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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/33854-h.zip b/33854-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..075dd34 --- /dev/null +++ b/33854-h.zip diff --git a/33854-h/33854-h.htm b/33854-h/33854-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd5372d --- /dev/null +++ b/33854-h/33854-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,984 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ask A Foolish Question, by Robert Sheckley + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} + + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + +.center {text-align: center;} + + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-right: 0.25em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ask a Foolish Question, by Robert Sheckley + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ask a Foolish Question + +Author: Robert Sheckley + +Release Date: October 11, 2010 [EBook #33854] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASK A FOOLISH QUESTION *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p class="center">This etext was produced Science Fiction Stories 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="500" height="716" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<p> </p> +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>It's well established now that the way you put a question +often determines not only the answer you'll get, but the +type of answer possible. So ... a mechanical answerer, +geared to produce the ultimate revelations in reference to +anything you want to know, might have unsuspected +limitations.</i></p></div> +<p> </p> +<h1><i>Ask A Foolish Question</i></h1> +<p> </p> +<h2><i>by</i> ROBERT SHECKLEY</h2> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> +<img src="images/image_001.jpg" width="700" height="390" alt="" /> +</div> +<p> </p> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a1.jpg" alt="A" width="42" height="50" /></div> +<p>nswerer was built to last as long as was necessary—which was quite +long, as some races judge time, and not long at all, according to +others. But to Answerer, it was just long enough.</p> + +<p>As to size, Answerer was large to some and small to others. He could +be viewed as complex, although some believed that he was really very +simple.</p> + +<p>Answerer knew that he was as he should be. Above and beyond all else, +he was The Answerer. He Knew.</p> + +<p>Of the race that built him, the less said the better. They also Knew, +and never said whether they found the knowledge pleasant.</p> + +<p>They built Answerer as a service to less-sophisticated races, and +departed in a unique manner. Where they went only Answerer knows.</p> + +<p>Because Answerer knows everything.</p> + +<p>Upon his planet, circling his sun, Answerer sat. Duration continued, +long, as some judge duration, short as others judge it. But as it +should be, to Answerer.</p> + +<p>Within him were the Answers. He knew the nature of things, and why +things are as they are, and what they are, and what it all means.</p> + +<p>Answerer could answer anything, provided it was a legitimate question. +And he wanted to! He was eager to!</p> + +<p>How else should an Answerer be?</p> + +<p>What else should an Answerer do?</p> + +<p>So he waited for creatures to come and ask.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p>"How do you feel, sir?" Morran asked, floating gently over to the old +man.</p> + +<p>"Better," Lingman said, trying to smile. No-weight was a vast relief. +Even though Morran had expended an enormous amount of fuel, getting +into space under minimum acceleration, Lingman's feeble heart hadn't +liked it. Lingman's heart had balked and sulked, pounded angrily +against the brittle rib-case, hesitated and sped up. It seemed for a +time as though Lingman's heart was going to stop, out of sheer pique.</p> + +<p>But no-weight was a vast relief, and the feeble heart was going again.</p> + +<p>Morran had no such problems. His strong body was built for strain and +stress. He wouldn't experience them on this trip, not if he expected +old Lingman to live.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to live," Lingman muttered, in answer to the unspoken +question. "Long enough to find out." Morran touched the controls, and +the ship slipped into sub-space like an eel into oil.</p> + +<p>"We'll find out," Morran murmured. He helped the old man unstrap +himself. "We're going to find the Answerer!"</p> + +<p>Lingman nodded at his young partner. They had been reassuring +themselves for years. Originally it had been Lingman's project. Then +Morran, graduating from Cal Tech, had joined him. Together they had +traced the rumors across the solar system. The legends of an ancient +humanoid race who had known the answer to all things, and who had +built Answerer and departed.