The Last Question

[thnidu]

(From $SON)

Adapted to Imgur

http://imgur.com/gallery/9KWrH

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Comments

[catsittingstill]

? As I recall in the original story at least one of the characters that asks the question is a little girl. Perhaps I'm misremembering?

I didn't scroll all the way through because I recognized the story and that was a lot of scrolling.

The thing is everyone in the story assumes that humans are going to continue to be around until the heat death of the universe. I think that is an unwarranted assumption. Species half-life appears to be about a million years. The coelacanth did unusually well; it has lasted 500 million years. Why would we assume we'll reach ten billion--twenty times as long as the coelacanth?

Obviously I hope humans last a good long time, but assumptions of this sort have a tendency to pop me out of the story.

[thnidu]

«As I recall in the original story at least one of the characters that asks the question is a little girl.»
I was careless: I should have said "adult characters", and I've made that change. You're quite right, and that's kept in the comic: It's in the second time-view, or "act". In the story twin daughter Jerodette II asks daddy Jerrodd the question, and Jerodette I says "Ask the Microvac" [their ship's super-AI]. In the webcomic one child is a girl, and she asks the question; the other is a boy.

There's a crucial difference between Homo sap and the other species you mention: Humanity is capable of modifying itself, plausibly (at least within sf) including genetic modification, to adapt to changing conditions. Both the original story and the comic embody this, in developing ways that fit with the story:

In "Act II" of the comic, daddy and son both have blue skin (though are otherwise quite human looking), while sis and mommy's is pink. The story mentions no variation.

III: Mankind is immortal. The two conversants "both seemed in

[catsittingstill]

Yes, I see your point about "he" not just mostly ignoring the existence of "she" but continuing long after gender makes any sense.

I read it when I was much younger and these assumptions were the water I swam in, so I didn't notice it very much. But now it really sticks out. Progress happens.

[thnidu]

Yup. At least we have that.