Mind bending short story about Entropy and our perception of God - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Started : 12th Oct, 2024 - Finished : 12th Oct, 2024
I had already read this short story during my B.Sc.-1st year (as long as I remember). Again read it today,12th Oct,2024 in 1.5 hours.
Notable lines
Pg.2 Ten billion years isn't forever.
Pg.3 You're like the guy in the story who was caught in a sudden shower and who ran to a grove of trees and got under one. He wasn't worried, you see, because he figured when one tree got wet through, he would just gen under another one.
Pg.3 Entropy has to increase to maximum, that's all.
Pg.5 "Entropy, little sweet, is just a word which means the amount of running-down of the universe. Everything runs down, you know, like your little walkie-talkie robot, remember?"
Pg.5 "The stars are the power-units, dear. Once they're gone, there are no more power-units.
Pg.6 "The Galactic AC has solved many problems for us, but in solving the problem of preventing old age and death, it has undone all its other solutions."
Pg.9 Man's original star has gone Nova. It is a white dwarf"
Pg.10 Man said, "The Universe is dying"
Pg.11 Man said, "Can entropy not be reversed? Let us ask the Cosmic AC." The Cosmic AC surrounded ... ... Man said, "We shall wait."
Pg.12 Man's last mind fused and only AC existed, and that in hyperspace.
Pg.12 All other questions had been answered, and until this last question was answered also, AC might not release his consciousness.
Pg.12 The answer--by demonstration--would take care of that, too.
Pg.12 For another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this. Carefully, AC organized the program.
Pg.12 And AC said, "Let there be Light!" And there was light.
Notes
- The author, Isaac Asimov regarded this as his favorite short story. The ending literally give me goosebumps.
- The story consists of multiple timelines. Plot starts in May 14th, 2061 with the story of two friends and colleagues who are technicians for a Supercomputer "Multivac". They get drunk and begin a discussion on the meaning of the word "Forever" and the concept of Entropy.
- Throughout the story, various people tend to ask the same question to the Supercomputers(which grows more and more intelligent with time) available to them, Can Entropy be reversed ? And every time, the answer is same, "THERE IS INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER".
- By the time, Supercomputer(Now more advanced one which exist in hyperspace with all humans fused to it) comes up with the answer, everything cease to exist. And Supercomputer too should have been ceased to exist, but it just held on for the sake of finding the answer, since, unless it doesn't answer all the questions given by operator/humans, it can't release it's consciousness. Then, to deliver the answer to human race which is no more, the Computer says, "Let there be light,", And all was light. This is by the way, the beginning verse of Genesis.
References
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