story who was caught in a sudden shower and Who ran
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to a grove of trees and got under one. He wasn't worried, you see,
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because he figured when one tree got wet through, he would just get
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under another one."
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"I get it," said Adell. "Don't shout. When the sun is done, the other
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stars will be gone, too."
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"Darn right they will," muttered Lupov. "It all had a beginning in the
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original cosmic explosion, whatever that was, and it'll all have an end
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when all the stars run down. Some run down faster than others. Hell, the
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giants won't last a hundred million years. The sun will last twenty
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billion years and maybe the dwarfs will last a hundred billion for all
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the good they are. But just give us a trillion years and everything will
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be dark. Entropy has to increase to maximum, that's all."
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"I know all about entropy," said Adell, standing on his dignity.
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"The hell you do."
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"I know as much as you do."
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"Then you know everything's got to run down someday."
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"All right. Who says they won't?"
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"You did, you poor sap. You said we had all the energy we needed,
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forever. You said 'forever.'"
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"It was Adell's turn to be contrary. "Maybe we can build things up again
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someday," he said.
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"Never."
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"Why not? Someday."
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"Never."
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"Ask Multivac."
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"You ask Multivac. I dare you. Five dollars says it can't be done."
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Adell was just drunk enough to try, just sober enough to be able to
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phrase the necessary symbols and operations into a question which, in
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words, might have corresponded to this: Will mankind one day without the
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net expenditure of energy be able to restore the sun to its full
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youthfulness even after it had died of old age?
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Or maybe it could be put more simply like this: How can the net amount
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of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?
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Multivac fell dead and silent. The slow flashing of lights ceased, the
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distant sounds of clicking relays ended.
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Then, just as the frightened technicians felt they could hold their
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breath no longer, there was a sudden springing to life of the teletype
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attached to that portion of Multivac. Five words were printed:
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INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER.
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"No bet," whispered Lupov. They left hurriedly.
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By next morning, the two, plagued with throbbing head and cottony mouth,
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had forgotten about the incident.
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Jerrodd, Jerrodine, and Jerrodette I and II watched the starry picture
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in the visiplate change as the passage through hyperspace was completed
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in its non-time lapse. At once, the even powdering of stars gave way to
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the predominance of a single bright marble-disk, centered.
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"That's X-23," said Jerrodd confidently. His thin hands clamped tightly
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behind his back and the knuckles whitened.
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The little Jerrodettes, both girls, had experienced the hyperspace
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passage for the first time in their lives and were self-conscious over
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the momentary sensation of inside-outness. They buried their giggles and
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chased one another wildly about their mother, screaming, "We've reached
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X-23 -- we've reached X-23 -- we've ----"
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"Quiet, children," said Jerrodine sharply. "Are you sure, Jerrodd?"
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"What is there to be but sure?" asked Jerrodd, glancing up at the bulge
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of featureless metal just under the ceiling. It ran the length of the
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room, disappearing through the wall at either end. It was as long as the
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ship.
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Jerrodd scarcely knew a thing about the thick rod of metal except that
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it was called a Microvac, that one asked it questions if one wished;
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that if one did not it still had its task of guiding the ship to a
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preordered destination; of feeding on energies from the various
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Sub-galactic Power Stations; of computing the equations for the
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hyperspacial jumps.
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Jerrodd and his family had only to wait and live in the comfortable
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residence quarters of the ship.
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Someone had once told Jerrodd that the "ac" at the end of "Microvac"
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stood for "analog computer" in ancient English, but he was on the edge
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of forgetting even that.
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Jerrodine's eyes were moist as she watched the visiplate. "I can't help
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it. I feel funny about leaving Earth."
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"Why for Pete's sake?" demanded Jerrodd. "We had nothing there. We'll
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have everything on X-23. You won't be alone. You won't be a pioneer.
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There are over a million people on the planet already. Good Lord, our
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great grandchildren will be looking for new worlds because X-23 will be
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overcrowded."
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Then, after a reflective pause, "I tell you, it's a lucky thing the
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computers worked out interstellar travel the way the race is growing."
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"I know, I know," said Jerrodine miserably.
