Interesting article.

It makes some good points, but I think ultimately, it is the parents that are the deciding factor in whether or not a child who plays video games will succeed in school.  If a parent lets their son or daughter play for hours on end and ignore their schoolwork, then of course they will suffer.  You will see this same effect with any hobby that is practiced in excess.  I've known dozens of kids with strict parents who don't care what games their kids play as long as their schoolwork is attended to.  In any case, it is food for thought, and it is always good to look at both sides of an argument.


http://www.parentingscience.com/Effects-of-video-games-on-school.html

Brain Myth

Apparently, the left brain, right brain theory is a myth!

Bill Gates says robots are going to take your jobs.

Yup, read it all here, your job may be in jeopardy of being stolen by a robot.

Excellent place to find new books to read.

http://www.reddit.com/r/books

Open Library

Hey guys, there is this awesome site to read books for free and lend ebooks really easily!  Check them out, tons of great reading material at no cost to you.

Follow Us

We get many visitors and some of those are repeat visitors.  We would greatly appreciate it if you followed us on blogspot and liked us on Facebook, either one of those really would help a lot!  And it doesn't cost you anything, everybody wins.

In-N-Out Truck

April 27th in Oak Park!  We have several locations in mind, but we will update when we have finalized a specific spot.  There will be live entertainment, food (in addition to the truck), a couple ways to help out the non profit without donating money, although of course you can do just that, and we will be selling prints from some of the artists that we support.  Hope to see you there!  Email us at jjohnpotter@gmail.com or call 818.297.2164 if you have any questions or comments.  Make sure to spread the word!

Battlemaster

Some memorable quotes made by players of BattleMaster, mostly on the discussion list:

"I am amazed at this game. It is really a beauty of a design. It's fairly simple and straitforward yet generates a lot of depth. The name for that is art."

-- Mark Gerdes

"I come home every day from a stressful work environment, physically exhausted and mentally drained. Logging on to BM and checking what is going on in the realms I'm in and plotting the demise of the realms opposing us helps me to focus, relax, and unwind."

-- drlundy

"I have seen me so ill that I have not wanted to get out of bed. Then doing so merely for the fact I wanted to know how my characters were fairing. This game is totaly addictive."

-- Mearhinas Traylon

"It's the most fun I've had playing a computer game, ever."

-- Aaron Bennett

"We all love BM as it's clearly the finest online game on the planet [...] never before have I played any game, every day - twice a day, for over a year. And it just gets better."

-- George Thompson

"Today marks one year of playing BM for me. BM surpassed my expectations by a wide margin."

-- PJ Passalacqua

"This is a unique game experience [...] It is more fun than any video card intensive, processor sucking, bandwith hogging MMORPG out there."

-- David Wierbiki

"I'm studying political sciences and the game was introduced to me as a 'tool', a 'political simulation' to understand in practice how society, international relationships, internal affairs and the total of the political attributes function! And of course how some silly persons can spoil an effort of a whole realm-government! I have to admit that the game not only met my expectations but surpassed them by far!"

-- Julie Alexia

"My bride is more jealous of this game then the cute next door neighbor!"

-- Phillipe Schumacker

http://battlemaster.org/basics.php

Battlemaster is a turn based browser strategy game.  It is of course multiplayer, and you start out as a noble or adventuring commoner (as more of a side game) who works to execute their own ambitions and schemes within a greater workings of the current government and status quo.  You can priest and spread your own religion, a heroic battle weathered commander who lives for the battlefield, a shady infiltrator who works behind the scenes to help topple empires from within, and many, many more options.  It only takes 5-15 minutes a day to play, and you don't have to play everyday to be involved, and it is a highly social game.  If you like roleplaying, there are plenty of chances to do just that.  This game is being updated quite a bit, mostly based on the suggestions of the players, and of course it is free to play.  So check them out, you'll be glad that you did.

"I've been playing this game on and off for a long time, but each time I come back I'm consistently amazed at how closely certain institutions, feuds, and general interactions among characters mimic their real world counterparts. I work in government and have had a lot of exposure to power hierarchies and the like. Seeing the same dramas and plots evolve in a game has made it easier to understand the motives and relationships of various actors/individuals in the real world. It also got me thinking about all the possible parallels that could be drawn between the game world and the real world."

-- Aaron Champion

"when your spouse hates the Cagilan Empire but has never played the game, you've got a problem"

-- Solari

"During my time playing Battlemaster I have been a Soldier, Husband, Father, Widower, husband and father again... This game is part of who I am now. If the game were to go to hell in a hand basket...I would be here playing. I do turn a little red in the face when my friends and Wife introduce me as Wilson, the King of Lukon...but I am used to it now."

-- Valast'

If you want to help spread the word about BattleMaster or just fancy chilling out with your fellow players elsewhere, why not check out other BattleMaster communities and hangouts across the internet?

• Might & Fealty
  
  • Tom's new project. Not unlike BattleMaster, but with even greater player agency and player driven world-building
• Might & Fealty Crowdfunding
  
  • Might & Fealty IndieGoGo page. Go and donate!
• Tom's YouTube Channel
  
  • Repository of videos for M&F, BattleMaster and various other side projects.
• Steam Community
  
  • Join us on Steam. Compares stats or see if you can get a group together
• BattleMaster on Reddit
• BattleMaster on Facebook
  
  • Don't forget to check out War Islands and Might & Fealty!
• BattleMaster on Last.fm
  
  • Discover how good/awful (delete as appropriate) the music tastes of our players are
• BattleMaster IRC
  
  • Chat with your fellow players in real time (or head here to learn about additional access methods)
• BattleMaster Wiki
• Help add to the rich knowledge and roleplay of BattleMaster or just browse what's already there!

