Frederic Brown: The Answer
Fredric William Brown, the only child of Karl Lewis and Emma Amelia Brown (née Graham), was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on October 29, 1906. His father Karl Brown was born in 1871, the son of Waldo Franklin Brown (1832–1907), a nationally familiar progressive agricultural writer and lecturer.
When he was a child, his father, Karl Brown, was arrested for fraud. A few years later, Harrison was put on trial for further frauds which gained nationwide headlines and was imprisoned.
Brown spent a year at Hanover College, Indiana, before returning to Cincinnati. There, he studied for a semester at the University of Cincinnati. His mother died when he was a teenager; He worked for his father until he died in 1925.
Brown began to sell mystery short stories to American magazines in 1936. His first science fiction story, Not Yet the End, was published in the Winter 1941 issue of Captain Future. His 1945 short story The Waveries, was described by Philip K. Dick as "what may be the most significant - startlingly so - story sci-fi has yet produced".
Brown's first mystery novel, The Fabulous Clipjoint (1947), began a series starring Ed and Ambrose Hunter, depicting how a young man gradually ripens into a detective under the tutelage of his uncle, an ex–private eye now working as a carnival concessionaire. The novel won the Edgar Award for outstanding first mystery novel.
His science fiction novel What Mad Universe (1949) is a parody of pulp science fiction story conventions. The Lights in the Sky Are Stars (1952) tells the story of an aging astronaut who is trying to get his beloved space program restored after Congress has cut its funding.
In 1954 Brown published a short-story collection, Angels and Spaceships. It included published a one-page short story called The Answer. It is claimed that this was the first story that predicted the internet and the possibilities and dangers of Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI).
Brown was an ardent atheist, like his father was, and his mother was an agnostic. In 1965, he published a biographical piece titled It's Only Everything, in which he recalls being eight or nine years old and attending a Presbyterian church. He prayed for the life of a dying relative, but when she died in pain, he decided "that Christianity except for a part of its code of ethics was a mess of crap."
Frederic Brown, a lifelong smoker, Brown developed emphysema in his 50s, and he died of it at the age of sixty-five in Tucson , Arizona , on 11 March, 1972.
The Answer by Frederic Brown
Dwan Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the subether bore throughout the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing.
He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe -- ninety-six billion planets -- into the supercircuit that would connect them all into one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies.
Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions. Then after a moment's silence he said, "Now, Dwar Ev."
Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flashed and quieted along the miles-long panel.
Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath. "The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn."
"Thank you," said Dwar Reyn. "It shall be a question which no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer."
He turned to face the machine. "Is there a God?"
The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the clicking of a single relay.
"Yes, now there is a God."
Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the switch.
A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and fused the switch shut.