The Last Question | Summary and Analysis

Summary of The Last Question by Issac Asimov

“The Last Question”, one of Issac Asimov’s best-known works and is also the
author’s favourite short story written by himself. It was first published in the November 1956
issue of the Science Fiction Quarterly. The story is written in the omniscient third-person
narrative and primarily addresses the question of cosmic entropy in the universe, and the
attempts of multiple future generations of human beings and computers trying to answer this
question.
Isaac Asimov was an American writer, and one of the greatest writers of science
fiction counted amongst writers like Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. A professor of
biochemistry at Boston University, Asimov’s stories use complicated scientific concepts and
theories and merge them with futuristic fiction to make him one of the most-read sci-fi
authors ever.

The Last Question | Summary

The story begins with the omniscient narrator informing the readers that the last
question was first raised, half-jokingly, on May 21, 1961, at a time when humanity has just
succeeded in a technological development that will permanently change the future of the
planet. The question was a result of a five-dollar bet between two computer engineers –
Alexander Adell and Bertram Lupov, both of whom are “faithful servants” of Multivac, a
giant, “self-adjusting and self-correcting” supercomputer that controls all major technological
and energy-based operations on the planet. Adell and Lupov ‘s jobs are to enter data in
Multivac, adjust questions according to its needs and translate answers, and they are part of
Multivac’s glory. For decades now, the computer has built spaceships and designed
trajectories of journeys to other planets, but Earth’s depleting energy resources, although used
with increasing efficiency, are unable to fulfil the tremendous energy requirements of these
missions.
However, on May 14th, 2061, Multivac transforms into reality what had only existed
in theory, when it successfully converted, stored, and utilized solar energy to fuel all energy-
based operations across the planet. After a week of constant media attention from the glory of
the most important technological advancement in human history, Adell and Lupov sneak off
to the underground chambers where Multivac is kept, to share a quick drink and celebrate. In
drunken amazement, Adell wonders aloud about how Multivac’s feat has made sure that
human beings have an infinite supply of energy that lasts forever. Lupov, however, disagrees,
and says that it will not last forever, but just until the end of humanity, for a few billion years,
which is certainly not forever. In the resulting argument, Lupov reminds Adell that even the
Sun won’t last forever, and Adell thinks of switching to another Sun when the current one is
exhausted. They discuss the theory of entropy, which is a physical property of objects in
thermodynamics that is connected with increasing levels of disorder or dysfunction in all
objects. In the cosmological context, it means that entropy will only keep increasing, leading
to all stars, planets and galaxies eventually running out of energy, signalling the end of the
universe.
 Adell optimistically says that maybe it would be possible to build up the entire
universe someday again, and Lupov bets five dollars saying that it can never be done. As
Adell enters the question “How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively
decreased?”, Multivac answers, “INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER.”
The next part of the story takes place centuries later, with Jerrodd, his wife Jerrodine,
and their two daughters Jerodette I and II, making a hyperspace (beyond time and space)
passage in their spaceship to reach planet X-23. In their spaceship is a Microvac, an
exponentially smaller, more complicated and advanced version of the Mutivac that was the
first computer to successfully harness solar energy to fuel the entire planet Earth. Microvac is
a smaller version of Planetary Automatic Computers (ACs), the computers that first enabled
hyperspatial travel, making trips to the stars possible. They were earlier much larger in size,
and only one existed on a planet, thus the name. Microvac is able to answer questions, guide
hyperspatial travel, and do all important tasks and operations, with Jerodd and his family just
waiting and living comfortably inside the spaceship until they reach their destination. As they
reach X-23, Jerrodine is sentimental about leaving Earth, which exasperates Jerrodd, who is
excited to start living on a new planet. He already anticipates that with the current rate of
population explosion, his future generations will have to settle in newer planets as X-23 will
be overcrowded. He was happy to have a personal Microvac and glad that computers have
figured out hyperspatial travel, letting the human race thrive even beyond the Earth. Jerrodine
supposes that families would forever be travelling to newer and newer planets, given the
unimaginable number of planets in the galaxy. Jerodd gently contradicts her notion of forever,
telling her that increasing entropy will ensure the end of all stars and planets, but not for
billions of years. Jerodette II asks what entropy is, and her father explains that it is “the
running down of the universe”. She asks if he cannot just replace the power units of the
universe, and her father explains that the stars are the power units, and as they end, so will the
universe. This frightens the girls, and Jerrodd desperately goes and asks Microvac how to
create stars again. The computer prints the answer, “INSUFICIENT DATA FOR
MEANINGFUL ANSWER.”.
The next part of the story takes place around twenty millennia later, as VJ-23X of
Lameth and MQ-17J of Nicron ponder a three-dimensional map of the galaxy, Milky Way,
concerned over the fact that in the current rate of population expansion, the galaxy will be
filled in five more years. They have to present a report on the same to the Galactic Council.
