The Last Evolution

Campbell, John W. "The Last Evolution." Amazing Aug. 1932. Coll. The Best of John W. Campbell, q.v. under Anthologies and Collections.

A meditation by the last machine, before it wears out and bequeaths our solar system and beyond to the entities of pure energy and intelligence, which it created. Most of the meditation presents an Earth where humans and machines cooperate, each "race" recognizing the powers and limitations of the other; on balance, however, the machines are superior and run things—and survive long after the deaths of their human creators.

Elegantly summarized and put into biographical and other contexts by Alec Nevala-Lee, Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction, p. 57.

RDE, Title, 12Aug19