What is Digg?338 Comments
- theshizzler, on 11/06/2007, -6/+186I see what he did there.
- JQP123, on 10/10/2007, -5/+134"Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived by man." --- Isaac Asimov
- MisterSam, on 10/10/2007, -0/+126Anyone liking this should also read his story "The Last Answer"
It's here: http://destructionoverdrive.blogspot.com/2005/06/last-answer-by-isaac-asimov.html - jwwbear, on 10/10/2007, -0/+105"Probably my favorite short story. I'll bet if you read it, that it will stay with you forever."
Not forever. Till the sun runs down. - Zaetha, on 10/10/2007, -4/+106
One of the greatest stories of our time. Science and religion united and explained, making sense. - Billiam627, on 10/10/2007, -3/+103By far my favorite Asimov short, and thats saying something because he has around 36,000 short stories...
- LarianLeQuella, on 11/06/2007, -12/+110Oh how deliciously blasphemous. :)
- notjamt9000, on 10/10/2007, -1/+93http://personales.ya.com/casitasoler/james/insufficientdata.jpg
- Ap31r0n, on 10/10/2007, -4/+68I'm glad to see more then the usual bush is a NAZI, Iphone, top ten, hawt chick, NAU, [PICs] garbage appear on the front page.
Keep it up. - mtrip, on 10/10/2007, -4/+60When I was a kid I looked up to Asimov a great deal. I was a devout little believer when I came across some of his writing dismissing religious belief and the cognitive dissonance between my own reverence of religion and admiration for this man laid the seed for my future de-conversion. Hell, I thought, if Asimov is an atheist it can't be all that bad. He basically legitimized doubt for me as a kid, which I'm grateful to him for doing, even more so than all the great stories.
- archath, on 10/10/2007, -4/+51talk about a deus ex machina...
- PhantomBantam, on 10/10/2007, -2/+46How short an attention span do you have?
- RunawayElf, on 10/10/2007, -4/+47I have found a new religion.
- Rikushix, on 10/10/2007, -2/+45Good old Asimov.
- jadenguy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+42then your universe will endstart with: "Let there be light [citation needed]"
- esotericguy, on 10/10/2007, -2/+34Whatever you do, DO NOT RESTART!
- esotericguy, on 10/10/2007, -6/+38HUZZAH FOR ONE OF THE GREATEST SCI-FI WRITERS EVAH!
- xioner, on 10/10/2007, -1/+33Been on Digg before, but worth digging up again!
- MrObjectional, on 10/10/2007, -1/+31I see what you did there.
- estvir, on 11/06/2007, -2/+30You spelt "stories" as "story's" - Wow.
- Phyltre, on 11/06/2007, -6/+33Want something really blasphemous? Look at how long ago it was that this story first front-paged.
- omarciddo, on 10/10/2007, -2/+29Not like it said "pic" in the title.
- warhawk08, on 10/10/2007, -1/+27wikipedia is my ac
- miriclaire, on 10/10/2007, -0/+21There is yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer.
- TwistedRonin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+20My father told us this story a couple years back. He said when he first heard it, it was in a planetarium (I think that's the right word) and at the very end, they cranked up the speaker volume and turned on all the lights.
- Sornos, on 10/10/2007, -3/+23I read this last time it was on Digg. Great story.
- NicksVideo, on 10/10/2007, -3/+22The has made the front page several times. Great story.
- crushfan, on 10/10/2007, -2/+21BOKONONISM FOR THE SALVATION!
- esotericguy, on 10/10/2007, -2/+21it repeats, which means that the universe mach1 was made,lived,and died then MultiVac recreated itself/universe
*duh
- Civil44, on 10/10/2007, -0/+18This is also my favorite story by him. Very good ending..
- hippykiller, on 10/10/2007, -1/+19Can you imagine the frame rates on a machine like that. HOLY *****!