VJ-23X comments that there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the infinite space that can
be inhabited, but MQ-17J reminds him that hundreds of billions are not infinite. He reminds
his partner thus –
“It took mankind a million years to fill one small world and then only fifteen thousand years
to fill the rest of the Galaxy. Now the population doubles every ten years.”
This is the result of immortality, which has been made possible by the Galactic AC.
With no mortality to check the growth of the human population, it keeps doubling every ten
years and in a thousand years, the entire known universe consisting of thousands of galaxies
would be populated. VJ-23X adds the problem of transportation to the existing population
overflow, as a huge amount is necessary to facilitate intergalactic migrations of a galaxy full
of people-
“The current energy requirements are going up in a geometric progression even faster than
the population.”
Worried about the future, they discuss the possibility of building new stars from
interstellar gas and ask the Galactic AC how to reverse entropy. He takes out his pocket-sized
AC-contact that is hyperspatially connected to the Galactic AC and asks “Can entropy be
reversed?” The computer answers, “THERE IS INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A
MEANINGFUL ANSWER.”.
In the fourth part, Zee Prime explores the newest galaxy that he encounters, among
the millions of galaxies, each with its “dead weight” of mankind. The immortal bodies of
human beings were floating back to the planets in eons, while their minds floated freely
across space, travelling from galaxy to galaxy. The bodies would very rarely move for
necessary material functions, and there were very few new individuals being formed. The
universe was already overburdened with a load of humanity.
Zee Prime encounters another mind from another galaxy, Dee Sub Wun. As all men
call their galaxies “the Galaxy”, they discuss that all galaxies must essentially be the same.
However, Dee Sub Wun disagrees, reminding Zee Prime that the one galaxy in which human
beings originated, is different from all the others. Neither remembers which is the galaxy, and
they resolve to ask the Universal AC, a universal automatic computer whose visible physical
form is only a shiny globe of around two feet in diameter, while most of its actual body exists
in hyperspace in an inconceivable form. It is self-designing, and each Universal AC creates
its own successor. As they ask the Universal AC which galaxy man originated in, the AC
guides their minds to the Milky Way (although the name is not mentioned). Dee Sub Wun
asks which star was the original energy source for mankind, and Galactic AC answers that
“MAN’S ORIGINAL STAR HAS GONE NOVA. IT IS A WHITE DWARF”, meaning only
the core of the sun composed of the electron-degenerate matter remains, this form is called a
white dwarf.
Zee Prime asks if the men on the first planet die, and the AC tells him that “A NEW
WORLD, AS IN SUCH CASES WAS CONSTRUCTED FOR THEIR PHYSICAL BODIES
IN TlME.” At this, Zee Prime starts musing over the eventual death of all stars and all
mankind and the Universe. Although billions of years away, it will happen nevertheless as a
result of increasing entropy. He asks the Universal AC “How may stars be kept from dying?”,
and it answers, “THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL
ANSWER.”
In yet another part of the story, Man, with a million incorruptible ageless bodies but
one unified mind that freely floats across space, considers the dying universe. The galaxies
are dimming, and most stars are either dead or white dwarfs. New stars have been built from
the dust of old ones, some naturally, some artificially, but only one is built with the dust of a
thousand dead white dwarfs, and even those will come to an end. Man says that if used
judiciously with the direction of the Cosmic AC, the remaining energy will last for billions of
years. But Man says that even a billion years will end, and with it, the universe. “Entropy
must increase forever to the maximum.”
 Man asks the Cosmic AC how can entropy be reversed, and it answers “THERE IS
AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.” Man directs it to
collect the necessary information, and the AC says –
“’I WILL DO S0. 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.”
Man asks if there will ever be sufficient data to answer the question, or if it will
forever remain unsolvable, and the computer answers that “NO PROBLEM IS INSOLUBLE
IN ALL CONCEIVABLE CIRCUMSTANCES.” Man asks when there will be sufficient data
and the answer flashes, “THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL
ANSWER.” The AC promises to keep looking for data, and Man promises to wait.
In the penultimate part of the story, all stars and galaxies have run out of energy after
trillions of years of entropy, as one by one, Man’s individual consciousness fused with the
AC, “each physical body losing its mental identity in a manner that was somehow not a loss
but a gain.”. The last mind of Man pauses before the fusion and asks
“AC, is this the end? Can this chaos not be reversed into the Universe once more? Can that
not be done?”.
The AC answers,-
“THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.”
As the last mind fused, the AC existed only in hyperspace.
In the concluding section, all “Matter and energy had ended and with it space and
time”, and the AC exists only for the purpose of answering the last unanswered question, first
raised by two half-drunk technicians trillions of years ago. Without answering this question,
the AC cannot release its consciousness. All data has been collected and the AC spends a
timeless interval correlating that, and finally, the AC learns how to reverse the direction of
entropy. But no man or matter remains to be answered. However, the answer will solve that
problem, creating matter and life again. The story ends with an allusion to the Book of
Genesis –
“And AC said, “LET THERE BE LIGHT!” And there was light”.

