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Theme The Last Question

The document summarizes and analyzes the themes in Isaac Asimov's short story "The Last Question". It discusses four minor themes that contribute to the major theme of humanity's survival amid an expanding and dying universe. The minor themes are: 1) the future of civilization and technological advancements, 2) the concept of a binding language, 3) the question of immortality and beating entropy, and 4) the interplay between ideology and material alienation as represented by the computer Multivac. The document analyzes how Asimov uses these minor themes to ultimately explore the major theme of ensuring humanity's long-term survival in the face of an inevitable heat death of the universe.

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Muhammad Mussawar
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1K views2 pages

Theme The Last Question

The document summarizes and analyzes the themes in Isaac Asimov's short story "The Last Question". It discusses four minor themes that contribute to the major theme of humanity's survival amid an expanding and dying universe. The minor themes are: 1) the future of civilization and technological advancements, 2) the concept of a binding language, 3) the question of immortality and beating entropy, and 4) the interplay between ideology and material alienation as represented by the computer Multivac. The document analyzes how Asimov uses these minor themes to ultimately explore the major theme of ensuring humanity's long-term survival in the face of an inevitable heat death of the universe.

Uploaded by

Muhammad Mussawar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Essay Question

Asimov utilizes minor themes of the story to build the major theme of the story. Analyze
and discuss.

‘The Last Question’ by Isaac Asimov is a science-fiction. It’s about the future of humanity and
civilization. The human civilization in this universe is threatened by the heat-death (entropy) of
the universe. So the ultimate theme of the story is the survival of human race in amidst of the
dying universe. This major theme of the story has been incorporated by some minor themes
which all lead to the major theme of the story i.e. the survival of human race.

Future of Civilization

Life as we know it comes and goes. Many, many years have past and the world that we are now
living in has undergone several transformations. The main theme of the story "The Last
Question" is the future of civilization. It explored the technological advancements that will
probably occur many years from now. But even if man had developed ways to make things
"happen", a question was never answered until man and all other forms disappeared except the
AC (automatic computer). "The Last Question" explores the scientific possibilities of life and
showed us that even if we have attained the highest technological possibility there is, in this
universe nothing can last forever. But with the helped of computers, something can still be done.

Theme of Binding Language

The story, ‘The Last Question’, begins with, “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 words “last”
and “first” immediately bring to light the issues of time and space. The concept of a binding
language is a recurring theme in The Last Question. The Multivac computer serves as the symbol
for ideology. The opening focuses on the constraints of language that has always existed and is
impossible to trace to one specific time in history. Although Asimov has theoretically placed an
initial starting date, the play on “last” and “first” as well as the concept of light, serves as both
irony and foreshadowing for the reader. It is the last question that inspires the first creation of
light and the continual loop of existence, absent from history.

Immortality

One clear question in the story is whether technology could, even in theory, keep us going
forever. The concept of entropy suggests that it can't. Our understanding of physics is that the
heat death of the universe if inevitable, and no matter how advanced we become, we can't ever
get around it. The message of the story is that this is the last and ultimate question that any
sentient species will ever ask, is there a way to survive forever? The answer, that Asimov posits,
is that any entity advanced enough to get past the laws of entropy would, effectively, be God.

The Interplay Between Ideology and Material Alienation.


The first information received about Multivac was that it was “self adjusting and self correcting.
“It had to be, for nothing human could adjust and correct it quickly enough or even adequately
enough”. The conceptual premise of the story is based around the question of entropy, the
eventual instability of all material resources. As the story progresses, each man asks the question
of its possible reversal. But Multivac is immediately externalized from any dependence on
humanity in order to survive. Asimov’s focus, however, is how material efficiency relates to
humanity’s alienation, and Multivac’s ability to harness resources in order to extend survival
results in the eventual destruction of all material life, including humanity, and all knowledge and
intelligence encapsulated in the computer.

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