Space Forum / Astronomy / November 2007

Cactus Saul  Wrote that novel 35 years ago,and had the huge space ship
carrying the mammals (such as whales etc)  On NOVA yesterday they are
coming up with thoughts that the Earth's very large complex animals were
intellectually created. Hmmm They stole that from my "Stepping Stones"
I was alway ahead of my times.   Bert

OOOooo, great setup Bert!  As you may remember
from a few moes ago, i posted an answer to Mz. V.
when she asked about really cool planetariums.  I
had visited the one in Denver several years back,
and it was hosting its rendition of Asimov's great
and awesome story titled...

               _The Last Question_

The story takes you through several generation
jumps from present day until thousands of years
in the future.  Each time, someone ends up being
curious about "entropy", the gradual dissipation
of energy in the Universe.  So they ask the smart
computer of their age if there is any possible way
to stop entropy, and each time the machine thinks
and thinks and thinks, and then it finally comes
back with the response...

   "Insufficient data for meaningful answer."

Then, in the final stage, there are two entities in
the Universe, and together these two entities take
up all the space in the Universe.  They are so big
and use so much energy that the stars are blinking
out one by one more and more quickly.  One of
these entities is "Life" and the other is "Computer".

Life is getting concerned as it watches the stars
fizzle out one by one.  So Life asks Computer as
it has several times before, "Computer, what can
be done about entropy?  How can the dissipation
of energy be stopped?" And Computer once again
thinks and thinks and thinks, and then it finally
comes back with the response...

   "Insufficient data for meaningful answer."

as it did so many times in the past.  Finally, the
last of the stars blinks out, and Life ceases to live.
But Computer could not yet cease to exist.  Out of
all the billions of questions it had been asked all
through the eons of its existence, Computer had
been able to answer each and every question save
one--it had never been able to answer the question
about entropy.  So Computer began to dig and dig
and dig through all of the megatons of data it had
in its memory, searching and searching for the one
answer it had not been able to find.

After a great deal of searching, Computer finally
found the answer to the question about entropy,
the dissipation of all the energy in the Universe.

(Now, this is where the Denver Planetarium really
shined, because all at once three jolting things
happened after everything went dark.  It stayed
totally silent and dark for what seemed like an
eternity, and I was'nt even able to see my hand
in front of my face, it was so dark.  And then--all
of a sudden--and all at the exact same moment--)...

1.  Brilliant light filled the entire round room of
the planetarium, and

2.  BAM !  A tremendously loud, thunder-like
"BOOM" sent me about three feet out of my seat,
and

3.  A loud, deep voice exclaimed,

       L E T   T H E R E   B E   L I G H T !!!!

It was a show I will never, *never* forget!  Nooo
one does computer SF like Isaac Asimov, & Nooo
one does Asimov like the Denver Planetarium!

happy days and...
  starry starry nights!

Cactus  Saul  I dought if anyone spells as bad as me.   Still my
creative thinking I can match with his.  Lived longer,was smarter in the
sense I loved the QM theory.  In my spacetime I had the great
accelerators etc.  Bert