The Last Question | Analysis

The story, astounding in its scale and magnitude, tackles one of the most fundamental
questions that has plagued mankind since its conception – is the future of the universe and
mankind infinite?
Entropy is a core concept in the laws of thermodynamics that has been used to
hypothesize how the universe will end. While we commonly believe the universe to be
infinite, most physicists and astrophysicists believe that like all things that begin also end, the
universe must also necessarily have an end, although it may be far from human imagination
and comprehension, thus the term “infinite”, as finite is all that exists within the limits of our
imagination.
The story also explores the ideas of human survival, evolution, and overpopulation. In
the story, the development of highly advanced Automatic Computers first leads to the
harnessing of solar energy, which appears infinite at first but eventually, runs out, leading to
the necessity of interplanetary, intergalactic, and finally, hyperspatial travel and fusion with
the last remaining AC. Artificial Intelligence has advanced to a level where it has far
surpassed individual and collective human abilities and has even made immortality possible.
Far from the stages where humans made computers, AI has reached the stage of development
where they can not only maintain the physical perfection and incorruptibility of human
bodies but are also capable of building the universe itself.
The fundamental inspiration behind such inconceivable extents of technological
advancement is still rooted in the human survival instinct, which keeps inventing newer and
better ways to stretch out the survival of the human race, even when the planet and the star
that were the origins of mankind no longer exist. Mankind has achieved virtual immortality
through the help of the Galactic AC, although that lasts only till the stars and galaxies last,
unable to sustain an exponentially increasing human population whose energy requirements
are even greater than their population.
The story also reverses one of the most common tropes of science fiction – the
conflict between humans and machines. While most sci-fi stories that feature advanced levels
of Artificial Intelligence depict the threatened and enslaved position of mankind at the hands
of computers, this story deals with the question of intelligence in a completely different
manner. The AI here, although more advanced and complex than most other fictional
depictions of computers, are in no way threatening to human beings. Instead, they are
fundamental to the survival of mankind despite the end of the Earth and the Sun, making
possible interplanetary and intergalactic travel that lets human beings populate the entire
universe. It is also important to note that although the more advanced of the several
generations of ACs portrayed in the story are completely self-reliant, their functions still
fundamentally serve the purposes of human beings, by answering their questions and making
their existence possible.
Even after Man ceases to exist, the AC cannot release its consciousness till the point
that it has not answered the last question that Man had raised, and solved that problem
accordingly. The final line where the AC has successfully learnt how to reverse the direction
of entropy and says “LET THERE BE LIGHT!”, is a quote from Genesis 1:3, echoing God’s
words during the process of Creation. The line draws a parallel between the computer and
God, and how the former has effectively replaced the latter and is capable of everything that
God is assumed to be capable of, including Creation. Like God, the AC is now both
omnipotent and omniscient. Having answered the one remaining unanswered question
reverses the direction of entropy and creates life from scratch. The difference however is that,
unlike God, all of the computer’s actions are directly or indirectly a result of human
motivation, making human beings the indirect masters of the universe.
The Last Question | Themes
Entropy – This is the most important thermodynamic concept that the story tackles, which is
defined as the extent of disorder, randomness, or dysfunction in any material object. The
story tries to answer the question of cosmological entropy, seeking to reverse the direction of
increasing energy consumption through increasing entropy which would finally result at the
end of the universe.

