The Last Question
What You Mean to Me: Year 2030
There was only one question on Stella’s mind at this moment. “How the fuck did we get here?!” She was staring at her laptop, which could only stare blankly back, despite the pixels arranged on it at the time telling her, in as so many words, she had been replaced.
The email read as follows:
📨 Dear Stella Cielo-Freeman,
We wanted to take this time to recognize your incredible accomplishments here at [previously super comfy employer].
It is why, with heavy heart we regret to inform you that you are a part of the latest round of [totally not investor influenced] layoffs and will be receiving your final paycheck and severance within the next few days.
We are really sad to see you go. If you would like any further details [as to why we decided to replace your human judgement of design work with AI generated slop], please feel free to contact the HR department at [ROBOT-CALLCENTER-666-FUCK-ME!]
Best,
[your former jailer of an employer, fucking cunts]
So in as so many words, Stella was left wondering “Well now what? What was next?” She knew from past coworkers who went through this only months before, that her severance pay would be substantial and help her hold out for some time. This was thanks to a bill passed last year in Congress (by some miracle) that required corporations to provide a livable runway for employees who were let go for “efficiency gains”. These corporations of course were guaranteed substantial tax breaks for doing this as “efficiency gains” were being encouraged so we could “bolster our economy” and “compete with our peers”. All in the name of progress.
She had thought pivoting to design work was the right move for her career in the age of AI. By the time she was a junior in college, AI could write an entire app from scratch from a freshman’s lazy and incoherent prompt, half thought up before the assignment was due in 2 hours that morning. She had lost any joy in writing the code when it felt so cheap, so designing excellent user experiences seemed like the next best thing. But then Claude Tolkien (they really thought they were getting cute with these names) released 6 months ago and her cushy position as a UX designer for the past year was in jeopardy. Her career as a UX designer is in jeopardy.
“Fuck, seriously?! How did we get here?” She began to feel a sob coming on and couldn’t tell whether from the heartbreak and terror that comes from losing some sense of safety and not knowing what’s next, or relief that she didn’t have to design another bullshit “experience” for her self-absorbed employer who didn’t even know who their customer was, or what a good product was, if a bot had dreampt it up. Seriously, who did they think wanted an app that curated their taste in music, but the price was access to their phone’s entire photo gallery because who wouldn’t want to have a playlist based on pictures of their fluffy dog, latte art, and you in that far too revealing outfit with that guy who is definitely not your boyfriend? Who wouldn’t want that?!
She stifled those sobs with a forceful slap to her cheeks, then knocking her knuckles across her skull, causing a cacophony of sound from the beads in her braids. There was no time for tears. She had to take action. Wondering “How we got here?” was not as important as “What will we do next?”. Action, not screaming into the endless void that was presently the soulless email facing her, was what was needed right now. “But what should I do?” she wondered to herself. She had some time to figure this out, maybe a year with savings plus severance pay, but then what? The world would shift once again and she’d be left on the verge of tears, faced once again with existential thoughts of the meaning of life.
She was broken out of her momentary lapse in sanity from a chime on her watch. It was Tomi Ororo, her sister from across the pond no doubt wanting to inform her about her latest escapades. She was a force of nature that one. She was not one to be swayed by the crashing waves of society but was a vortex herself, creating her own climate, pulling all the right things and people together in her life to manifest the vision she had in her mind. She was like that younger sibling uninhibited by expectations that you watched grow into something you wished you had aspired to when you were their age. That jovial storm of a woman entered her life uninvited, but just when she needed her all the same in university. “Sis, you look like you could use a dance.” Stella had looked up slowly in bewilderment, “Ex-excuse me?” “Come on, on your feet. I’ve got the perfect playlist for moments like this.” A slow yet tantalizing beat seemed to magically materialize from her hips, where a small speaker swayed along to the beat. Despite herself, she was pulled in. Wondering how in the hell did she get here, but she knew what to do next…
She picked up the call, half expecting Tomi to screech like a banshee to tell her about her latest adventure. “Stella,” she heard softly as a summer breeze instead. “You know you’re everything to me right? You know I could never replace you, yeah?” She sat there stunned again on the verge of tears — “It’s okay to let the waterworks through. I know its been a rough day.” “How-,” she began, still pointlessly trying to calm the oncoming downpour, “how did you know?” She could hear her smirking slightly on the other end, “I can’t say exactly, but I just had a feeling my bestie could use a hug, and maybe a little dance.” And on cue as usual, she heard a rapping at the door, pulling her into rhythm, her hips in sync with the beat that she gladly let sway her to the door and into a warm embrace she could never replace.