</p> + +<p>"Think of it," Morran said. "The answer to everything!" A physicist, +Morran had many questions to ask Answerer. The expanding universe; the +binding force of atomic nuclei; novae and supernovae; planetary +formation; red shift, relativity and a thousand others.</p> + +<p>"Yes," Lingman said. He pulled himself to the vision plate and looked +out on the bleak prairie of the illusory sub-space. He was a biologist +and an old man. He had two questions.</p> + +<p>What is life?</p> + +<p>What is death?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="37" height="40" /></div> +<p>fter a particularly-long period of hunting purple, Lek and his +friends gathered to talk. Purple always ran thin in the neighborhood +of multiple-cluster stars—why, no one knew—so talk was definitely in +order.</p> + +<p>"Do you know," Lek said, "I think I'll hunt up this Answerer." Lek +spoke the Ollgrat language now, the language of imminent decision.</p> + +<p>"Why?" Ilm asked him, in the Hvest tongue of light banter. "Why do you +want to know things? Isn't the job of gathering purple enough for +you?"</p> + +<p>"No," Lek said, still speaking the language of imminent decision. "It +is not." The great job of Lek and his kind was the gathering of +purple. They found purple imbedded in many parts of the fabric of +space, minute quantities of it. Slowly, they were building a huge +mound of it. What the mound was for, no one knew.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you'll ask him what purple is?" Ilm asked, pushing a star +out of his way and lying down.</p> + +<p>"I will," Lek said. "We have continued in ignorance too long. We must +know the true nature of purple, and its meaning in the scheme of +things. We must know why it governs our lives." For this speech Lek +switched to Ilgret, the language of incipient-knowledge.</p> + +<p>Ilm and the others didn't try to argue, even in the tongue of +arguments. They knew that the knowledge was important. Ever since the +dawn of time, Lek, Ilm and the others had gathered purple. Now it was +time to know the ultimate answers to the universe—what purple was, +and what the mound was for.</p> + +<p>And of course, there was the Answerer to tell them. Everyone had heard +of the Answerer, built by a race not unlike themselves, now long +departed.</p> + +<p>"Will you ask him anything else?" Ilm asked Lek.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," Lek said. "Perhaps I'll ask about the stars. There's +really nothing else important." Since Lek and his brothers had lived +since the dawn of time, they didn't consider death. And since their +numbers were always the same, they didn't consider the question of +life.</p> + +<p>But purple? And the mound?</p> + +<p>"I go!" Lek shouted, in the vernacular of decision-to-fact.</p> + +<p>"Good fortune!" his brothers shouted back, in the jargon of +greatest-friendship.</p> + +<p>Lek strode off, leaping from star to star.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Alone on his little planet, Answerer sat, waiting for the Questioners. +Occasionally he mumbled the answers to himself. This was his +privilege. He Knew.</p> + +<p>But he waited, and the time was neither too long nor too short, for +any of the creatures of space to come and ask.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="36" height="40" /></div> +<p>here were eighteen of them, gathered in one place.</p> + +<p>"I invoke the rule of eighteen," cried one. And another appeared, who +had never before been, born by the rule of eighteen.</p> + +<p>"We must go to the Answerer," one cried. "Our lives are governed by +the rule of eighteen. Where there are eighteen, there will be +nineteen. Why is this so?"</p> + +<p>No one could answer.</p> + +<p>"Where am I?" asked the newborn nineteenth. One took him aside for +instruction.</p> + +<p>That left seventeen. A stable number.</p> + +<p>"And we must find out," cried another, "Why all places are different, +although there is no distance."</p> + +<p>That was the problem. One is here. Then one is there. Just like that, +no movement, no reason. And yet, without moving, one is in another +place.</p> + +<p>"The stars are cold," one cried.</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"We must go to the Answerer."</p> + +<p>For they had heard the legends, knew the tales. "Once there was a +race, a good deal like us, and they Knew—and they told Answerer. Then +they departed to where there is no place, but much distance."</p> + +<p>"How do we get there?" the newborn nineteenth cried, filled now with +knowledge.