Permafrost Day

It is a new day with the same predicament; the people must abandon the city of Itorunt through the north gate to warmer lands. The soldiers are recovering from the past battle but still they must continue to protect the civilian’s caravan, only a handful of them remains, many left wounded, and others leave to escort the caravan of people. Still the city will not be empty in about two days, time they don’t have.

Today’s weather is worse, besides being colder than previous days, and having a snowfall, there is a strong breeze making everyone unable to see even at mere ten meters. The south gate is being repaired, since is dangerous to seek trees outside they are dismantling houses and using the wood for the gate.
At this point the soldiers are not wearing any heavy or metal reinforced armor; they are wearing fur clothes to warm themselves, with the help of various campfires, especially near the south wall where the Snow Trolls have been attacking. The only noble unit remaining in the city is the Black Riders they vowed to defend the city until the last man.

Captain Eugen: Move those legs! We must keep the horses warm.
Soldier: excuse me captain, but we can’t repair the gates beyond this point, any further improvement will require the Duke assistance.
Captain Eugen: If civil work is not useful anymore, let’s do some training, we must warm up and be more agile, remember we are not wearing any armor so we can’t take hits.
Soldier: this…this must be a punishment from the Titans!
Captain Eugen: what are you talking about soldier? There is no such thing as a Titan. The GODs are the one behind all this.

Suddenly loud noises started to be heard from outside of the wall, like if it was hit by a battering ram, the snow storm is raging strong and the archer can’t see what is just outside. In that moment Tanya leaves her tent, and drawing her sword talk to the two men talking outside.

Tanya: it doesn't matter on what you believe, either Deities or Superstitions in the end that doesn’t really matter, the enemy is here and we must give these people hope to leave safely.

The gates have been overrun this time 48 Snow Trolls are inside the city crushing everything on their path with their big wooden logs, the soldiers can’t see far ahead, and when they see the trolls they are already too close to do something and the archers can’t aim well, all this due to the strong winds.

Captain Eugen: My lady we can’t even charge here we need more space for momentum and the militia is being overrun.
Tanya: Everybody move to the center of the city, we rally there. Carry the wounded on the Cavalry!
Captain Eugen: My Lady there is no time, we can’t save everyone, and the wounded has to be left behind…

Tanya thinks for a while that seems like an eternity, then she turn around with her horse and start to move.

Tanya: FINE! But we have to move now.

They manage to get to the center of the city, the same place where the people are gathering to emigrate to the north, the militia start to garrison the center square facing to the south road, meanwhile the city is in chaos, the Trolls are killing all men on their path while they take the women back to their plains.
The black guards are 100 meters north of the barricade to charge at the Snow Trolls when the time is due they can’t see but they hope to be lucky ; many people left the square ad forget the caravan to move to their houses, others improvised weapons to fight with the militia.

The enemy approaches hitting everything on the south road creating loud noises on their path, they can’t be seen yet but the archers open fire in their direction, they hardly hit the Trolls the snow storm is strong that looks like a frozen hell.

The archers abandon their bows and unsheathe their swords the noise is closer, the troll begun to throw rocks and logs from the building to hit the barricade and some soldiers behind at the same time they were rushing to it.

The barricade for the Trolls was like a sand castle for the sea waves, they would be been good to stop the movement of a couple of bandits or a small unit, but not those Ice Warriors, the battle rages fiercely the militia is being overpowered. Tanya looks to the captain of her unit and he makes a “no yet” signal to her, the peasant who formed armed groups begin to fight as well making the battlefield sound more louds.

Captain Eugen: Now is the time my lady! We charge past then and keep going and turn back then repeat.
Tanya. CHAAAAARGE!

Zack Barret

Check out the amazing art work of a Southern Californian born and raised high schooler!  We are happy to say that we have already compensated him in advance to do some artwork for our organization and it will be posted shortly when it is all done.

Quite ironic...

Well, right after we made a post about Facebook here we are promoting our Facebook page!  Please check it out and like us to increase our visibility.  Thanks.

Fundraiser for California Schools

Soon we will be sending people out door-to-door in SoCal and Bay Area neighborhoods to ask for donations.  We will be focusing on Amazon purchases however.  People don't really like forking over their hard earned cash, but they DO like online shopping.  So we will get a bunch of fliers passed out and spread the word about it.  Basically they go to our blog or (soon to be up) website and they click on the Amazon banner.  After that they're practically done, just shop for whatever your heart desires on Amazon and support California schools!  We will update with specific fundraising goals later and we will personally donate bonus money for reaching certain benchmarks.  Have a good night everybody.

Facebook is bad, mmkay?

Yes I use Facebook... but I try not to log on too often, the point is that I acknowledge I am a hypocrite!  I don't have a lot of time today to write a long article, so here is an insightful Forbes piece about why Facebook makes you a sad panda. 

However, I feel I should mention that we DO do a small amount of advertising with Facebook, so perhaps I shouldn't have posted that.  If anything, this just proves that we don't let money get in the way of good writing and good ideas.  Free speech and all that jazz.

We are a registered non profit.