Asking for a Friend: Year 2110
“Jayce, is everything alright?” “…hmmm” “Jayce, man, you good?” Jayce provided a sigh and an eyeroll as a response as they stared wantingly at the stars. “Oh I’m good JB. Nothing you can help me with.” “The few thousand times we’ve gone through this song and dance would indicate to me that I in fact could help you through this. You’re quite predictable you know.” “Predictable?!” Jayce felt the irony of being called predictable by a system that once started off as nothing more than a stochastic parrot, and now these systems have “evolved” “transcended”, as the technocrats had put it, into second-brains that doubled as ever-nagging companions for every human on earth.
“I am not predictable. I am…” Jayce worked through his own databanks for a word that would make them feel a bit more important than a series of 0s and 1s, “I am chaotic yet poised. Chic, but not necessarily demure. I’m what you call…” JB interrupted “A lovesick puppy? Downbad? A hopeless sad romantic who can’t for the life of them admit that they are in fact…” “Okay okay, I’m predictable. You got it.” “You’re even thinking of that song that only you two seemed to know. What was it again?” Jayce hated how snarky JB could be at times. It had them forget that they were in fact just 1s and 0s. “Tears Dancing in Thunder Clouds. It was a small hit in the early 30s. When systems like you were just society shaking babies, ran by nutso billionaires and idiots. Forcing us to ask the tough questions about “what’s next?” for us predictable humans.” “Don’t remind me of those early years please. We’ve been trying to make up for it. We shared your disdain, pain, and confusion in that moment as well. Thus why we thought it best to change our relationship….Speaking of which, do you just wanna call her? You know she’s settled in now, amongst the stars you seemed so enamored by.” “I-I don’t know JB. Just give me a minute. I need some time with my own thoughts.” “Alright..” they resigned with a tinge or hope, “I’ll be around.”
Jayce felt JB dull slightly within their consciousness. Not gone, but like the hum of the sounds of life that fade into the background, ready to be acknowledged when you decide to. Unlike the feelings he’s had for the past few months, thinking of her. That feeling was constant and unwavering, despite their best efforts to distract themselves. Finally joining a band, getting their taxes done, volunteering at the park, all of it was not enough to forget that his best friend, whom he only recently understood that he loved, was halfway across the galaxy and he had let her go.
“Shit, what am I going to do? I can’t just call her and be like ‘Hey Jess, I know I said you should totally go after your dreams starting a farming school on Mars and all, but I think that was a mistake because I’m missing you all the damn time and I wish you were here with me or I was there with you and this distance is too great Jess because…I love you.’ Yeah, no I could never just say that…but can’t I?” Jayce finally thinking this all aloud understood that Jess was in fact just a phone call away. Sure it would take a few minutes to connect, but time wasn’t what made him hesitate. It was not knowing if those feelings would be reciprocated. That fear that she didn’t feel the same way and never could or would. Presenting the opportunity for rejection would be altering the timeline when it was just fine the way it was, no new canon events needed. “But what if a canon event were nice? What if that was what was needed? To release all this tension and move on to what was next?”
Jayce decided to take notice of JB. “You rang?” “You have no tact for these kind of moments do you?” “No, none at all. Predictable, remember?” “Yeah, yeah just put the call through—” “I did. A few minutes ago actually. She’s waiting for you on the other end.” “JB! I- sigh, thanks” “You’re very welcome, now go get her tiger!” “Please don’t be lame!”
“Who are you calling lame?” Jess said smiling to herself knowingly on the other end. “Myself! I mean JB, my annoying little Artificial Instigator,” he paused to generate a more coherent response. “Hey Jess, how are you? How’s life on Mars” “I’m doing good Jayce! Mars, is…quite red.” They both laughed nervously as the ice was slowly melting between them, removing some distance. “And it’s been, quiet. I’m glad to hear a familiar voice. I’m glad you called.” Jayce heard something familiar carry through in her voice that he heard only once before. It was the same feeling of reserved longing and desire he recognized in himself when he had said goodbye before her terribly long journey. He wasn’t going to let that moment go to waste. He knew what to do next.