</p> + +<p>"We go." And eighteen of them vanished. One was left. Moodily he +stared at the tremendous spread of an icy star, then he too vanished.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>"Those old legends are true," Morran gasped. "There it is."</p> + +<p>They had come out of sub-space at the place the legends told of, and +before them was a star unlike any other star. Morran invented a +classification for it, but it didn't matter. There was no other like +it.</p> + +<p>Swinging around the star was a planet, and this too was unlike any +other planet. Morran invented reasons, but they didn't matter. This +planet was the only one.</p> + +<p>"Strap yourself in, sir," Morran said. "I'll land as gently as I can."</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Lek came to Answerer, striding swiftly from star to star. He lifted +Answerer in his hand and looked at him.</p> + +<p>"So you are Answerer," he said.</p> + +<p>"Yes," Answerer said.</p> + +<p>"Then tell me," Lek said, settling himself comfortably in a gap +between the stars, "Tell me what I am."</p> + +<p>"A partiality," Answerer said. "An indication."</p> + +<p>"Come now," Lek muttered, his pride hurt. "You can do better than +that. Now then. The purpose of my kind is to gather purple, and to +build a mound of it. Can you tell me the real meaning of this?"</p> + +<p>"Your question is without meaning," Answerer said. He knew what purple +actually was, and what the mound was for. But the explanation was +concealed in a greater explanation. Without this, Lek's question was +inexplicable, and Lek had failed to ask the real question.</p> + +<p>Lek asked other questions, and Answerer was unable to answer them. Lek +viewed things through his specialized eyes, extracted a part of the +truth and refused to see more. How to tell a blind man the sensation +of green?</p> + +<p>Answerer didn't try. He wasn't supposed to.</p> + +<p>Finally, Lek emitted a scornful laugh. One of his little +stepping-stones flared at the sound, then faded back to its usual +intensity.</p> + +<p>Lek departed, striding swiftly across the stars.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Answerer knew. But he had to be asked the proper questions first. He +pondered this limitation, gazing at the stars which were neither large +nor small, but exactly the right size.</p> + +<p>The proper questions. The race which built Answerer should have taken +that into account, Answerer thought. They should have made some +allowance for semantic nonsense, allowed him to attempt an +unravelling.</p> + +<p>Answerer contented himself with muttering the answers to himself.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_e.jpg" alt="E" width="33" height="40" /></div> +<p>ighteen creatures came to Answerer, neither walking nor flying, but +simply appearing. Shivering in the cold glare of the stars, they gazed +up at the massiveness of Answerer.</p> + +<p>"If there is no distance," one asked, "Then how can things be in other +places?"</p> + +<p>Answerer knew what distance was, and what places were. But he couldn't +answer the question. There was distance, but not as these creatures +saw it. And there were places, but in a different fashion from that +which the creatures expected.</p> + +<p>"Rephrase the question," Answerer said hopefully.</p> + +<p>"Why are we short here," one asked, "And long over there? Why are we +fat over there, and short here? Why are the stars cold?"</p> + +<p>Answerer knew all things. He knew why stars were cold, but he couldn't +explain it in terms of stars or coldness.</p> + +<p>"Why," another asked, "Is there a rule of eighteen? Why, when eighteen +gather, is another produced?"</p> + +<p>But of course the answer was part of another, greater question, which +hadn't been asked.</p> + +<p>Another was produced by the rule of eighteen, and the nineteen +creatures vanished.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Answerer mumbled the right questions to himself, and answered them.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>"We made it," Morran said. "Well, well." He patted Lingman on the +shoulder—lightly, because Lingman might fall apart.</p> + +<p>The old biologist was tired. His face was sunken, yellow, lined. +Already the mark of the skull was showing in his prominent yellow +teeth, his small, flat nose, his exposed cheekbones. The matrix was +showing through.</p> + +<p>"Let's get on," Lingman said. He didn't want to waste any time. He +didn't have any time to waste.</p> + +<p>Helmeted, they walked along the little path.</p> + +<p>"Not so fast," Lingman murmured.</p> + +<p>"Right," Morran said. They walked together, along the dark path of the +planet that was different from all other planets, soaring alone around +a sun different from all other suns.