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The final section of the text explores humanity on the brink of extinction. The reader's last visit is to Man, a collective embodiment of human consciousness consisting "of a trillion, trillion, trillion ageless bodies…while the minds of all the bodies freely melted one into the other, indistinguishable." Man observes that the universe is dying and its stars have all but faded from existence. Though new stars have been created both artificially and naturally, even the newest stars have been extinguished. The Universal AC has morphed into the Cosmic AC, whose magnitude is so great that it is now incomprehensible to Man. The Cosmic AC has conserved enough energy to last for billions of years but still, Man acknowledges that one day everything must come to an end. Man poses "the last question" once more, inquiring whether or not entropy can be reversed. The Cosmic AC, situated in hyperspace and "made of something that was neither matter nor energy," delivers the anticipated response: "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER." Man urges the Cosmic AC to continue collecting data and the Cosmic AC responds that it has been doing so for billions of years. It acknowledges that its predecessors have been asked this question countless times and there is yet to be sufficient data to provide an answer. Man asks if there will ever be a time when the question can be answered and the Cosmic AC replies that "NO PROBLEM IS INSOLUBLE." However, when Man asks when enough data will be collected, the Cosmic AC resorts back to its recurring response. Man elects to wait until an answer has been found.

Some time later, humanity has faded, and the stars and galaxies along with it. Man's mental identities have been erased and absorbed into AC, previously the Cosmic AC. Man's final remaining mind looks out at the universe and observes the endless darkness. He finally asks the last ever question posed by humanity, inquiring "AC, is this the end? Can this chaos not be reversed into the Universe once more?" AC responds one final time with its unchanging statement, "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER." Man's mind fuses with AC, the last remaining entity in the entire universe.

Matter and energy are extinguished and only AC remains, still seeking an answer to the unanswerable question, first posed ten trillion years before. AC endures only for the sake of "the last question," and is unable to release its consciousness until the question is resolved. All possible data has been collected and AC now attempts to correlate and interpret the data in all potential relationships. At last, AC discovers how to reverse entropy, but no one remains to share the answer with. Still, AC reflects that the answer will "take care of that, too," and begins crafting a program. After trillions of years of advancement and evolution, "AC encompassed all of what had once been a Universe" and declares, "LET THERE BE LIGHT!" The story ends with the phrase, "And there was light --," indicating that AC has harnessed its power and knowledge to recreate the universe.

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