asimov short story

[liana]

hi , my dad is looking for the title and book it was in of a asimov short story . all he can remember is that the robot had golike powers and at the end of the story he says "let there be light " thanks

 

[j d worthington]

"The Last Question" is the title of the story, and it's not a robot, but a computer. It's available in his collections Nine Tomorrows, The Best of Isaac Asimov, and Robot Dreams, as well as his retrospective Opus 100.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

You beat me to it JD

synopsis of the short story below.

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, used in the story as entropy, 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 before it merges with "Man." Cosmic AC is still unable to answer, but continues to ponder the question after space and time cease to exist. Eventually the Cosmic AC discovers the answer, but has nobody to report it to; the universe is already dead. It therefore decides to show the answer by demonstrating the reversal of entropy, creating the universe anew; the story ends with AC's pronouncement, "LET THERE BE LIGHT!" And there was light—"

 

[Ian Whates]

An excellent story. In fact, in the mid 1980s an editor called Josh Pachter contacted many of the top SF writers and asked them to nominate their very favourite from amongst their own short stories, and provide a brief paragraph or two as to why. He then published them in the anthology "Top Science Fiction" (1985)

Asimov's choice?

"The Last Question".

 

[JeanetteMax]

Actually, Asimov once wrote that "The Last Question" was always the story that people meant if they didn't know the title, but remembered the last line.

 

[Connavar]

Yeah i read that in wiki.

Which is why i thought this book search for this short story was funny.

 

[manephelien]

It may be Asimov's favorite story of the ones he's ever written. It certainly is one of my favorites among his stories.