</p> + +<p>"Up here," Morran said. The legends were explicit. A path, leading to +stone steps. Stone steps to a courtyard. And then—the Answerer!</p> + +<p>To them, Answerer looked like a white screen set in a wall. To their +eyes, Answerer was very simple.</p> + +<p>Lingman clasped his shaking hands together. This was the culmination +of a lifetime's work, financing, arguing, ferreting bits of legend, +ending here, now.</p> + +<p>"Remember," he said to Morran, "We will be shocked. The truth will be +like nothing we have imagined."</p> + +<p>"I'm ready," Morran said, his eyes rapturous.</p> + +<p>"Very well. Answerer," Lingman said, in his thin little voice, "What +is life?"</p> + +<p>A voice spoke in their heads. "The question has no meaning. By 'life,' +the Questioner is referring to a partial phenomenon, inexplicable +except in terms of its whole."</p> + +<p>"Of what is life a part?" Lingman asked.</p> + +<p>"This question, in its present form, admits of no answer. Questioner +is still considering 'life,' from his personal, limited bias."</p> + +<p>"Answer it in your own terms, then," Morran said.</p> + +<p>"The Answerer can only answer questions." Answerer thought again of +the sad limitation imposed by his builders.</p> + +<p>Silence.</p> + +<p>"Is the universe expanding?" Morran asked confidently.</p> + +<p>"'Expansion' is a term inapplicable to the situation. Universe, as the +Questioner views it, is an illusory concept."</p> + +<p>"Can you tell us <i>anything</i>?" Morran asked.</p> + +<p>"I can answer any valid question concerning the nature of things."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="36" height="40" /></div> +<p>he two men looked at each other.</p> + +<p>"I think I know what he means," Lingman said sadly. "Our basic +assumptions are wrong. All of them."</p> + +<p>"They can't be," Morran said. "Physics, biology—"</p> + +<p>"Partial truths," Lingman said, with a great weariness in his voice. +"At least we've determined that much. We've found out that our +inferences concerning observed phenomena are wrong."</p> + +<p>"But the rule of the simplest hypothesis—"</p> + +<p>"It's only a theory," Lingman said.</p> + +<p>"But life—he certainly could answer what life is?"</p> + +<p>"Look at it this way," Lingman said. "Suppose you were to ask, 'Why +was I born under the constellation Scorpio, in conjunction with +Saturn?' I would be unable to answer your question <i>in terms of the +zodiac</i>, because the zodiac has nothing to do with it."</p> + +<p>"I see," Morran said slowly. "He can't answer questions in terms of +our assumptions."</p> + +<p>"That seems to be the case. And he can't alter our assumptions. He is +limited to valid questions—which imply, it would seem, a knowledge we +just don't have."</p> + +<p>"We can't even ask a valid question?" Morran asked. "I don't believe +that. We must know some basics." He turned to Answerer. "What is +death?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot explain an anthropomorphism."</p> + +<p>"Death an anthropomorphism!" Morran said, and Lingman turned quickly. +"Now we're getting somewhere!"</p> + +<p>"Are anthropomorphisms unreal?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Anthropomorphisms may be classified, tentatively, as, A, false +truths, or B, partial truths in terms of a partial situation."</p> + +<p>"Which is applicable here?"</p> + +<p>"Both."</p> + +<p>That was the closest they got. Morran was unable to draw any more from +Answerer. For hours the two men tried, but truth was slipping farther +and farther away.</p> + +<p>"It's maddening," Morran said, after a while. "This thing has the +answer to the whole universe, and he can't tell us unless we ask the +right question. But how are we supposed to know the right question?"</p> + +<p>Lingman sat down on the ground, leaning against a stone wall. He +closed his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Savages, that's what we are," Morran said, pacing up and down in +front of Answerer. "Imagine a bushman walking up to a physicist and +asking him why he can't shoot his arrow into the sun. The scientist +can explain it only in his own terms. What would happen?"</p> + +<p>"The scientist wouldn't even attempt it," Lingman said, in a dim +voice; "he would know the limitations of the questioner."</p> + +<p>"It's fine," Morran said angrily. "How do you explain the earth's +rotation to a bushman? Or better, how do you explain relativity to +him—maintaining scientific rigor in your explanation at all times, of +course."</p> + +<p>Lingman, eyes closed, didn't answer.</p> + +<p>"We're bushmen. But the gap is much greater here. Worm and super-man, +perhaps. The worm desires to know the nature of dirt, and why there's +so much of it. Oh, well."