🝰

Matter and energy had ended and with it, space and time.^500
All other questions had been answered, and until this last question was answered also, AC might not release his consciousness.^1000

^700All collected data had come to a final end. Nothing was left to be collected.^500
But all collected data had yet to be completely correlated and put together in all possible relationships.^2500

^700A timeless interval was spent in doing that.^5000

And it came to pass ^700that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy.^1500

^700But there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer of the last question.^500
No matter. The answer -- by demonstration -- would take care of that, too.^2500

^700For another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this. Carefully, AC organized the program.^1500
The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had once been a Universe and brooded over what was now Chaos.^500

^700Step by step, it must be done.^500
A^100n^100d^100 ^100A^100C^100 ^100s^100a^100i^100d^100,^1000 ^100 "^100L^100E^100T^100 ^100T^100H^100E^100R^100E^100 ^100B^100E^100 ^100L^100I^100G^100H^100T^100!^100"^2500
And there was light----^1500

-- Isaac Asimov,^1500 The Last Question.