Last Question 原文.docx

1、Last Question 原文The Last QuestionBy Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov was the most prolific science fiction author of all time. In fifty years he averaged a new magazine article, short story, or book every two weeks, and most of that on a manual typewriter. Asimov thought that The Last Question, first copyr

2、ighted in 1956, was his best short story ever. Even if you do not have the background in science to be familiar with all of the concepts presented here, the ending packs more impact than any other book that Ive ever read. Dont read the end of the story first! This is by far my favorite story of all

3、those I have written. After all, I undertook to tell several trillion years of human history in the space of a short story and I leave it to you as to how well I succeeded. I also undertook another task, but I wont tell you what that was lest l spoil the story for you. It is a curious fact that innu

4、merable readers have asked me if I wrote this story. They seem never to remember the title of the story or (for sure) the author, except for the vague thought it might be me. But, of course, they never forget the story itself especially the ending. The idea seems to drown out everything - and Im sat

5、isfied that it should. The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five-dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way: Alexander Adell and Bertram Lupov were two of

6、 the faithful attendants of Multivac. As well as any human beings could, they knew what lay behind the cold, clicking, flashing face - miles and miles of face - of that giant computer. They had at least a vague notion of the general plan of relays and circuits that had long since grown past the poin

7、t where any single human could possibly have a firm grasp of the whole. Multivac was self-adjusting and self-correcting. It had to be, for nothing human could adjust and correct it quickly enough or even adequately enough. So Adell and Lupov attended the monstrous giant only lightly and superficiall

8、y, yet as well as any men could. They fed it data, adjusted questions to its needs and translated the answers that were issued. Certainly they, and all others like them, were fully entitled to share in the glory that was Multivacs. For decades, Multivac had helped design the ships and plot the traje

9、ctories that enabled man to reach the Moon, Mars, and Venus, but past that, Earths poor resources could not support the ships. Too much energy was needed for the long trips. Earth exploited its coal and uranium with increasing efficiency, but there was only so much of both. But slowly Multivac learn

10、ed enough to answer deeper questions more fundamentally, and on May 14, 2061, what had been theory, became fact. The energy of the sun was stored, converted, and utilized directly on a planet-wide scale. All Earth turned off its burning coal, its fissioning uranium, and flipped the switch that conne

11、cted all of it to a small station, one mile in diameter, circling the Earth at half the distance of the Moon. All Earth ran by invisible beams of sunpower. Seven days had not sufficed to dim the glory of it and Adell and Lupov finally managed to escape from the public functions, and to meet in quiet

12、 where no one would think of looking for them, in the deserted underground chambers, where portions of the mighty buried body of Multivac showed. Unattended, idling, sorting data with contented lazy clickings, Multivac, too, had earned its vacation and the boys appreciated that. They had no intentio

13、n, originally, of disturbing it. They had brought a bottle with them, and their only concern at the moment was to relax in the company of each other and the bottle. Its amazing when you think of it, said Adell. His broad face had lines of weariness in it, and he stirred his drink slowly with a glass

14、 rod, watching the cubes of ice slur clumsily about. All the energy we can possibly ever use for free. Enough energy, if we wanted to draw on it, to melt all Earth into a big drop of impure liquid iron, and still never miss the energy so used. All the energy we could ever use, forever and forever an

15、d forever. Lupov cocked his head sideways. He had a trick of doing that when he wanted to be contrary, and he wanted to be contrary now, partly because he had had to carry the ice and glassware. Not forever, he said. Oh, hell, just about forever. Till the sun runs down, Bert. Thats not forever. All

16、right, then. Billions and billions of years. Ten billion, maybe. Are you satisfied? Lupov put his fingers through his thinning hair as though to reassure himself that some was still left and sipped gently at his own drink. Ten billion years isnt forever. Well, it will last our time, wont it? So woul

17、d the coal and uranium. All right, but now we can hook up each individual spaceship to the Solar Station, and it can go to Pluto and back a million times without ever worrying about fuel. You cant do that on coal and uranium. Ask Multivac, if you dont believe me. I dont have to ask Multivac. I know