</p> + +<p>"Shall we go, sir?" Morran asked. Lingman's eyes remained closed. His +taloned fingers were clenched, his cheeks sunk further in. The skull +was emerging.</p> + +<p>"Sir! Sir!"</p> + +<p>And Answerer knew that that was not the answer.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="37" height="40" /></div> +<p>lone on his planet, which is neither large nor small, but exactly the +right size, Answerer waits. He cannot help the people who come to him, +for even Answerer has restrictions.</p> + +<p>He can answer only valid questions.</p> + +<p>Universe? Life? Death? Purple? Eighteen?</p> + +<p>Partial truths, half-truths, little bits of the great question.</p> + +<p>But Answerer, alone, mumbles the questions to himself, the true +questions, which no one can understand.</p> + +<p>How could they understand the true answers?</p> + +<p>The questions will never be asked, and Answerer remembers something +his builders knew and forgot.</p> + +<p>In order to ask a question you must already know most of the answer.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/image_003.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Ask a Foolish Question, by Robert Sheckley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASK A FOOLISH QUESTION *** + +***** This file should be named 33854-h.htm or 33854-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/8/5/33854/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ask a Foolish Question + +Author: Robert Sheckley + +Release Date: October 11, 2010 [EBook #33854] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASK A FOOLISH QUESTION *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced Science Fiction Stories 1953. Extensive + research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this + publication was renewed. + + + _It's well established now that the way you put a question + often determines not only the answer you'll get, but the + type of answer possible. So ... a mechanical answerer, + geared to produce the ultimate revelations in reference to + anything you want to know, might have unsuspected + limitations._ + + + _Ask A Foolish Question_ + + + _by_ ROBERT SHECKLEY + + * * * * * + + + + +[Illustration] + +Answerer was built to last as long as was necessary--which was quite +long, as some races judge time, and not long at all, according to +others. But to Answerer, it was just long enough. + +As to size, Answerer was large to some and small to others. He could +be viewed as complex, although some believed that he was really very +simple. + +Answerer knew that he was as he should be. Above and beyond all else, +he was The Answerer. He Knew. + +Of the race that built him, the less said the better. They also Knew, +and never said whether they found the knowledge pleasant. + +They built Answerer as a service to less-sophisticated races, and +departed in a unique manner. Where they went only Answerer knows. + +Because Answerer knows everything. + +Upon his planet, circling his sun, Answerer sat. Duration continued, +long, as some judge duration, short as others judge it. But as it +should be, to Answerer. + +Within him were the Answers. He knew the nature of things, and why +things are as they are, and what they are, and what it all means. + +Answerer could answer anything, provided it was a legitimate question. +And he wanted to! He was eager to! + +How else should an Answerer be? + +What else should an Answerer do? + +So he waited for creatures to come and ask. + + * * * * * + +"How do you feel, sir?" Morran asked, floating gently over to the old +man. + +"Better," Lingman said, trying to smile. No-weight was a vast relief. +Even though Morran had expended an enormous amount of fuel, getting +into space under minimum acceleration, Lingman's feeble heart hadn't +liked it. Lingman's heart had balked and sulked, pounded angrily +against the brittle rib-case, hesitated and sped up. It seemed for a +time as though Lingman's heart was going to stop, out of sheer pique. + +But no-weight was a vast relief, and the feeble heart was going again. + +Morran had no such problems. His strong body was built for strain and +stress. He wouldn't experience them on this trip, not if he expected +old Lingman to live. + +"I'm going to live," Lingman muttered, in answer to the unspoken +question. "Long enough to find out." Morran touched the controls, and +the ship slipped into sub-space like an eel into oil. + +"We'll find out," Morran murmured. He helped the old man unstrap +himself. "We're going to find the Answerer!" + +Lingman nodded at his young partner. They had been reassuring +themselves for years. Originally it had been Lingman's project. Then +Morran, graduating from Cal Tech, had joined him. Together they