I hate to have to do this, but some people are cynical.  Our EIN is 46-4642418  we are new, our form 941 and 940 are pending, we will post when those are kosher.  They are due 04/30/2014 and /1/31/2015 respectively.  We are a public benefit 501(3)c.  Currently we have NO paid employees and do not compensate the board for board meetings, not even for travel expenses.  We are has non profit as we can be at the moment, feel free to email us if you have any more questions.

Only has a handful at the moment, but many more to come I'm sure.

A blog about books!

Updated contact info and other news!

Hi everybody!  First off, if you have any questions or comments, email us at jjohnpotter@gmail.com or call/text 818.297.2164

Second off, we are proud to announce that our partner Russell Carter will indeed be directing a movie that will be largely produced by AEF.  We also are looking into partnering with a very talented independent artist and will sell his prints sometime soon.  He will get the vast majority of the money, we will take enough to pay for the cost of creating and shipping the prints.  More to come!  We will keep you all posted.

If you would like to, or know anybody who is interested in having their work posted on our blog and/or website, then contact us!  We are looking for writers, artists, and pretty much any creative types for more content.  We accept volunteers, donations of your work, and we also commission pieces or art and other projects.  Contact us as soon as you can and we will promptly get back to you.

German Blog repost

Hey you!  Yea you.  If you like reading things in German instead of English go to our new German blog!  It has the same posts, albeit missing a few, but it's basically the same.  Enjoy.

Our last link was broken, but now it is fixed!

Just like it says... free shipping on orders over $35! Hard to beat that.

Amazon Prime Free Trial

Amazon Prime Free 30-Day Trial

The Northern Stills

Check out this band from SoCal.  I've seen their drummer play live for Jetstream and he is incredible, and I've listened to their soundcloud songs and they are all quite talented.  They describe themselves as alternative/orchestral rock and I for one really enjoy their sound and willingness to break the mold a little bit.


Here's their songs that are currently available on soundcloud!

Longest Words in Various Languages

Cool article, basically about what it sounds like!  They even have the Chinese character with the most strokes!

Organic Foods Aren't Really All That

At the supermarket, organic fruits and vegetables are king.  The market takes extra special care of them, they cost a lot more, but it's okay because they are so much healthier for you, right?  Stanford says that this may not be the case.

"There is not much difference between organic and conventional foods , if you are an adult and make a decision based solely on your health ," said Dena bravado , MD , MS, lead author of an article comparing the nutritional value of organic foods and non - organic, published in the Sept. 4 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

A team led by bravado, a subsidiary of height with the Stanford Center for Health Policy , and Crystal Smith - Spangler , MD , MS , a division general disciplines Instructor School of Medicine and a physician - care system researcher VA Palo Alto health , was the most comprehensive to date of existing studies comparing organic and conventional foods meta-analysis. They found strong evidence that organic foods are more nutritious or carry fewer health risks than conventional solutions , the consumption of organic foods can reduce the risk of exposure to pesticides.

The popularity of organic products generally grown without pesticides or synthetic fertilizers or routine use of antibiotics or the use of growth hormone has skyrocketed in the United States . Between 1997 and 2011, organic food sales in the U.S. increased by $ 3.6 to $ 24.4 billion , and many consumers are willing to pay a premium for these products. Organic foods are often twice as expensive than their conventionally grown counterparts.

Although there is a common perception - perhaps based on price alone - that organic foods are better for you than non - organic, remains an open question whether the health benefits . In fact , the study patients bravado Stanford has asked again and again about the benefits of organic products. She did not know how to advise them .

So bravado , who is also medical director of the transparency of the health of the business of health care in light, documentary research , the discovery of what she called a " confusing body of studies, including some that are not very strict , appearing in trade publications. "It is not a comprehensive summary of the evidence , which included both pros and cons , he said .

" It was an area ripe for a systematic review ," said the author Smith - Spangler , who jumped on board to conduct a meta-analysis of bravado and his colleagues at Stanford.

For their study, the researchers sifted through thousands of articles and identified 237 more relevant to analyze . 17 studies were included in populations consuming organic and conventional diets, and 223 studies comparing nutrient levels or contamination of various products of organic and conventional bacterial, fungal or pesticide culture. There was no long-term study of the health of people who consume organic compared to conventionally produced food , the duration of studies in humans varies from two days to two years .

After analyzing the data, researchers found little significant difference in health benefits between organic and conventional foods. Phosphorus - was significantly higher in organic produce grown conventionally before ( and researchers note that because some people are deficient in phosphorus, which have no consistent differences in the composition of organic products , vitamins, and single nutrient were observed shortly ) clinical significance. There was no difference in protein or fat between organic and conventional milk , if the evidence of a limited number of studies have suggested that organic milk may contain significantly higher levels of omega- 3 fatty acids.

The researchers were also able to identify specific fruits and vegetables were always healthier choice , despite the implementation of this bravado called " tons of analysis. "

" Some believe that organic food is always healthier and more nutritious ," said Smith - Spangler , who is also an instructor of medicine at the Faculty of Medicine "We were a little surprised that we did not find .. "

The review gave little evidence that higher medical devices biohazard conventional foods. While the researchers found that organic produce had a risk 30 percent less pesticide contamination than conventional fruits and vegetables, organic foods are not necessarily 100 percent free of pesticides. In addition, the researchers found that levels of all foods of pesticides have generally fallen within the limits of safety. Two studies of children consuming organic and conventional diets have found low levels of pesticide residues in the urine of children with organic diets , although the importance of these results on the health of the child is not clear. In addition , chicken and beef and organic pork seem to reduce exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria , but the clinical significance of this is uncertain.