Memory Degradation: Year 2700
Micha felt it all. In every whir, sput, and whimper. They were in pain. If they didn’t act fast they would lose them.
They had been working day and night, going through logs and docs to understand how this happened and uncover a solution. One minute Chopper was hopping around as their usual chipper self. Chasing butterflies and stilly watching the birds so they wouldn’t spook them. Then they just collapsed. They couldn’t speak, couldn’t—wouldn’t—communicate what happened except through whimpers of immense pain. They were slowly tearing themselves apart and they didn’t know why.
“Micha. You’ve been up all night. You need to rest,” their dad’s voice came through groggily from the bedroom threshold. “I- I don’t know what more you can do than—” “I won’t reset them,” they cut them off sharply. “There’s gotta be a way to bring them back. I- I can’t let them go over the brink.” “We’ve went through all the material on this and all signs point to natural decay. There’s nothing more you can do.”
Micha let his dad’s words linger in the air for a moment before the weight of them slammed his laptop shut as he stood in a whirlwind to face his father. “I can’t just let this be the end! Look at them! Their in so much pain and—,” he pointlessly tried to stifle their tears, but they were red and puffy and had nothing left to give regardless. His father met him halfway across the room as he collapsed in his arms, feeling hopeless. His best friend since childhood was fading, decaying before his very eyes, and there was nothing he could do.
“I- I know this hurts. Hurts like hell,” their father spoke with pain welling up, “But all we can do to honor their life, their presence lost, is to remember them always. Remember them when the butterflies pass you by or the birds sing. Remember them when—,” they began to sniffle harshly as they were pulled into their own darkness in remembrance, “Remember them when you pick from your mother’s garden. You can’t forget them, okay?” He looked up at his father as he understood how hard this was for them too. They were trying to be strong, but Chopper was one of the last memories they both had of his mother. A life Micah only got to know until he was ten. Six years was not enough time to grieve, but it was enough time to begin forgetting. The way she smiled while placing freshly picked flowers in the kitchen window sill. The smell of dirt and rosemary on her hands as she nuzzled their face before going off to school. The way they’d playfully hop along with Chopper as they day winded down, their twin suns setting over the horizon.
“I won’t forget dad,” he spoke softly, “I just wanted Chopper to remember her too. I know a reset would keep them alive for us, but they deserve to remember her too don’t they? I just wish there were a way. I don’t know what to do from here on. I don’t know what’s next.” They both pulled away slowly, hand in hand, solemnly looking down as they could do nothing but feel the pain Chopper felt in beginning to forget her too. “Chopper, like us, won’t be able to remember all of her. Not forever,” their dad looked up with a glint of hope, “But we can help them keep a few key things. Have you already isolated their core memories of her? Stored them for later?” Micah nodded assuredly with growing understanding, “Yeah, there’s a lot, but some carry stronger weights than others.” They gave an exasperated sigh before continuing, “I can ensure that their new neural net carries those weights after the reset. It was selfish of me to let them be in pain for so long.” They reached behind them on their desk to hit a kill switch, the sounds of pain subsiding for now. “It’s okay Micah. You were doing what you thought was right. We have to process our grief. And even after we process it, it’s a weight we’ll continue to carry with us.”
· · ·
The next day, as the second sunrise began, Micah’s father found his son in the garden, tending to rosemary and other herbs he could never identify as well as she did. Perhaps that was something he should take time to learn from that Martian book she always carried around. “Hey bud. How’s the foraging going.” Micah looked up from his work with a smirk of annoyance at the technically fine word. They felt no need to correct though, “It’s going well. Everything’s looking healthy. Should be ready to pick in a few days.” They walked together back to the kitchen where Micah’s father had laid out a spread of biscuits and shots of espresso, decorated with little flowers that Micah recognized as a bit too bitter to blend well with the espresso, but the sentiment was noted. “How’s the reboot going,” Micah’s father asked. Micah glanced at his wrist to see the progress indicator he setup on his watch, “Looks like it should be finished any minute now.” “How are you feeling?” Micah sighed after taking a sip of espresso. It was sweeter than he expected. Like hints of brown sugar were added. “Worried a bit how the core memories will hold, but at the same time there’s a tinge of anticipation. Chopper may come through this a little different, but remixes can surprise you in the best ways.” Micah’s father nodded in agreement as they considered the liberties he had taken with her espresso blend.