had +traced the rumors across the solar system. The legends of an ancient +humanoid race who had known the answer to all things, and who had +built Answerer and departed. + +"Think of it," Morran said. "The answer to everything!" A physicist, +Morran had many questions to ask Answerer. The expanding universe; the +binding force of atomic nuclei; novae and supernovae; planetary +formation; red shift, relativity and a thousand others. + +"Yes," Lingman said. He pulled himself to the vision plate and looked +out on the bleak prairie of the illusory sub-space. He was a biologist +and an old man. He had two questions. + +What is life? + +What is death? + + * * * * * + +After a particularly-long period of hunting purple, Lek and his +friends gathered to talk. Purple always ran thin in the neighborhood +of multiple-cluster stars--why, no one knew--so talk was definitely in +order. + +"Do you know," Lek said, "I think I'll hunt up this Answerer." Lek +spoke the Ollgrat language now, the language of imminent decision. + +"Why?" Ilm asked him, in the Hvest tongue of light banter. "Why do you +want to know things? Isn't the job of gathering purple enough for +you?" + +"No," Lek said, still speaking the language of imminent decision. "It +is not." The great job of Lek and his kind was the gathering of +purple. They found purple imbedded in many parts of the fabric of +space, minute quantities of it. Slowly, they were building a huge +mound of it. What the mound was for, no one knew. + +"I suppose you'll ask him what purple is?" Ilm asked, pushing a star +out of his way and lying down. + +"I will," Lek said. "We have continued in ignorance too long. We must +know the true nature of purple, and its meaning in the scheme of +things. We must know why it governs our lives." For this speech Lek +switched to Ilgret, the language of incipient-knowledge. + +Ilm and the others didn't try to argue, even in the tongue of +arguments. They knew that the knowledge was important. Ever since the +dawn of time, Lek, Ilm and the others had gathered purple. Now it was +time to know the ultimate answers to the universe--what purple was, +and what the mound was for. + +And of course, there was the Answerer to tell them. Everyone had heard +of the Answerer, built by a race not unlike themselves, now long +departed. + +"Will you ask him anything else?" Ilm asked Lek. + +"I don't know," Lek said. "Perhaps I'll ask about the stars. There's +really nothing else important." Since Lek and his brothers had lived +since the dawn of time, they didn't consider death. And since their +numbers were always the same, they didn't consider the question of +life. + +But purple? And the mound? + +"I go!" Lek shouted, in the vernacular of decision-to-fact. + +"Good fortune!" his brothers shouted back, in the jargon of +greatest-friendship. + +Lek strode off, leaping from star to star. + + * * * * * + +Alone on his little planet, Answerer sat, waiting for the Questioners. +Occasionally he mumbled the answers to himself. This was his +privilege. He Knew. + +But he waited, and the time was neither too long nor too short, for +any of the creatures of space to come and ask. + + * * * * * + +There were eighteen of them, gathered in one place. + +"I invoke the rule of eighteen," cried one. And another appeared, who +had never before been, born by the rule of eighteen. + +"We must go to the Answerer," one cried. "Our lives are governed by +the rule of eighteen. Where there are eighteen, there will be +nineteen. Why is this so?" + +No one could answer. + +"Where am I?" asked the newborn nineteenth. One took him aside for +instruction. + +That left seventeen. A stable number. + +"And we must find out," cried another, "Why all places are different, +although there is no distance." + +That was the problem. One is here. Then one is there. Just like that, +no movement, no reason. And yet, without moving, one is in another +place. + +"The stars are cold," one cried. + +"Why?" + +"We must go to the Answerer." + +For they had heard the legends, knew the tales. "Once there was a +race, a good deal like us, and they Knew--and they told Answerer. Then +they departed to where there is no place, but much distance." + +"How do we get there?" the newborn nineteenth cried, filled now with +knowledge. + +"We go." And eighteen of them vanished. One was left. Moodily he +stared at the tremendous spread of an icy star, then he too vanished. + + * * * * * + +"Those old legends are true," Morran gasped. "There it is." + +They had come out of sub-space at the place the legends told of, and +before them was a star unlike any other star. Morran invented a +classification for it, but it didn't matter. There was no other like +it. + +Swinging around the star was a