Trivia / The Last Question

• Creator's Favorite Episode: Known to be Dr Asimov's favourite story.
• Science Marches On: In Science Fiction Favorites, the audiobook narrated by Isaac Asimov, he points out that the story is absent of any mention of black holes because scientists didn't really know anything about them yet. If he were to write the story anew, they would have been mentioned.
  • Dark energy and its potential role in the universe inflation/fate is also not mentioned. As is proton decay (or lack thereof).
  • Some of the numbers about how long various celestial objects or astronomical processes will last are also outdated. For example, the story mentions that the Sun will burn for twenty billion years, but the current scientific consensus is that it will be closer to five billion.
• Technology Marches On: Within just a couple of years of this story being published, the integrated circuit (aka the microchip) was invented, totally transforming how computers were designed. However, Multivac in the year 2061 still appears to operate like a bigger version of the sort of machine used by Alan Turing. Similarly, humanity learnt how to harness solar power way before 2061, when Multivac cracked the problem in this story (although we're still nowhere near the same level of efficiency.)

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