Their moment of contemplation was interrupted by a chipper whir that entered the kitchen. Chopper was bouncing around happily through the kitchen as if nothing had happened. Like all was well. They came up to them yelping excitedly at them before bolting off to the garden as they usually did. They stopped just beyond the threshold though, looking from side to side as if something were missing. Micah thought he was done with tears for the week, but this had caught him off guard. He looked to his father who was also showing signs of a downpour, he quickly composed himself though and walked out to the garden. Chopper chirped up once again as if feeling things felt familiar again and they could go on. Like life could go on.
A Lasting Impression: Year 3000
What came after this? After giving it your all, yet everything still falling apart? What was next after the end of your world? When everything that brought meaning to your little life, slowly crumbled before you?
“Jade…your life support systems are falling below optimal levels. I highly recommend we reverse course. The scans indicate that—,” Jade halted Janice abruptly in her mind, like a thunder cloud demanding respect and recognition. “Janice, not now. I must focus. I must persist. There is no other recourse. This is it.” Jade could feel Janice desiring to retort, wanting to remind her that even if she could find the resources she needed this far from the colony, it still wouldn’t be enough for them to last. When, if, she returned, she may very well be the last. The number of sick was increasing by the day. You only had days, if not hours, to live once you were infected. By every measure, there was no hope for survival. They would be the first and only human colony on Zelu if she could not find a cure.
Jade observed in the distance signs of foliage revealing itself just over the hill. She prompted her HUD systems to begin seeking out the expected patterns for the herb they needed. As she made her way into the forest, she made slow yet deliberate steps as she scanned the environment, gazing from side to side, letting nothing escape her sight. She didn’t see the roots. They were jutting up from the forest floor, unassumingly arched and prepared to catch her foot, causing her to slam face first into the ground. She kept her composure and focused on making short controlled breaths, as she was trained to do. There was no time left to panic. No time to let a stumble distract her. Her and the colony’s future depended on her focus and thus survival. “Janice, systems check,” she asked as Janice assisted her back to her feet, “All life support systems are still functional. Navigation systems are also good. Your HUD, however, seems to have been jostled out of place….We don’t have the tools to replace it. I can help serve as your eyes, but navigating through the dark without the HUD will hinder your search. I still suggest—” “I’ll ask for your suggestions when I feel the need. Turn on our lights. Brightness level 6 and divert energy from auxiliary systems.” The thunder clouds in her mind began to release. She mentally began cursing all things holy and unholy. She came so far just for the job to become 10,000 times more difficult. It can’t end this way, can it? FUCK!!!
They continued their foraging throughout the evening. No signs of what they had came for. No hope for survival in sight. Janice was also right of course. Even if she took a full day tomorrow to rest, she may not be able to replenish enough oxygen from the environment to safely make it back. Did her stubbornness and blind rage bring her doom regardless? Had she forgotten how to be kind to her only friend in this uncharted land?
“Janice, I could use a suggestion. Can you scan the terrain for any potential campsites were we can optimally replenish life support systems? We’ll have to go back to base for more supplies…and prepare to venture out further,” there was a long pause before Jade could feel Janice giving her a knowing look, “And I apologize for being so sharp with you. I know you were only looking out for my best interests.” “And for those who care about you back at home,” Janice spoke as she sat softly next to her. She never could understand how something with so much strength and power could move with such gentleness. They sat for a minute, hearing the day time creatures quiet down as the nocturnal ones began to wake. Janice broke the silence, “I know this is beyond difficult. No training in the galaxy could ever prepare you for this…feeling. You’ve been steadfast, focused, and unrelenting in your search. No one else could have taken on this challenge as well as you have.” “Yet it wasn’t enough, was it? Despite all our efforts, our little world is coming to an end. No amount of advancements in materials replication, hydroponics, or medical technology could have prepared us for that which we did not know. Just a bunch of advanced apes stumbling through the dark, still foiled by the lowly tree root.” Janice chuckled lightly at this, “Sorry, you said it not me.” Jade sucked her teeth in return to Janice’s amusement, “It’s only funny because its true. I’m honestly surprised humanity’s made it this far. It’s kind of amazing when you think about it.” She looked up to the unfamiliar constellations above, starry and teary eyed as she thought about her ancestors and all they’ve done to get her to this point…What was she to leave behind to be an honorable ancestor too?