planet, and this too was unlike any +other planet. Morran invented reasons, but they didn't matter. This +planet was the only one. + +"Strap yourself in, sir," Morran said. "I'll land as gently as I can." + + * * * * * + +Lek came to Answerer, striding swiftly from star to star. He lifted +Answerer in his hand and looked at him. + +"So you are Answerer," he said. + +"Yes," Answerer said. + +"Then tell me," Lek said, settling himself comfortably in a gap +between the stars, "Tell me what I am." + +"A partiality," Answerer said. "An indication." + +"Come now," Lek muttered, his pride hurt. "You can do better than +that. Now then. The purpose of my kind is to gather purple, and to +build a mound of it. Can you tell me the real meaning of this?" + +"Your question is without meaning," Answerer said. He knew what purple +actually was, and what the mound was for. But the explanation was +concealed in a greater explanation. Without this, Lek's question was +inexplicable, and Lek had failed to ask the real question. + +Lek asked other questions, and Answerer was unable to answer them. Lek +viewed things through his specialized eyes, extracted a part of the +truth and refused to see more. How to tell a blind man the sensation +of green? + +Answerer didn't try. He wasn't supposed to. + +Finally, Lek emitted a scornful laugh. One of his little +stepping-stones flared at the sound, then faded back to its usual +intensity. + +Lek departed, striding swiftly across the stars. + + * * * * * + +Answerer knew. But he had to be asked the proper questions first. He +pondered this limitation, gazing at the stars which were neither large +nor small, but exactly the right size. + +The proper questions. The race which built Answerer should have taken +that into account, Answerer thought. They should have made some +allowance for semantic nonsense, allowed him to attempt an +unravelling. + +Answerer contented himself with muttering the answers to himself. + + * * * * * + +Eighteen creatures came to Answerer, neither walking nor flying, but +simply appearing. Shivering in the cold glare of the stars, they gazed +up at the massiveness of Answerer. + +"If there is no distance," one asked, "Then how can things be in other +places?" + +Answerer knew what distance was, and what places were. But he couldn't +answer the question. There was distance, but not as these creatures +saw it. And there were places, but in a different fashion from that +which the creatures expected. + +"Rephrase the question," Answerer said hopefully. + +"Why are we short here," one asked, "And long over there? Why are we +fat over there, and short here? Why are the stars cold?" + +Answerer knew all things. He knew why stars were cold, but he couldn't +explain it in terms of stars or coldness. + +"Why," another asked, "Is there a rule of eighteen? Why, when eighteen +gather, is another produced?" + +But of course the answer was part of another, greater question, which +hadn't been asked. + +Another was produced by the rule of eighteen, and the nineteen +creatures vanished. + + * * * * * + +Answerer mumbled the right questions to himself, and answered them. + + * * * * * + +"We made it," Morran said. "Well, well." He patted Lingman on the +shoulder--lightly, because Lingman might fall apart. + +The old biologist was tired. His face was sunken, yellow, lined. +Already the mark of the skull was showing in his prominent yellow +teeth, his small, flat nose, his exposed cheekbones. The matrix was +showing through. + +"Let's get on," Lingman said. He didn't want to waste any time. He +didn't have any time to waste. + +Helmeted, they walked along the little path. + +"Not so fast," Lingman murmured. + +"Right," Morran said. They walked together, along the dark path of the +planet that was different from all other planets, soaring alone around +a sun different from all other suns. + +"Up here," Morran said. The legends were explicit. A path, leading to +stone steps. Stone steps to a courtyard. And then--the Answerer! + +To them, Answerer looked like a white screen set in a wall. To their +eyes, Answerer was very simple. + +Lingman clasped his shaking hands together. This was the culmination +of a lifetime's work, financing, arguing, ferreting bits of legend, +ending here, now. + +"Remember," he said to Morran, "We will be shocked. The truth will be +like nothing we have imagined." + +"I'm ready," Morran said, his eyes rapturous. + +"Very well. Answerer," Lingman said, in his thin little voice, "What +is life?" + +A voice spoke in their heads. "The question has no meaning. By 'life,' +the Questioner is referring to a partial phenomenon, inexplicable +except in terms of its whole." + +"Of what is life a part?" Lingman asked. + +"This question, in its