The best way to introduce this story by Isaac Asimov is through his own words: This is by far my favorite story of all those I have written. After all, I undertook to tell several trillion years of human history in the space of a short story…. I also undertook another task, but I won’t tell you what that was lest I spoil the story for you. Although there is very little character development or action in the story, the ending is so powerful that almost everyone who reads it remembers it.
Original Text / PDF / Audio (4,429 words)
There’s miles and miles of files pretty files of your forefather’s fruit, and no, to suit our Great computer, You’re magnetic ink.