The Horror of Eternal Life | Isaac Asimov’s The Last Answer

Summary and analysis of the short story The Last Answer by Isaac Asimov.

You can read the story in the following collections: The Winds of Change and Other Stories, The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov, and Robot Dreams.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:28 Plot
08:41 Eternal Life Sucks
10:27 Digital Cloning
11:12 Why Not Everyone?

[bobdadnaila]

If I knew I was eternal, I wonder how much more procrastinating I'd be?

[NikitaKyndt]

"Existing for 80 years is already a struggle", this something coming from a 20s years old someone who hasn't yet realized the cruel reality of how time or the passing of time is perceived the older you get. I'm middle aged and the fact no young person realizes is that the perception of the passing of time doesn't remain constant. It accelerates the older you get. Going from your young childhood to mid 20s will feel like an eternity while going from your mid 20s to 40s will pass in a blitz and everything coming after will move even faster.

[drzoidberg]

I think The Last Question goes over eternal life in a different way. A more idyllic way where humanity gets to do what it wants, vs this version where they are forced to do one thing.

[kencarpenter]

I've lived only 74 years and find many things boring. It almost seems like I've read every book, heard every song and seen every movie. The plots are all so familiar. I have to work at keeping myself entertained and I manage it most days, but it takes a definite effort. So I can't even imagine what a second hundred years would be like, or a third, or a fourth.

[raffriff]

We might already be eternal, but we're only aware of one short life at any given time.

[lumber-jack-]

Actually existing for an infinite amount of time could be fun if you’re capable of forgetting

[ClintonCrocker-ef]

Just want to say I recently found this channel and I love it.

[Robbie_Star]

I like that in the end, the purpose he created for himself is a paradox. Thinking for eternity to avoid thinking for eternity.

[alexhowe]

Two things. 1) eternity isn't bad nor good. Bad eternity is bad, good eternity is good. If ever you think of X thing that makes eternity feel bad to you, remove that X thing until no more exist. Congratulations you now found good eternity. 2) The interesting thing about this story is that the god is highly paradoxical in it's quest. If it can create a universe that creates minds that can find unknowns, then it has already achieved it's search for unknowns by creating the universe. Anything that creates an unknown is itself an unknown process, so the universe and the god itself are already unknowns. Entrapping humans is redundant because the god can just create unknowns on a whim.

[IceGoddessRukia]

Absolutely adore the scratchy art style.
And you're right! Imagine a board room, a BORED room if you will, of people just talking to each other? Sometimes the best ideas come from a group of people spitballing. IDK.

[rogeriopenna]

The Last Answer and The Last Question. Two of the best Asimov stories ever.

[DanSwart]

I have had to describe the concept of differently sized infinities multiple times, but using the example of knowing all even numbers but not a single odd number is such an elegant idea.

[brianpcox]

Its Egg Theory, but with Amnesia!!!! He forgot he was supposed to collect all those intelligences to create another god to have a friend to hang out with for eternity.
12:15 the answer after meditation should be to collect the others trying to kill it and combine/synthesis and destroy it.

[blusafe]

"The Good Place" for me approached this topic the best. Probably my favorite sci-fi of all time.

[jasanipitts]

A dog never gets tired of receiving love. Put that into perspective of what eternity actually is. Intellectual pursuit in eternity of course becomes boredom, think of it with your heart instead.

[lockedparadox]

I went on a rant so tldr:
what if the afterlife is just us combining with a extra dimensional hive mind being?




Growing up in a Christian home I always tried to break down the core idea of what the after life would be like even as a kid. Your discrption of the difference between bio-imortality and being Eternal reminded me of a thought I had once.

What if when we die, since we are parts/children of God, we would just be assimilated into that being. "Heaven" would be the feeling of being whole, like pieces of yourself you didn't know were missing finally coming together. I can see that being some Eldritch type stuff but this story resonated with that thought I had.

For ppl who didn't believe or "resonate" with some form of religion, "hell" would be your spirit/consciousness unable to connect with the original being you came from so you drift through the void becoming nothing more than a thinking concept grasping for answers no one can give for all of eternity until you loose yourself. Or at the end it doesn't matter and all get absorbed no matter what 🤷🏿‍♂️

Though that relies on the idea that the emotions we feel partially come from the soul because even with a map of your brain wouldn't you still need some thing (a body, the chemicals and hormones) to make you FEEL those emotions instead of it just being data? Like in this story, the mc is pissed, if he's just a brain map what gets his heart pumping? What do emotions look like for something that has no heart that beats faster when stressed? Is that also one of the factors would make an eternal person go insane? To know that you should feel something but you don't? Like ghost pain but it's your entire body down to the atom? If you've made it this far let know 😅

[FieldMarshall]

There is a video called "a journey to the end of time" or something like that. Basically its a timelapse of the universe while the video explains all the stuff that might happen in the future. 3 minutes into the video all the stars in the universe has run out of fuel and died, leaving everything in empty darkness. The entire video is 30 minutes long. It does a good job of explaining why eternal life would be the worst fate imaginable.

[dankomancer]

Damn. This blew my mind. I love that the voice works up the copied consciousnesses to find a way to kill him, while the copies also want to die. A shared interest.

[CLSGL]

I subbed to you a couple days ago and binged all your videos. I got super upset that I didn’t have any left.

Then you post another good one! The most hidden gem of YouTube I’ve uncovered in a long long time.

[PenDragonKinz]

I’ve been listening to you for about a week, while I’m at work doing boring spreadsheets. Today I’m still at home eating breakfast and popped this one on, and saw your face for the first time. Dude, you have cool hair!