present form, admits of no answer. Questioner +is still considering 'life,' from his personal, limited bias." + +"Answer it in your own terms, then," Morran said. + +"The Answerer can only answer questions." Answerer thought again of +the sad limitation imposed by his builders. + +Silence. + +"Is the universe expanding?" Morran asked confidently. + +"'Expansion' is a term inapplicable to the situation. Universe, as the +Questioner views it, is an illusory concept." + +"Can you tell us _anything_?" Morran asked. + +"I can answer any valid question concerning the nature of things." + + * * * * * + +The two men looked at each other. + +"I think I know what he means," Lingman said sadly. "Our basic +assumptions are wrong. All of them." + +"They can't be," Morran said. "Physics, biology--" + +"Partial truths," Lingman said, with a great weariness in his voice. +"At least we've determined that much. We've found out that our +inferences concerning observed phenomena are wrong." + +"But the rule of the simplest hypothesis--" + +"It's only a theory," Lingman said. + +"But life--he certainly could answer what life is?" + +"Look at it this way," Lingman said. "Suppose you were to ask, 'Why +was I born under the constellation Scorpio, in conjunction with +Saturn?' I would be unable to answer your question _in terms of the +zodiac_, because the zodiac has nothing to do with it." + +"I see," Morran said slowly. "He can't answer questions in terms of +our assumptions." + +"That seems to be the case. And he can't alter our assumptions. He is +limited to valid questions--which imply, it would seem, a knowledge we +just don't have." + +"We can't even ask a valid question?" Morran asked. "I don't believe +that. We must know some basics." He turned to Answerer. "What is +death?" + +"I cannot explain an anthropomorphism." + +"Death an anthropomorphism!" Morran said, and Lingman turned quickly. +"Now we're getting somewhere!" + +"Are anthropomorphisms unreal?" he asked. + +"Anthropomorphisms may be classified, tentatively, as, A, false +truths, or B, partial truths in terms of a partial situation." + +"Which is applicable here?" + +"Both." + +That was the closest they got. Morran was unable to draw any more from +Answerer. For hours the two men tried, but truth was slipping farther +and farther away. + +"It's maddening," Morran said, after a while. "This thing has the +answer to the whole universe, and he can't tell us unless we ask the +right question. But how are we supposed to know the right question?" + +Lingman sat down on the ground, leaning against a stone wall. He +closed his eyes. + +"Savages, that's what we are," Morran said, pacing up and down in +front of Answerer. "Imagine a bushman walking up to a physicist and +asking him why he can't shoot his arrow into the sun. The scientist +can explain it only in his own terms. What would happen?" + +"The scientist wouldn't even attempt it," Lingman said, in a dim +voice; "he would know the limitations of the questioner." + +"It's fine," Morran said angrily. "How do you explain the earth's +rotation to a bushman? Or better, how do you explain relativity to +him--maintaining scientific rigor in your explanation at all times, of +course." + +Lingman, eyes closed, didn't answer. + +"We're bushmen. But the gap is much greater here. Worm and super-man, +perhaps. The worm desires to know the nature of dirt, and why there's +so much of it. Oh, well." + +"Shall we go, sir?" Morran asked. Lingman's eyes remained closed. His +taloned fingers were clenched, his cheeks sunk further in. The skull +was emerging. + +"Sir! Sir!" + +And Answerer knew that that was not the answer. + + * * * * * + +Alone on his planet, which is neither large nor small, but exactly the +right size, Answerer waits. He cannot help the people who come to him, +for even Answerer has restrictions. + +He can answer only valid questions. + +Universe? Life? Death? Purple? Eighteen? + +Partial truths, half-truths, little bits of the great question. + +But Answerer, alone, mumbles the questions to himself, the true +questions, which no one can understand. + +How could they understand the true answers? + +The questions will never be asked, and Answerer remembers something +his builders knew and forgot. + +In order to ask a question you must already know most of the answer. + +[Illustration] + + * * * * * + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Ask a Foolish Question, by Robert Sheckley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASK A FOOLISH QUESTION *** + +***** This file should be named 33854.txt or 33854.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/8/5/33854/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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