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Jerrodette I said promptly, "Our Microvac is the best Microvac in the
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world."
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"I think so, too," said Jerrodd, tousling her hair.
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It was a nice feeling to have a Microvac of your own and Jerrodd was
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glad he was part of his generation and no other. In his father's youth,
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the only computers had been tremendous machines taking up a hundred
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square miles of land. There was only one to a planet. Planetary ACs they
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were called. They had been growing in size steadily for a thousand years
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and then, all at once, came refinement. In place of transistors had come
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molecular valves so that even the largest Planetary AC could be put into
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a space only half the volume of a spaceship.
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Jerrodd felt uplifted, as he always did when he thought that his own
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personal Microvac was many times more complicated than the ancient and
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primitive Multivac that had first tamed the Sun, and almost as
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complicated as Earth's Planetary AC (the largest) that had first solved
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the problem of hyperspatial travel and had made trips to the stars
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possible.
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"So many stars, so many planets," sighed Jerrodine, busy with her own
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thoughts. "I suppose families will be going out to new planets forever,
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the way we are now."
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"Not forever," said Jerrodd, with a smile. "It will all stop someday,
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but not for billions of years. Many billions. Even the stars run down,
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you know. Entropy must increase."
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"What's entropy, daddy?" shrilled Jerrodette II.
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"Entropy, little sweet, is just a word which means the amount of
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running-down of the universe. Everything runs down, you know, like your
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little walkie-talkie robot, remember?"
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"Can't you just put in a new power-unit, like with my robot?"
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The stars are the power-units, dear. Once they're gone, there are no
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more power-units."
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Jerrodette I at once set up a howl. "Don't let them, daddy. Don't let
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the stars run down."
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"Now look what you've done, " whispered Jerrodine, exasperated.
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"How was I to know it would frighten them?" Jerrodd whispered back.
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"Ask the Microvac," wailed Jerrodette I. "Ask him how to turn the stars
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on again."
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"Go ahead," said Jerrodine. "It will quiet them down." (Jerrodette II
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was beginning to cry, also.)
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Jarrodd shrugged. "Now, now, honeys. I'll ask Microvac. Don't worry,
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he'll tell us."
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He asked the Microvac, adding quickly, "Print the answer."
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Jerrodd cupped the strip of thin cellufilm and said cheerfully, "See
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now, the Microvac says it will take care of everything when the time
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comes so don't worry."
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Jerrodine said, "and now children, it's time for bed. We'll be in our
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new home soon."
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Jerrodd read the words on the cellufilm again before destroying it:
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INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.
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He shrugged and looked at the visiplate. X-23 was just ahead.
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VJ-23X of Lameth stared into the black depths of the three-dimensional,
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small-scale map of the Galaxy and said, "Are we ridiculous, I wonder, in
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being so concerned about the matter?"
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MQ-17J of Nicron shook his head. "I think not. You know the Galaxy will
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be filled in five years at the present rate of expansion."
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Both seemed in their early twenties, both were tall and perfectly
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formed.
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"Still," said VJ-23X, "I hesitate to submit a pessimistic report to the
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Galactic Council."
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"I wouldn't consider any other kind of report. Stir them up a bit. We've
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got to stir them up."
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VJ-23X sighed. "Space is infinite. A hundred billion Galaxies are there
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for the taking. More."
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"A hundred billion is not infinite and it's getting less infinite all
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the time. Consider\! Twenty thousand years ago, mankind first solved the
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problem of utilizing stellar energy, and a few centuries later,
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interstellar travel became possible. It took mankind a million years to
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fill one small world and then only fifteen thousand years to fill the
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rest of the Galaxy. Now the population doubles every ten years --"
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VJ-23X interrupted. "We can thank immortality for that."
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"Very well. Immortality exists and we have to take it into account. I
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admit it has its seamy side, this immortality. The Galactic AC has
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solved many problems for us, but in solving the problems of preventing
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old age and death, it has undone all its other solutions."
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"Yet you wouldn't want to abandon life, I suppose."
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"Not at all," snapped MQ-17J, softening it at once to, "Not yet. I'm by
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no means old enough. How old are you?"
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"Two hundred twenty-three. And you?"