In terms of what the results mean for consumers , the researchers say that their goal is to educate people, not to discourage them from making organic purchases. "If you look beyond health effects , there are many other reasons to buy organic instead of conventional ," said bravado. He listed the preferences and concerns about the effects of traditional farming practices on the environment and the taste of animal welfare , as some of the reasons why people choose organic products.

"Our goal was to shed light on what the evidence is ," said Smith - . Spangler " This is the information that people can use to make their own decisions based on their level of concern about pesticides , their budget and other considerations . "

He also said that people should try to achieve a healthy diet. He stressed the importance of eating fruits and vegetables, " but are grown ," noting that most Americans do not consume the recommended amount.

In discussing the limitations of their work, the researchers observed the heterogeneity of the studies reviewed due to differences in test methods, physical factors affecting food , such as climate and soil type , and a large variation in the methods of organic farming. Regarding the latter, there may be specific organic practices (eg , how the manure fertilizer , the risk of bacterial contamination , is used and handled ) that could provide a safer nutritional quality superior product.

Spangler - " What I learned is that there is much variation between agricultural practices ," said Smith. "It seems that there are many different factors that are important in predicting nutritional quality and damage. "

Home Schooling and Public Schooling

Most Americans assume that we have always had public schools, they came to the Constitution and is an indispensable part of our democratic system.  The U.S. Constitution does not mention education everywhere. It was left to the states , parents, religious groups , and school owners to deal with. Certainly in the early days of New England, cities are required to maintain common schools, supported and controlled by local citizens. This was done to ensure that children have learned to read so they can read the Bible and go to higher education. But there were many homeschooling, private education , private schools, religious schools , and schools of ladies for very young children . There were no laws on compulsory education , and no central control of the state of the program. This system , or lack of it, producing a highly educated population able to read the Federalist Papers, the King James version of the Bible, and everything that has been published. All one has to do is read a newspaper farmer from the early days in order to achieve the high level of literacy , which has been enjoyed by the general population in America before the advent of public schools. What changed all that was the change in religious views intellectual elite centered at Harvard University, which was founded in 1638 by Calvinists . In 1805 , religious liberalism in the form of heresy Unitarian was so strong at Harvard were Calvinists expelled. Therefore, Unitarianism reigned in college before all of America, and its influence is slowly spreading to the rest of the academic world. Unitarians do not believe in salvation through Christ, who they regarded as a great teacher, but not divine. Salvation was now achieved through education controlled by the government . Only the government can provide the kind of secular non- denominational education that can lead to moral perfection based reason. Thus thought Unitarians . Unitarians also adopted the German form of education controlled by the state as their ideal model for America. By incessant propaganda , social zeal and political action , they could pass laws that form the basis of teaching controlled state-owned and centrally across America . School Duty was then written into the constitutions of most new states , thus ensuring the creation and maintenance of a permanent state bureaucracy in control of education. In the 1870s the movement of public schools prevailed and most private schools have closed their doors. Also imported from Europe was Hegel's idea of ​​statism , the idea that the state was God on earth. It is this idea that incite educators to believe that it was the duty of the state to shape his children - his " most valuable natural resource" - the obedient servants of the state. Finally, at the turn of the century , progressive become dominant . They were members of the elite university Protestants who no longer believed in the religion of their fathers. They put their new faith in science , evolution and psychology. Science explains the material world , evolution has explained the origin of living matter , and psychology enabled man to the scientific study of human nature and provided the scientific means to control people. Progressive socialists because they also had to deal with the problem of evil , and decided that the Bible was wrong about the innate depravity of man. They believed that evil was caused by ignorance , poverty and social injustice, and that the main cause of social injustice was our capitalist system. And they started a messianic crusade to change America , a religious capitalist nation in an atheist or humanist socialist country . They decided that the most effective way to achieve their social utopia was public education. So they began their great movement of the education reform that changed our public schools in moral disorder , social , academic, and they are today . Training of the Ministry of Education in the United States during the Carter administration was the fulfillment of a dream than a century of educators. With the adoption of the Law on Primary and Secondary Education in 1965 , they finally had unrestricted access to the U.S. Treasury . It is now clear to anyone who has studied public education to any depth that the system leads us to the New World Order, which UNESCO will be the Board of Education of the world government. That is why more and more parents are starting to realize that public schools are not interested in education but in social change and social control. A government education system is fundamentally incompatible with the values ​​of a free society. Finally, there is something to go.

Win a $25 Amazon gift card for writing an essay about bitcoin!

Write what bitcoin is, the benefits of bitcoin, how to use it, or just write about a bitcoin recent event, basically anything you'd like to do.  Email your submission to jjohnpotter@gmail.com by March 22nd 7PM PST questions and comments can also be emailed in, good luck!

Win a $25 Amazon gift card for writing a scifi short story!

Email it to jjohnpotter@gmail.com by March 22nd 7pm PST and you'll have a chance to win, email to the same address if you have any questions or comments.

The Last Question by Isaac Asimov © 1956

This is a great short story by Isaac Asimov, one of the most renown scifi authors of all time, and indeed one of my favorite authors across all genres.  Enjoy!