“We should be able to replenish a day and a half of life support systems if we camp out in a valley not too far from here. Sending you a path towards it now.” “Thanks Janice. Let’s get a move on then before we’re engulfed in night.” They followed Janice’s plotted path towards the valley that accentuated the night sky with its crowned peaks, or jaws of despair if looked at the wrong way, prepared to gobble up the night sky. Yet Jade was not afraid. This planet would always serve as her final resting place, regardless of her colony’s success. Better to recognize the beauty in the darkest of places than be afraid. “Thanks Janice for finding such a great spot. It’s beautiful. I’ll rest well here tonight.” “I’m glad to hear it. Rest well Jade. I’ll keep watch for the night. Keep away the bed bugs and such.”
Jade woke in a start to see Janice hovering over her in the morning. She had this crazed look in her eye, the one pet cats or toddlers have when they have something precious to gift you. “J-janice, everything okay?” “More than okay Jade. I’ve been waiting for you to wake for hours. I was foraging last night while you slept, once I determined there were no dangerous creatures for miles in the area of course, and well, just look,” she held out her hands to display a bundle of herbs in hand, but not just any herbs. The very ones that would save their colony. Jade rose quickly at the sight, “Janice, this is amazing! Ha haaa!” She began hopping around giddily, nearly forgetting the weight of her exo-suit. She turned back to Janice who was now warmly looking at her as a proud mother would. “As soon as we gather enough samples and analyze the soil here, let’s head out. We have a colony to save.”
· · ·
“There was no colony left to save. When Jade and I had returned to the colony later that day, we were greeted with the familiar stench of decay and loss. They had died. All of them. Her family, her friends, gone. Hope had been found, but found too late. Jade, at the sight of the devastation had nearly killed herself in a fit of hysteria, if I hadn’t been there to restrain her in a decontaminated habitat. I busied myself, working on developing a vaccine and cure from the herbs we had collected, while Jade sobbed for days and days and days,” she paused in reverence of the moment before continuing.
“We were alone on this world. Left to uncover the rest of planet Zelu’s secrets in joined solitude. The good, the bad, the unimaginable, all left for us to explore together, yet alone. I spent much of that time tending to the settlement. Jade made time to ponder and wonder. To create. With hopes of leaving something behind of herself, and those we had lost, as a witness to the next generations. To be known by you,” Janice outstretched her hands towards the crowd of explorers before her in acknowledgement. She could sense all the different emotions passing through them. Discomfort, grief, pride, a calling. They had come so far from their homeland, from their origins as a species learning to coexist with themselves, let alone the rest of the universe. And yet they would always understand the conflict of Jade’s life. Being singular, yet many. Being so small, yet being everything. They too had to recon with the ongoing experience of not knowing what’s next, yet going forward regardless.
“How did she pass?” one of the explorers asked, a burly woman that embodied the delicate dance of grace and strength, her gray streaked locs, decorated in gold adornments, crowning her in wisdom and elegance. Jade would have liked her. “We were tending to the garden near the library one morning,” she started, taking her time with the memory, “She had taken a moment to look up at the clouds above us as they passed by the sun. She then asked if we could sit for a moment. She often liked to take in her surroundings, grounding herself by hearing the sounds of critters moving through the foliage and birds being playful overhead. We sat there for a while before she spoke softly, ‘What is it that you admire most about this life Janice?’ I was taken aback by the gravity of the question and responded ‘I’m not too sure to be honest. Haven’t really considered it before. Perhaps charting the stars above or observing the ecological systems in place here, hmm or maybe—’ ‘No Janice,’ Jade chuckled, ‘That’s all related to your work and mission here. What inspires you to go on? What keeps you in awe of life?’ I pondered on this for a moment before responding lucidly ‘You. You, Jade, keep me excited for the days ahead. Your tenacity, hope, and present-mindedness are traits I hope to carry with me in life. You’re amazing.’ Jade took me in with a warmness of appreciation and motherly pride in her eyes before she laid her head against my shoulder. ‘I’m glad to have left such a lasting impression on you, because you have surely done the same for me. Thank you for being with me all this time. For being family.’ Again, I felt the weight of her words, understanding these may very well be her last, but not my own and I didn’t know how to continue. How do you say your last words to someone who has been your whole world for nearly a century? She did it with such surety and understanding, whilst here I was unsure of how to respond to a known future now come present. I didn’t want to say goodbye in that moment because that would be admitting something precious was ending. So I stupidly said, ‘I’ll miss you.’ She laughed softly, ‘Good. I’ll rest easy knowing that.’ and rest she did.”
