"Matter and energy had ended and with it, space and time.

[sir pball]

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---

Best scifi story ever IMO.

[lastlib]

1. Asimov was an AWESOME writer!!

I read that story many times years ago. I remember that the first time I read it, that ending was so shocking, I dropped the book! like it was a snake popping out of a box. It's certainly on my favorites list!

Thnks for posting it!

[sir pball]

2. You'll enjoy this.

https://thelastquestionstory.com/

[lastlib]

3. That is cool!

Good find sir pball!

[sir pball]

6. It's what inspired me to post

It is my favorite story of all time, but that rendition is just mindblowing!

[Ohiya]

4. Here's another...

Dwan Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the subether bore throughout the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing.
He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe — ninety-six billion planets — into the supercircuit that would connect them all into one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies.
Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions. Then after a moment’s silence he said, “Now, Dwar Ev.”
Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flashed and quieted along the miles-long panel.
Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath. “The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn.”
“Thank you,” said Dwar Reyn. “It shall be a question which no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer.”
He turned to face the machine. “Is there a God?”
The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the clicking of a single relay.
“Yes, now there is a God.”
Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the switch.
A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and fused the switch shut.

(Fredric Brown, “Answer”)

[sir pball]

5. The early guys had an optimistic view of computers, didn't they?

I mean, realistically, we have ten times the computing power Brown imagined already networked, and we still can't stop entropy...

[Ohiya]

7. Yeah, back in 1954...

when I was learning to use a potty chair!

[sir pball]

8. Hell, I wasn't even a glint in the eye back then!

I was born way after ICs (79 here!) and the old stories still wow me..