God = infinitely advanced civilization?

[Odin2005]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Question

The Last Question is a short story by science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It first appeared in the November 1956 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly and was reprinted in the collections Nine Tomorrows (1959) and The Best of Isaac Asimov (1973). It is one of a loosely connected series of stories concerning a fictional computer called Multivac. In conceiving Multivac, Asimov was extrapolating the trend towards centralisation that characterised computation technology planning in the 1950s to an ultimate centrally managed global computer. Asimov considered this story to be the best he wrote, placing it just higher than "The Ugly Little Boy" and "The Bicentennial Man." After seeing a planetarium adaptation, Asimov "privately" concluded that this story was the best science fiction yet written. "The Last Question" ranks with the other stories and "Nightfall" as one of Asimov's best-known and most acclaimed short stories.

This particular story deals with the development of a computer called Multivac and its relationship with humanity through the course of seven historic settings. The first is set in the year 2061. In each of the first six scenes a character presents the computer with a question, namely as to how the threat to worthwhile continued human existence posed by heat death can be averted. As the characters in the story recognize, the question is equivalent to: "Can the second law of thermodynamics be reversed?" In each case the computer finds itself unable to reply due to "insufficient data for a meaningful answer".

In the last scenes, the god-like descendants of humanity watch the universe finally approach the state of heat death and ask the Cosmic AC, Multivac's descendant, the question one last time. Cosmic AC is still unable to answer, but continues to ponder the question; it exists in a hyperspace outside of normal space and time. Eventually the Cosmic AC discovers the answer, but has nobody to report it to. It therefore decides to implement the answer and reverse entropy, creating the universe anew; the story ends with AC's pronouncement, "'LET THERE BE LIGHT!' And there was light—"

This climactic ending combines religion, philosophy, and science all together in the last two lines of the story. In the page above the ending, it is stated that "All other questions had been answered, and until this last question was answered also, AC might not release his consciousness." That AC would do so after having recreated the universe reflects the philosophy of Deism, the idea that God created the world and then withdrew from it.

Discuss

[Kutjara]

1. When I was growing up...

...this was one of my favorite scifi stories.

He wrote another one about a Jesuit priest who is chaplain on a starship that's exploring the remains of an incredibly advanced, cultured and peaceful civilisation, whose sun went nova and obliterated them. On the outermost planet, the priest discovers a time capsule that documents the entire history of this beautiful, angelic race of beings, right up to their extinction.

On the return journey to earth, the priest works out from the alien records the date upon which the alien star went nova, its magnitude and the date the light from the exploding star would reach earth. To his horror, the star was the Star of Bethlehem. The story ends with the priest trying to reconcile his faith in a God who would destroy a perfect society just to send a short message to a primitive planet hunderds of light years away.

[greyl]

2. "infinitely advanced civilization" is a bs meaningless phrase. nt

[lvx35]

3. I always loved that. ITs a timeless piece of work! nt

[Odin2005]

4. BUMP