The Last Question


So, I read an odd little story by Issac Asimov for the final week of the class. It was about a machine, and a final question someone asked it, oddly familiar to the most important question asked in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Here however we have a story that’s less complicated. Instead we have to guys arguing over the meaning of forever essentially. Which really turns into a critique on modern morals. Of how we use things for as long as we can with the expectation to just move on once we’ve used every last drop. It, just like all good science fiction satire, which I got to say this is kind of light on, is what makes this story matter. It makes us ask ourselves a question. I like that about these stories. It’s like when films like Blade Runner make us ask a question about our humanity. Or when in Fallout 4, they begin to in a very similar vein ask you the question of how you would really know if you are or aren’t a synth. If that really matters. This story does the same, but with the meaning of forever. Forever for us or forever on the grand scale, and how much that question really matters. I think the computer not being able to answer in the end of this story is really because ultimately because the answer is up to personally interpretation. Just like the answer we get in Hitchhikers. It’s personal, and different for everyone. You get to decide.

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