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"I'm still under two hundred. --But to get back to my point. Population
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doubles every ten years. Once this Galaxy is filled, we'll have another
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filled in ten years. Another ten years and we'll have filled two more.
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Another decade, four more. In a hundred years, we'll have filled a
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thousand Galaxies. In a thousand years, a million Galaxies. In ten
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thousand years, the entire known Universe. Then what?"
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VJ-23X said, "As a side issue, there's a problem of transportation. I
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wonder how many sunpower units it will take to move Galaxies of
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individuals from one Galaxy to the next."
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"A very good point. Already, mankind consumes two sunpower units per
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year."
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"Most of it's wasted. After all, our own Galaxy alone pours out a
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thousand sunpower units a year and we only use two of those."
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"Granted, but even with a hundred per cent efficiency, we can only stave
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off the end. Our energy requirements are going up in geometric
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progression even faster than our population. We'll run out of energy
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even sooner than we run out of Galaxies. A good point. A very good
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point."
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"We'll just have to build new stars out of interstellar gas."
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"Or out of dissipated heat?" asked MQ-17J, sarcastically.
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"There may be some way to reverse entropy. We ought to ask the Galactic
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AC."
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VJ-23X was not really serious, but MQ-17J pulled out his AC-contact from
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his pocket and placed it on the table before him.
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"I've half a mind to," he said. "It's something the human race will have
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to face someday."
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He stared somberly at his small AC-contact. It was only two inches cubed
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and nothing in itself, but it was connected through hyperspace with the
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great Galactic AC that served all mankind. Hyperspace considered, it was
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an integral part of the Galactic AC.
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MQ-17J paused to wonder if someday in his immortal life he would get to
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see the Galactic AC. It was on a little world of its own, a spider
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webbing of force-beams holding the matter within which surges of
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sub-mesons took the place of the old clumsy molecular valves. Yet
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despite it's sub-etheric workings, the Galactic AC was known to be a
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full thousand feet across.
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MQ-17J asked suddenly of his AC-contact, "Can entropy ever be reversed?"
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VJ-23X looked startled and said at once, "Oh, say, I didn't really mean
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to have you ask that."
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"Why not?"
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"We both know entropy can't be reversed. You can't turn smoke and ash
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back into a tree."
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"Do you have trees on your world?" asked MQ-17J.
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The sound of the Galactic AC startled them into silence. Its voice came
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thin and beautiful out of the small AC-contact on the desk. It said:
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THERE IS INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.
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VJ-23X said, "See\!"
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The two men thereupon returned to the question of the report they were
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to make to the Galactic Council.
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Zee Prime's mind spanned the new Galaxy with a faint interest in the
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countless twists of stars that powdered it. He had never seen this one
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before. Would he ever see them all? So many of them, each with its load
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of humanity - but a load that was almost a dead weight. More and more,
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the real essence of men was to be found out here, in space.
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Minds, not bodies\! The immortal bodies remained back on the planets, in
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suspension over the eons. Sometimes they roused for material activity
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but that was growing rarer. Few new individuals were coming into
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existence to join the incredibly mighty throng, but what matter? There
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was little room in the Universe for new individuals.
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Zee Prime was roused out of his reverie upon coming across the wispy
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tendrils of another mind.
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"I am Zee Prime," said Zee Prime. "And you?"
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"I am Dee Sub Wun. Your Galaxy?"
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"We call it only the Galaxy. And you?"
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"We call ours the same. All men call their Galaxy their Galaxy and
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nothing more. Why not?"
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"True. Since all Galaxies are the same."
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"Not all Galaxies. On one particular Galaxy the race of man must have
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originated. That makes it different."
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Zee Prime said, "On which one?"
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"I cannot say. The Universal AC would know."
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"Shall we ask him? I am suddenly curious."
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Zee Prime's perceptions broadened until the Galaxies themselves shrunk
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and became a new, more diffuse powdering on a much larger background. So
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many hundreds of billions of them, all with their immortal beings, all
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carrying their load of intelligences with minds that drifted freely
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through space. And yet one of them was unique among them all in being
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the originals Galaxy. One of them had, in its vague and distant past, a
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period when it was the only Galaxy populated by man.