- Mewchu11, on 11/06/2007, -2/+19The kicker here isn't that religion and science have melded sensibly. It's that even with our limited understanding today of how the universe works we can see that there is no real reason that this couldn't come about given enough time. We simply have to create a machine that has enough know how to create anther machine slightly better than itself, and the rest will do itself in a shockingly short amount of time considering. It could happen, and if Nick Bostrom had it right it has happened, probably more than once.
- micro506, on 10/10/2007, -2/+18More on the subject of an omnipotent machine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -2/+18you should stick with less challenging authors my friend.
- Fairly, on 11/06/2007, -9/+25Blasphemous? What's wrong with you wankers in the US anyway?
- saifatlast, on 10/10/2007, -4/+20Is it Christianity? 'Cause if so, I've got some bad news for you.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -2/+18Get off digg please. Go laugh at cats somewhere else
- rollem, on 10/10/2007, -1/+16My one regret is that I can bury you only once.
- CrackIsWack, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15You're not alone: it has been voted the #1 Science Fiction short story of all time, and it is also the #1 Asimov fan favorite. I think I read somewhere that Asimov himself liked it best out of all his other shorts, too.
- specialK16, on 10/10/2007, -3/+17I don't think Windows could have handled the universe. Hell, it can't even handle its own WGA server.
- Urusai, on 10/10/2007, -1/+15Interesting. In my consideration of (artificial) intelligence whilst in a CS graduate program, it occurred to me that the function of intelligence is to deduce the future so that it may be altered, a skill surely valuable for survival. However, intelligence cannot determine its own purpose, it must always be motivated by external causes outside its own reasoning. A finite chain of reasoning (necessarily finite given the correlation of information processing, entropy, and the mediation of relativistic limitations) must always begin with premises that are themselves ineffable (axioms, such as those of the natural world, for instance), and end with a conclusion. Choosing that conclusion cannot be intelligent in itself. If you apparently choose a goal intelligently, then you have to consider that you have chosen based upon some criteria. What Asimov has done is basically followed this chain of rationale back to Descartes postulate *cogito ergo sum* and terminated the chain there with the goal of creating a negation. The logical problem seems to be that it creates a self-contradictory chain of reasoning (and therefore presumably invalid) where you postulate "I am" but your goal is "I am not".
Bleah, I dunno wtf I'm talking about, which is why I'm no longer a grad student. Or maybe that's a good qualification for a grad student... - rhinopig, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13If you thought that was blasphemous, read "The Last Answer" also by Asimov. http://destructionoverdrive.blogspot.com/2005/06/last-answer-by-isaac-asimov.html
- mkyanksfan, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13Here's a link to "Nightfall" by Asimov, which I would rate as the second-best Asimov short-story, with number one being "The Last Question" of course.
http://doctord.dyndns.org:8000/Stories/Nightfall.htm - mediaphile, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13Yeah, it says right there at the beginning of the article that it was his favorite. Way to RTFA.
- Cranq, on 10/10/2007, -2/+15Great story. Here is a more concise story in the same general area by another great old time author, Frederic Brown:
http://www-zeus.roma1.infn.it/anzel/answer.html - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12thanks,that was a really great short story!
- iamnot, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12Thanks for the links, but am I wrong for wanting to find them online for free? 49 years ago Asimov penned this wonderful tale and still today it is held captive by those who feel they deserve for me to pay for their supper to enjoy it.
Perhaps I am. But only the internet knows, and it replies... Insufficient data for a meaningful answer. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+13
Only someone not in the U.S. would say THAT. See how that worked? Quit wasting people's time with your tripe. - atticus8, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11I wish faith had to be legitimized, rather than doubt. Faith seems like the one with a screaming need for a legitimizing experience. Doubt, as simply a good habit, seems pretty logical when you don't know much, and we (as in all people) don't know much about the spiritual world. And by "much", I mean nothing.
- Urusai, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11A fascist would just shoot you for not doing what you are told. Now I will tell you to go play in your sandbox and let the adults talk.
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