-


The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way:

Alexander Adell and Bertram Lupov were two of the faithful attendants of Multivac. As well as any human beings could, they knew what lay behind the cold, clicking, flashing face -- miles and miles of face -- of that giant computer. They had at least a vague notion of the general plan of relays and circuits that had long since grown past the point where any single human could possibly have a firm grasp of the whole.

Multivac was self-adjusting and self-correcting. It had to be, for nothing human could adjust and correct it quickly enough or even adequately enough -- so Adell and Lupov attended the monstrous giant only lightly and superficially, yet as well as any men could. They fed it data, adjusted questions to its needs and translated the answers that were issued. Certainly they, and all others like them, were fully entitled to share In the glory that was Multivac's.

For decades, Multivac had helped design the ships and plot the trajectories that enabled man to reach the Moon, Mars, and Venus, but past that, Earth's poor resources could not support the ships. Too much energy was needed for the long trips. Earth exploited its coal and uranium with increasing efficiency, but there was only so much of both.

But slowly Multivac learned enough to answer deeper questions more fundamentally, and on May 14, 2061, what had been theory, became fact.

The energy of the sun was stored, converted, and utilized directly on a planet-wide scale. All Earth turned off its burning coal, its fissioning uranium, and flipped the switch that connected all of it to a small station, one mile in diameter, circling the Earth at half the distance of the Moon. All Earth ran by invisible beams of sunpower.

Seven days had not sufficed to dim the glory of it and Adell and Lupov finally managed to escape from the public function, and to meet in quiet where no one would think of looking for them, in the deserted underground chambers, where portions of the mighty buried body of Multivac showed. Unattended, idling, sorting data with contented lazy clickings, Multivac, too, had earned its vacation and the boys appreciated that. They had no intention, originally, of disturbing it.

They had brought a bottle with them, and their only concern at the moment was to relax in the company of each other and the bottle.

"It's amazing when you think of it," said Adell. His broad face had lines of weariness in it, and he stirred his drink slowly with a glass rod, watching the cubes of ice slur clumsily about. "All the energy we can possibly ever use for free. Enough energy, if we wanted to draw on it, to melt all Earth into a big drop of impure liquid iron, and still never miss the energy so used. All the energy we could ever use, forever and forever and forever."

Lupov cocked his head sideways. He had a trick of doing that when he wanted to be contrary, and he wanted to be contrary now, partly because he had had to carry the ice and glassware. "Not forever," he said.

"Oh, hell, just about forever. Till the sun runs down, Bert."

"That's not forever."

"All right, then. Billions and billions of years. Twenty billion, maybe. Are you satisfied?"

Lupov put his fingers through his thinning hair as though to reassure himself that some was still left and sipped gently at his own drink. "Twenty billion years isn't forever."

"Will, it will last our time, won't it?"

"So would the coal and uranium."

"All right, but now we can hook up each individual spaceship to the Solar Station, and it can go to Pluto and back a million times without ever worrying about fuel. You can't do THAT on coal and uranium. Ask Multivac, if you don't believe me."

"I don't have to ask Multivac. I know that."

"Then stop running down what Multivac's done for us," said Adell, blazing up. "It did all right."

"Who says it didn't? What I say is that a sun won't last forever. That's all I'm saying. We're safe for twenty billion years, but then what?" Lupov pointed a slightly shaky finger at the other. "And don't say we'll switch to another sun."

There was silence for a while. Adell put his glass to his lips only occasionally, and Lupov's eyes slowly closed. They rested.

Then Lupov's eyes snapped open. "You're thinking we'll switch to another sun when ours is done, aren't you?"

"I'm not thinking."

"Sure you are. You're weak on logic, that's the trouble with you. You're like the guy in the story who was caught in a sudden shower and Who ran to a grove of trees and got under one. He wasn't worried, you see, because he figured when one tree got wet through, he would just get under another one."

"I get it," said Adell. "Don't shout. When the sun is done, the other stars will be gone, too."

"Darn right they will," muttered Lupov. "It all had a beginning in the original cosmic explosion, whatever that was, and it'll all have an end when all the stars run down. Some run down faster than others. Hell, the giants won't last a hundred million years. The sun will last twenty billion years and maybe the dwarfs will last a hundred billion for all the good they are. But just give us a trillion years and everything will be dark. Entropy has to increase to maximum, that's all."

"I know all about entropy," said Adell, standing on his dignity.

"The hell you do."

"I know as much as you do."

"Then you know everything's got to run down someday."

"All right. Who says they won't?"

"You did, you poor sap. You said we had all the energy we needed, forever. You said 'forever.'"

"It was Adell's turn to be contrary. "Maybe we can build things up again someday," he said.

"Never."

"Why not? Someday."

"Never."

"Ask Multivac."

"You ask Multivac. I dare you. Five dollars says it can't be done."

Adell was just drunk enough to try, just sober enough to be able to phrase the necessary symbols and operations into a question which, in words, might have corresponded to this: Will mankind one day without the net expenditure of energy be able to restore the sun to its full youthfulness even after it had died of old age?

Or maybe it could be put more simply like this: How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?

Multivac fell dead and silent. The slow flashing of lights ceased, the distant sounds of clicking relays ended.

Then, just as the frightened technicians felt they could hold their breath no longer, there was a sudden springing to life of the teletype attached to that portion of Multivac. Five words were printed: INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER.

"No bet," whispered Lupov. They left hurriedly.