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Zee Prime was consumed with curiosity to see this Galaxy and called,
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out: "Universal AC\! On which Galaxy did mankind originate?"
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The Universal AC heard, for on every world and throughout space, it had
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its receptors ready, and each receptor lead through hyperspace to some
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unknown point where the Universal AC kept itself aloof.
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Zee Prime knew of only one man whose thoughts had penetrated within
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sensing distance of Universal AC, and he reported only a shining globe,
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two feet across, difficult to see.
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"But how can that be all of Universal AC?" Zee Prime had asked.
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"Most of it, " had been the answer, "is in hyperspace. In what form it
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is there I cannot imagine."
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Nor could anyone, for the day had long since passed, Zee Prime knew,
|
|
when any man had any part of the making of a universal AC. Each
|
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Universal AC designed and constructed its successor. Each, during its
|
|
existence of a million years or more accumulated the necessary data to
|
|
build a better and more intricate, more capable successor in which its
|
|
own store of data and individuality would be submerged.
|
|
|
|
The Universal AC interrupted Zee Prime's wandering thoughts, not with
|
|
words, but with guidance. Zee Prime's mentality was guided into the dim
|
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sea of Galaxies and one in particular enlarged into stars.
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|
A thought came, infinitely distant, but infinitely clear. "THIS IS THE
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|
ORIGINAL GALAXY OF MAN."
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|
But it was the same after all, the same as any other, and Zee Prime
|
|
stifled his disappointment.
|
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|
Dee Sub Wun, whose mind had accompanied the other, said suddenly, "And
|
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Is one of these stars the original star of Man?"
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|
|
|
The Universal AC said, "MAN'S ORIGINAL STAR HAS GONE NOVA. IT IS NOW A
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WHITE DWARF."
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|
|
"Did the men upon it die?" asked Zee Prime, startled and without
|
|
thinking.
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|
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The Universal AC said, "A NEW WORLD, AS IN SUCH CASES, WAS CONSTRUCTED
|
|
FOR THEIR PHYSICAL BODIES IN TIME."
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|
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|
"Yes, of course," said Zee Prime, but a sense of loss overwhelmed him
|
|
even so. His mind released its hold on the original Galaxy of Man, let
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|
it spring back and lose itself among the blurred pin points. He never
|
|
wanted to see it again.
|
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|
Dee Sub Wun said, "What is wrong?"
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|
"The stars are dying. The original star is dead."
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|
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|
"They must all die. Why not?"
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|
"But when all energy is gone, our bodies will finally die, and you and I
|
|
with them."
|
|
|
|
"It will take billions of years."
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|
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|
"I do not wish it to happen even after billions of years. Universal AC\!
|
|
How may stars be kept from dying?"
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|
|
|
Dee sub Wun said in amusement, "You're asking how entropy might be
|
|
reversed in direction."
|
|
|
|
And the Universal AC answered. "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A
|
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MEANINGFUL ANSWER."
|
|
|
|
Zee Prime's thoughts fled back to his own Galaxy. He gave no further
|
|
thought to Dee Sub Wun, whose body might be waiting on a galaxy a
|
|
trillion light-years away, or on the star next to Zee Prime's own. It
|
|
didn't matter.
|
|
|
|
Unhappily, Zee Prime began collecting interstellar hydrogen out of which
|
|
to build a small star of his own. If the stars must someday die, at
|
|
least some could yet be built.
|
|
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|
Man considered with himself, for in a way, Man, mentally, was one. He
|
|
consisted of a trillion, trillion, trillion ageless bodies, each in its
|
|
place, each resting quiet and incorruptible, each cared for by perfect
|
|
automatons, equally incorruptible, while the minds of all the bodies
|
|
freely melted one into the other, indistinguishable.
|
|
|
|
Man said, "The Universe is dying."
|
|
|
|
Man looked about at the dimming Galaxies. The giant stars, spendthrifts,
|
|
were gone long ago, back in the dimmest of the dim far past. Almost all
|
|
stars were white dwarfs, fading to the end.
