After seeing a planetarium adaptation of his work, Asimov "privately" concluded that the story was his best science fiction yet written.

I left him convinced I could read minds at a distance of a thousand miles.The story centers around Multivac, a self-adjusting and self-correcting computer.

That is equivalent to asking, "Can the workings of the second law of thermodynamics (used in the story as the increase of the entropy of the universe) be reversed?"

These new eras highlight humanity's goals of searching for "more"; more space, more energy, more planets to inhabit once the current one becomes overcrowded.

AC is still unable to answer but continues to ponder the question even after space and time cease to exist.

And there was light—Although science and religion are frequently presented as having an oppositional relationship,[7] "The Last Question" explores some biblical contexts ("Let there be light").

In Asimov's story, aspects like the great meaning of existence are culminated through both technology and human knowledge.

[9] It subsequently played at the: In 1989 Asimov updated the star show adaptation to add in quasars and black holes.

[17] Douglas Adams's Deep Thought (from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) seems to make a nod towards Multivac, at least in the 2005 film, saying that there is insufficient data for an answer.