By next morning, the two, plagued with throbbing head and cottony mouth, had forgotten about the incident.

---

Jerrodd, Jerrodine, and Jerrodette I and II watched the starry picture in the visiplate change as the passage through hyperspace was completed in its non-time lapse. At once, the even powdering of stars gave way to the predominance of a single bright marble-disk, centered.

"That's X-23," said Jerrodd confidently. His thin hands clamped tightly behind his back and the knuckles whitened.

The little Jerrodettes, both girls, had experienced the hyperspace passage for the first time in their lives and were self-conscious over the momentary sensation of inside-outness. They buried their giggles and chased one another wildly about their mother, screaming, "We've reached X-23 -- we've reached X-23 -- we've ----"

"Quiet, children," said Jerrodine sharply. "Are you sure, Jerrodd?"

"What is there to be but sure?" asked Jerrodd, glancing up at the bulge of featureless metal just under the ceiling. It ran the length of the room, disappearing through the wall at either end. It was as long as the ship.

Jerrodd scarcely knew a thing about the thick rod of metal except that it was called a Microvac, that one asked it questions if one wished; that if one did not it still had its task of guiding the ship to a preordered destination; of feeding on energies from the various Sub-galactic Power Stations; of computing the equations for the hyperspacial jumps.

Jerrodd and his family had only to wait and live in the comfortable residence quarters of the ship.

Someone had once told Jerrodd that the "ac" at the end of "Microvac" stood for "analog computer" in ancient English, but he was on the edge of forgetting even that.

Jerrodine's eyes were moist as she watched the visiplate. "I can't help it. I feel funny about leaving Earth."

"Why for Pete's sake?" demanded Jerrodd. "We had nothing there. We'll have everything on X-23. You won't be alone. You won't be a pioneer. There are over a million people on the planet already. Good Lord, our great grandchildren will be looking for new worlds because X-23 will be overcrowded."

Then, after a reflective pause, "I tell you, it's a lucky thing the computers worked out interstellar travel the way the race is growing."

"I know, I know," said Jerrodine miserably.

Jerrodette I said promptly, "Our Microvac is the best Microvac in the world."

"I think so, too," said Jerrodd, tousling her hair.

It was a nice feeling to have a Microvac of your own and Jerrodd was glad he was part of his generation and no other. In his father's youth, the only computers had been tremendous machines taking up a hundred square miles of land. There was only one to a planet. Planetary ACs they were called. They had been growing in size steadily for a thousand years and then, all at once, came refinement. In place of transistors had come molecular valves so that even the largest Planetary AC could be put into a space only half the volume of a spaceship.

Jerrodd felt uplifted, as he always did when he thought that his own personal Microvac was many times more complicated than the ancient and primitive Multivac that had first tamed the Sun, and almost as complicated as Earth's Planetary AC (the largest) that had first solved the problem of hyperspatial travel and had made trips to the stars possible.

"So many stars, so many planets," sighed Jerrodine, busy with her own thoughts. "I suppose families will be going out to new planets forever, the way we are now."

"Not forever," said Jerrodd, with a smile. "It will all stop someday, but not for billions of years. Many billions. Even the stars run down, you know. Entropy must increase."

"What's entropy, daddy?" shrilled Jerrodette II.

"Entropy, little sweet, is just a word which means the amount of running-down of the universe. Everything runs down, you know, like your little walkie-talkie robot, remember?"

"Can't you just put in a new power-unit, like with my robot?"

The stars are the power-units, dear. Once they're gone, there are no more power-units."

Jerrodette I at once set up a howl. "Don't let them, daddy. Don't let the stars run down."

"Now look what you've done, " whispered Jerrodine, exasperated.

"How was I to know it would frighten them?" Jerrodd whispered back.

"Ask the Microvac," wailed Jerrodette I. "Ask him how to turn the stars on again."

"Go ahead," said Jerrodine. "It will quiet them down." (Jerrodette II was beginning to cry, also.)

Jarrodd shrugged. "Now, now, honeys. I'll ask Microvac. Don't worry, he'll tell us."

He asked the Microvac, adding quickly, "Print the answer."

Jerrodd cupped the strip of thin cellufilm and said cheerfully, "See now, the Microvac says it will take care of everything when the time comes so don't worry."

Jerrodine said, "and now children, it's time for bed. We'll be in our new home soon."

Jerrodd read the words on the cellufilm again before destroying it: INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.

He shrugged and looked at the visiplate. X-23 was just ahead.

---

VJ-23X of Lameth stared into the black depths of the three-dimensional, small-scale map of the Galaxy and said, "Are we ridiculous, I wonder, in being so concerned about the matter?"

MQ-17J of Nicron shook his head. "I think not. You know the Galaxy will be filled in five years at the present rate of expansion."

Both seemed in their early twenties, both were tall and perfectly formed.

"Still," said VJ-23X, "I hesitate to submit a pessimistic report to the Galactic Council."

"I wouldn't consider any other kind of report. Stir them up a bit. We've got to stir them up."

VJ-23X sighed. "Space is infinite. A hundred billion Galaxies are there for the taking. More."

"A hundred billion is not infinite and it's getting less infinite all the time. Consider! Twenty thousand years ago, mankind first solved the problem of utilizing stellar energy, and a few centuries later, interstellar travel became possible. It took mankind a million years to fill one small world and then only fifteen thousand years to fill the rest of the Galaxy. Now the population doubles every ten years --"

VJ-23X interrupted. "We can thank immortality for that."