Artificial Intelligence – Artificial Intelligence, in the form of gigantic, self-reliant, virtually

omnipotent and omniscient Automatic Computers (ACs) are central to the story’s world-
building, answering all questions and making virtually everything possible. They replace God
in the futuristic universe.

Human Survival Instinct – Although the answer to the last question is made by a computer,
which also makes it practically possible to execute the solution and create the universe anew,
the motivation behind all of it remains the fundamental instinct of human survival that is able
to both threaten, end and create the universe. Although the ACs are infinitely more powerful
and complicated than human beings, they are still governed by the fundamental principle of
solving human problems, even after mankind itself ceases to exist, and successfully bring the
species and the entire universe back to existence by reversing the direction of entropy. Thus,
all advancements in technology and AI are fundamentally motivated by the human urge to
survive, despite all odds.

The Last Question | Characters

Man – Man is one of the two central characters in the story, represented in different
generations and stages of evolution as Adell and Lupov, Jerrodd and his family, VJ-23X and
MQ-17J, Zee Prime and Dee Sub Wun, and finally, Man as a unified, free-floating
consciousness. The plotline of the story is driven by the indomitable survival instinct of Man.

Artificial Intelligence/Automatic Computers– The ACs, omnipotent and omniscient, have

effectively replaced God in the universe of the story. However, despite its infinite power and
ability, the AC and all its generations like the Multivac, Microvac, Galactic AC, Planetary
AC, and the Cosmic AC, are all governed by the wants of Man, through answering questions
that Man raises and collecting and correlating data accordingly.

The Last Question | Significance of the Title

The title, “The Last Question”, underlines the core question that the story, and all of
humanity, tries to answer – Can the effects of entropy, which result in the inevitable end of all
things conceivable, be reversed?
Plot summary
The story centers around Multivac, a self-adjusting and self-correcting computer.
Multivac had been fed data for decades, assessing data and answering questions, allowing
man to reach beyond the planetary confines of Earth. However, in the year 2061, Multivac
began to understand deeper fundamentals of humanity. In each of the first six scenes, a
different character presents the computer with the same question, how the threat to human
existence posed by the heat death of the universe can be averted: "How can the net amount of
entropy of the universe be massively decreased?" That is equivalent to asking, "Can the
workings of the second law of thermodynamics (used in the story as the increase of the
entropy of the universe) be reversed?" Multivac's only response after much "thinking" is
"INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER."
The story jumps forward in time into later eras of human and scientific development.
These new eras highlight humanity's goals of searching for "more"; more space, more energy,
more planets to inhabit once the current one becomes overcrowded. As humanity's imprint on
the universe expands, computers have subsequently become more compact, as evidenced in
the "Microvac", a smaller and more advanced iteration of Multivac, noted in the second era of
the story, which details humanity's inhabitation on "Planet X-23". In each era, someone
decides to ask the ultimate "last question" regarding the reversal and decrease of entropy.
Each time that Multivac's descendant is asked the question, it finds itself unable to solve the
problem, and all it can answer is (linguistically increasingly-sophisticated) "THERE IS AS
YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."
In the last scene, the god-like descendant of humanity, the unified mental process of
over a trillion, trillion, trillion humans who have spread throughout the universe, watches the
stars flicker out, one by one, as matter and energy end, and with them, space and time.
Humanity asks AC ("Analog Computer"[a]), Multivac's ultimate descendant that exists in
hyperspace beyond the bounds of gravity or time, the entropy question one last time, before
the last of humanity merges with AC and disappears. AC is still unable to answer but
continues to ponder the question even after space and time cease to exist. AC ultimately
realizes that it has not yet combined all of its available data in every possible combination
and so begins the arduous process of rearranging and combining every last bit of information
that it has gained throughout the eons and through its fusion with humanity. Eventually AC
discovers the answer—that the reversal of entropy is, in fact, possible—but has nobody to
report it to, since the universe is already dead. It therefore decides to answer by
demonstration. The story ends with AC's pronouncement:
And AC said: "LET THERE BE LIGHT!" And there was light—

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