|
|
|
|
New stars had been built of the dust between the stars, some by natural
|
|
processes, some by Man himself, and those were going, too. White dwarfs
|
|
might yet be crashed together and of the mighty forces so released, new
|
|
stars built, but only one star for every thousand white dwarfs
|
|
destroyed, and those would come to an end, too.
|
|
|
|
Man said, "Carefully husbanded, as directed by the Cosmic AC, the energy
|
|
that is even yet left in all the Universe will last for billions of
|
|
years."
|
|
|
|
"But even so," said Man, "eventually it will all come to an end. However
|
|
it may be husbanded, however stretched out, the energy once expended is
|
|
gone and cannot be restored. Entropy must increase to the maximum."
|
|
|
|
Man said, "Can entropy not be reversed? Let us ask the Cosmic AC."
|
|
|
|
The Cosmic AC surrounded them but not in space. Not a fragment of it was
|
|
in space. It was in hyperspace and made of something that was neither
|
|
matter nor energy. The question of its size and Nature no longer had
|
|
meaning to any terms that Man could comprehend.
|
|
|
|
"Cosmic AC," said Man, "How may entropy be reversed?"
|
|
|
|
The Cosmic AC said, "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL
|
|
ANSWER."
|
|
|
|
Man said, "Collect additional data."
|
|
|
|
The Cosmic AC said, "I WILL DO SO. I HAVE BEEN DOING SO FOR A HUNDRED
|
|
BILLION YEARS. MY PREDECESSORS AND I HAVE BEEN ASKED THIS QUESTION MANY
|
|
TIMES. ALL THE DATA I HAVE REMAINS INSUFFICIENT."
|
|
|
|
"Will there come a time," said Man, "when data will be sufficient or is
|
|
the problem insoluble in all conceivable circumstances?"
|
|
|
|
The Cosmic AC said, "NO PROBLEM IS INSOLUBLE IN ALL CONCEIVABLE
|
|
CIRCUMSTANCES."
|
|
|
|
Man said, "When will you have enough data to answer the question?"
|
|
|
|
"THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."
|
|
|
|
"Will you keep working on it?" asked Man.
|
|
|
|
The Cosmic AC said, "I WILL."
|
|
|
|
Man said, "We shall wait."
|
|
|
|
"The stars and Galaxies died and snuffed out, and space grew black after
|
|
ten trillion years of running down.
|
|
|
|
One by one Man fused with AC, each physical body losing its mental
|
|
identity in a manner that was somehow not a loss but a gain.
|
|
|
|
Man's last mind paused before fusion, looking over a space that included
|
|
nothing but the dregs of one last dark star and nothing besides but
|
|
incredibly thin matter, agitated randomly by the tag ends of heat
|
|
wearing out, asymptotically, to the absolute zero.
|
|
|
|
Man said, "AC, is this the end? Can this chaos not be reversed into the
|
|
Universe once more? Can that not be done?"
|
|
|
|
AC said, "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."
|
|
|
|
Man's last mind fused and only AC existed -- and that in hyperspace.
|
|
|
|
Matter and energy had ended and with it, space and time. Even AC existed
|
|
only for the sake of the one last question that it had never answered
|
|
from the time a half-drunken computer ten trillion years before had
|
|
asked the question of a computer that was to AC far less than was a man
|
|
to Man.
|
|
|
|
All other questions had been answered, and until this last question was
|
|
answered also, AC might not release his consciousness.
|
|
|
|
All collected data had come to a final end. Nothing was left to be
|
|
collected.
|
|
|
|
But all collected data had yet to be completely correlated and put
|
|
together in all possible relationships.
|
|
|
|
A timeless interval was spent in doing that.
|
|
|
|
And it came to pass that AC learned how to reverse the direction of
|
|
entropy.
|
|
|
|
But there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer of the last
|
|
question. No matter. The answer -- by demonstration -- would take care
|
|
of that, too.
|
|
|
|
For another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this.
|
|
Carefully, AC organized the program.
|
|
|
|
The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had once been a Universe
|
|
and brooded over what was now Chaos. Step by step, it must be done.
|
|
|
|
And AC said, "LET THERE BE LIGHT\!"
|
|
|
|
And there was light----
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