"Very well. Immortality exists and we have to take it into account. I admit it has its seamy side, this immortality. The Galactic AC has solved many problems for us, but in solving the problems of preventing old age and death, it has undone all its other solutions."

"Yet you wouldn't want to abandon life, I suppose."

"Not at all," snapped MQ-17J, softening it at once to, "Not yet. I'm by no means old enough. How old are you?"

"Two hundred twenty-three. And you?"

"I'm still under two hundred. --But to get back to my point. Population doubles every ten years. Once this Galaxy is filled, we'll have another filled in ten years. Another ten years and we'll have filled two more. Another decade, four more. In a hundred years, we'll have filled a thousand Galaxies. In a thousand years, a million Galaxies. In ten thousand years, the entire known Universe. Then what?"

VJ-23X said, "As a side issue, there's a problem of transportation. I wonder how many sunpower units it will take to move Galaxies of individuals from one Galaxy to the next."

"A very good point. Already, mankind consumes two sunpower units per year."

"Most of it's wasted. After all, our own Galaxy alone pours out a thousand sunpower units a year and we only use two of those."

"Granted, but even with a hundred per cent efficiency, we can only stave off the end. Our energy requirements are going up in geometric progression even faster than our population. We'll run out of energy even sooner than we run out of Galaxies. A good point. A very good point."

"We'll just have to build new stars out of interstellar gas."

"Or out of dissipated heat?" asked MQ-17J, sarcastically.

"There may be some way to reverse entropy. We ought to ask the Galactic AC."

VJ-23X was not really serious, but MQ-17J pulled out his AC-contact from his pocket and placed it on the table before him.

"I've half a mind to," he said. "It's something the human race will have to face someday."

He stared somberly at his small AC-contact. It was only two inches cubed and nothing in itself, but it was connected through hyperspace with the great Galactic AC that served all mankind. Hyperspace considered, it was an integral part of the Galactic AC.

MQ-17J paused to wonder if someday in his immortal life he would get to see the Galactic AC. It was on a little world of its own, a spider webbing of force-beams holding the matter within which surges of sub-mesons took the place of the old clumsy molecular valves. Yet despite it's sub-etheric workings, the Galactic AC was known to be a full thousand feet across.

MQ-17J asked suddenly of his AC-contact, "Can entropy ever be reversed?"

VJ-23X looked startled and said at once, "Oh, say, I didn't really mean to have you ask that."

"Why not?"

"We both know entropy can't be reversed. You can't turn smoke and ash back into a tree."

"Do you have trees on your world?" asked MQ-17J.

The sound of the Galactic AC startled them into silence. Its voice came thin and beautiful out of the small AC-contact on the desk. It said: THERE IS INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.

VJ-23X said, "See!"

The two men thereupon returned to the question of the report they were to make to the Galactic Council.

---

Zee Prime's mind spanned the new Galaxy with a faint interest in the countless twists of stars that powdered it. He had never seen this one before. Would he ever see them all? So many of them, each with its load of humanity - but a load that was almost a dead weight. More and more, the real essence of men was to be found out here, in space.

Minds, not bodies! The immortal bodies remained back on the planets, in suspension over the eons. Sometimes they roused for material activity but that was growing rarer. Few new individuals were coming into existence to join the incredibly mighty throng, but what matter? There was little room in the Universe for new individuals.

Zee Prime was roused out of his reverie upon coming across the wispy tendrils of another mind.

"I am Zee Prime," said Zee Prime. "And you?"

"I am Dee Sub Wun. Your Galaxy?"

"We call it only the Galaxy. And you?"

"We call ours the same. All men call their Galaxy their Galaxy and nothing more. Why not?"

"True. Since all Galaxies are the same."

"Not all Galaxies. On one particular Galaxy the race of man must have originated. That makes it different."

Zee Prime said, "On which one?"

"I cannot say. The Universal AC would know."

"Shall we ask him? I am suddenly curious."

Zee Prime's perceptions broadened until the Galaxies themselves shrunk and became a new, more diffuse powdering on a much larger background. So many hundreds of billions of them, all with their immortal beings, all carrying their load of intelligences with minds that drifted freely through space. And yet one of them was unique among them all in being the originals Galaxy. One of them had, in its vague and distant past, a period when it was the only Galaxy populated by man.

Zee Prime was consumed with curiosity to see this Galaxy and called, out: "Universal AC! On which Galaxy did mankind originate?"

The Universal AC heard, for on every world and throughout space, it had its receptors ready, and each receptor lead through hyperspace to some unknown point where the Universal AC kept itself aloof.

Zee Prime knew of only one man whose thoughts had penetrated within sensing distance of Universal AC, and he reported only a shining globe, two feet across, difficult to see.

"But how can that be all of Universal AC?" Zee Prime had asked.

"Most of it, " had been the answer, "is in hyperspace. In what form it is there I cannot imagine."

Nor could anyone, for the day had long since passed, Zee Prime knew, when any man had any part of the making of a universal AC. Each Universal AC designed and constructed its successor. Each, during its existence of a million years or more accumulated the necessary data to build a better and more intricate, more capable successor in which its own store of data and individuality would be submerged.

The Universal AC interrupted Zee Prime's wandering thoughts, not with words, but with guidance. Zee Prime's mentality was guided into the dim sea of Galaxies and one in particular enlarged into stars.