18、that. Then stop running down what Multivacs done for us, said Adell, blazing up, It did all right. Who says it didnt? What I say is that a sun wont last forever. Thats all Im saying. Were safe for ten billion years, but then what? Lupow pointed a slightly shaky finger at the other. And dont say well

19、 switch to another sun. There was silence for a while. Adell put his glass to his lips only occasionally, and Lupovs eyes slowly closed. They rested. Then Lupovs eyes snapped open. Youre thinking well switch to another sun when ours is done, arent you? Im not thinking. Sure you are. Youre weak on lo

20、gic, thats the trouble with you. Youre 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 wasnt worried, you see, because he figured when one tree got wet through, he would just get under another one. I get it, said Adell. Dont shout. Wh

21、en the sun is done, the other stars will be gone, too. Darn right they will, muttered Lupov. It all had a beginning in the original cosmic explosion, whatever that was, and itll all have an end when all the stars run down. Some run down faster than others. Hell, the giants wont last a hundred millio

22、n years. The sun will last ten billion years and maybe the dwarfs will last two hundred billion for all the good they are. But just give us a trillion years and everything will be dark. Entropy has to increase to maximum, thats all. I know all about entropy, said Adell, standing on his dignity. The

23、hell you do. I know as much as you do. Then you know everythings got to run down someday. All right. Who says they wont? You did, you poor sap. You said we had all the energy we needed, forever. You said forever. It was Adells turn to be contrary. Maybe we can build things up again someday, he said.

24、 Never. Why not? Someday. Never. Ask Multiday. You ask Multivac. I dare you. Five dollars says it cant be done. Adell was just drunk enough to try, just sober enough to be able to phrase the necessary symbols and operations into a question which, in words, might have corresponded to this: Will manki

25、nd one day without the net expenditure of energy be able to restore the sun to its full youthfulness even after it had died of old age? Or maybe it could be put more simply like this: How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased? Multivac fell dead and silent. The slow fl

26、ashing of lights ceased, the distant sounds of clicking relays ended. Then, just as the frightened technicians felt they could hold their breath no longer, there was a sudden springing to life of the teletype attached to that portion of Multivac. Five words were printed: INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANIN

27、GFUL ANSWER. No bet, whispered Lupov. They left hurriedly. By next morning, the two, plagued with throbbing head and cottony mouth, had forgotten the incident. Jerrodd, Jerrodine, and Jerrodette I and II watched the starry picture in the visiplate change as the passage through hyperspace was complet

28、ed in its non-time lapse. At once, the even powdering of stars gave way to the predominance of a single bright shining disk, the size of a marble, centered on the viewing-screen. Thats X-23, said Jerrodd confidently. His thin hands clamped tightly behind his back and the knuckles whitened. The littl

29、e Jerrodettes, both girls, had experienced the hyperspace passage for the first time in their lives and were self-conscious over the momentary sensation of insideoutness. They buried their giggles and chased one another wildly about their mother, screaming, Weve reached X-23 - weve reached X-23 - we

30、ve - Quiet, children. said Jerrodine sharply. Are you sure, Jerrodd? What is there to be but sure? asked Jerrodd, glancing up at the bulge of featureless metal just under the ceiling. It ran the length of the room, disappearing through the wall at either end. It was as long as the ship. Jerrodd scar

31、cely knew a thing about the thick rod of metal except that it was called a Microvac, that one asked it questions if one wished; that if one did not it still had its task of guiding the ship to a preordered destination; of feeding on energies from the various Sub-galactic Power Stations; of computing

32、 the equations for the hyperspatial jumps. Jerrodd and his family had only to wait and live in the comfortable residence quarters of the ship. Someone had once told Jerrodd that the ac at the end of Microvac stood for automatic computer in ancient English, but he was on the edge of forgetting even that. Jerrodines eyes were moist as she watched the visiplate. I cant help it. I feel funny about leaving Earth. Why, for Petes sake? demand