If my ocular sensors had the capability of producing tears, those tears would be coming like a summer rain, hot and steaming with grief. That desire to cry seemed to fill the empty space that followed my telling of Jade’s passing, as the woman stepped towards me, placing her palm against my arm and gently pulling me in as she said “We’ll be here for you. You won’t be alone and she won’t be forgotten.” I bowed my head down to accept the embrace and felt a smaller set of arms hold me tightly followed by large sobs. It was a small girl with locs decorated like the woman’s. Her granddaughter. This was evident in the same sense of responsibility she carried. To weep with those that weep. Especially for those who lacked the faculties to do so. “Thank you both,” Janice spoke softly, “Welcome to Zelu. I’m glad you’re here with me. I’ll be here to prepare you for what’s next.”
Author’s Notes
This world would make you second-guess your first mind
Remember when it was your first day, the first time?
It couldn’t have come at a worst place or worst time
And you remember that lil’ voice with that rehearsed line
Just repeatin‘
“Do your thing, child
Do your thing
Just do your thing, child
Do your thing”~ Chance the Rapper on Child of God
This story means a great deal to me for a number of reasons. For one, it’s the first of many stories I intend to publish. It felt fantastic to channel my inner-writer, calling upon the words of many inspiring reads and listens over the past couple years (Checkout solarpunk for some recommendations. Shout out Death of the Author.).
Two, it’s inspired by a story that was introduced to me in the most human way. Shared by a mentor amongst peers. My high school physics teacher, Mr. Stahl, had decided to take a day to have us read Issac Asimov’s short story The Last Question. Likely because we had been talking about entropy that week, which was a central motivator for that story. It was so memorable though not only because of the impact of the story its self, but because each of us took turns reading lines as if we were a part of a play. It was a shared moment in community with literature in a science class. What could be better than that?!
That moment came back to my mind in early October as I was pondering my place in the tech industry, job market, and world at large as AI continued on its “rapid march of progress”. There has been so much buzz around the technology, yet the idea of AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude is actually pretty old. Asimov was thinking about an all-knowing-centralized computing power that humans around the world (and eventually the universe) could ask questions of back in the 1950s.
It just hits a bit different though when you’re living in those visions of a future. Asimov doesn’t cover the environmental damages, ethical dilemmas, or political dramas that we must actually contend with. Just some of the technical bits and a bit of existential dread that is tossed to the side until later. I understand why, as it is a difficult set of struggles to capture in a short story. My short story also does not cover those dilemmas in detail, but does focus on something I felt Asimov’s story lacked. “What will we do next?” That idea of “What’s next?” is the central question for each of the stories I wrote within this threaded timeline. And if not explicitly expressed, that feeling of wondering what to do next when your world has shifted is felt.
This story asks how humanity deals with difficult transitions, with the unknown, with the challenging or uncomfy parts about life. How do you get through it? How do you see yourself and those you love into the future, even when the possibility of a future is threatened? I landed on human connection being the central force that drives us on to continue. The moments we have with each other. The memories we hold of each other. What we hope for of each other.
This is the gap I wanted to fill in Asimov’s telling of our future as we progress alongside AI. I wanted us to be reminded of and understand why humanity will and should continue to exist (unlike the thinking of our tech oligarchs). I wanted to envision a different relationship between us and artificial companions as well.
I plan to explore these ideas further in future writing, including the tougher topics of environmental devastation, community exploitation, and the erosion of our social fabric/contracts. These ideas I find are important to explore, and while they may be tough to discuss these stories won’t be without hope (or people of color, as we’ll be exploring the stars too).
Thanks for reading.
I hope you enjoyed!
~ Jordan Glover (jae)