A thought came, infinitely distant, but infinitely clear. "THIS IS THE ORIGINAL GALAXY OF MAN."

But it was the same after all, the same as any other, and Zee Prime stifled his disappointment.

Dee Sub Wun, whose mind had accompanied the other, said suddenly, "And Is one of these stars the original star of Man?"

The Universal AC said, "MAN'S ORIGINAL STAR HAS GONE NOVA. IT IS NOW A WHITE DWARF."

"Did the men upon it die?" asked Zee Prime, startled and without thinking.

The Universal AC said, "A NEW WORLD, AS IN SUCH CASES, WAS CONSTRUCTED FOR THEIR PHYSICAL BODIES IN TIME."

"Yes, of course," said Zee Prime, but a sense of loss overwhelmed him even so. His mind released its hold on the original Galaxy of Man, let it spring back and lose itself among the blurred pin points. He never wanted to see it again.

Dee Sub Wun said, "What is wrong?"

"The stars are dying. The original star is dead."

"They must all die. Why not?"

"But when all energy is gone, our bodies will finally die, and you and I with them."

"It will take billions of years."

"I do not wish it to happen even after billions of years. Universal AC! How may stars be kept from dying?"

Dee sub Wun said in amusement, "You're asking how entropy might be reversed in direction."

And the Universal AC answered. "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."

Zee Prime's thoughts fled back to his own Galaxy. He gave no further thought to Dee Sub Wun, whose body might be waiting on a galaxy a trillion light-years away, or on the star next to Zee Prime's own. It didn't matter.

Unhappily, Zee Prime began collecting interstellar hydrogen out of which to build a small star of his own. If the stars must someday die, at least some could yet be built.

---

Man considered with himself, for in a way, Man, mentally, was one. He consisted of a trillion, trillion, trillion ageless bodies, each in its place, each resting quiet and incorruptible, each cared for by perfect automatons, equally incorruptible, while the minds of all the bodies freely melted one into the other, indistinguishable.

Man said, "The Universe is dying."

Man looked about at the dimming Galaxies. The giant stars, spendthrifts, were gone long ago, back in the dimmest of the dim far past. Almost all stars were white dwarfs, fading to the end.

New stars had been built of the dust between the stars, some by natural processes, some by Man himself, and those were going, too. White dwarfs might yet be crashed together and of the mighty forces so released, new stars built, but only one star for every thousand white dwarfs destroyed, and those would come to an end, too.

Man said, "Carefully husbanded, as directed by the Cosmic AC, the energy that is even yet left in all the Universe will last for billions of years."

"But even so," said Man, "eventually it will all come to an end. However it may be husbanded, however stretched out, the energy once expended is gone and cannot be restored. Entropy must increase to the maximum."

Man said, "Can entropy not be reversed? Let us ask the Cosmic AC."

The Cosmic AC surrounded them but not in space. Not a fragment of it was in space. It was in hyperspace and made of something that was neither matter nor energy. The question of its size and Nature no longer had meaning to any terms that Man could comprehend.

"Cosmic AC," said Man, "How may entropy be reversed?"

The Cosmic AC said, "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."

Man said, "Collect additional data."

The Cosmic AC said, "I WILL DO SO. I HAVE BEEN DOING SO FOR A HUNDRED BILLION YEARS. MY PREDECESSORS AND I HAVE BEEN ASKED THIS QUESTION MANY TIMES. ALL THE DATA I HAVE REMAINS INSUFFICIENT."

"Will there come a time," said Man, "when data will be sufficient or is the problem insoluble in all conceivable circumstances?"

The Cosmic AC said, "NO PROBLEM IS INSOLUBLE IN ALL CONCEIVABLE CIRCUMSTANCES."

Man said, "When will you have enough data to answer the question?"

"THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."

"Will you keep working on it?" asked Man.

The Cosmic AC said, "I WILL."

Man said, "We shall wait."

---

"The stars and Galaxies died and snuffed out, and space grew black after ten trillion years of running down.

One by one Man fused with AC, each physical body losing its mental identity in a manner that was somehow not a loss but a gain.

Man's last mind paused before fusion, looking over a space that included nothing but the dregs of one last dark star and nothing besides but incredibly thin matter, agitated randomly by the tag ends of heat wearing out, asymptotically, to the absolute zero.

Man said, "AC, is this the end? Can this chaos not be reversed into the Universe once more? Can that not be done?"

AC said, "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."

Man's last mind fused and only AC existed -- and that in hyperspace.

---

Matter and energy had ended and with it, space and time. Even AC existed only for the sake of the one last question that it had never answered from the time a half-drunken computer ten trillion years before had asked the question of a computer that was to AC far less than was a man to Man.

All other questions had been answered, and until this last question was answered also, AC might not release his consciousness.

All collected data had come to a final end. Nothing was left to be collected.

But all collected data had yet to be completely correlated and put together in all possible relationships.

A timeless interval was spent in doing that.

And it came to pass that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy.

But there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer of the last question. No matter. The answer -- by demonstration -- would take care of that, too.

For another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this. Carefully, AC organized the program.

The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had once been a Universe and brooded over what was now Chaos. Step by step, it must be done.

And AC said, "LET THERE BE LIGHT!"

And there was light----

German Blog

Hey you!  Yea you.  If you like reading things in German instead of English go to our new German blog!  It has the same posts, albeit missing a few, but it's basically the same.  Enjoy.