{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_33854/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_33854","id":"gutenberg_33854","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33854","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Questions and answers -- Fiction","Science Fiction","Science fiction","Short stories"],"text":"Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                         Transcriber's Note:\n\n    This etext was produced Science Fiction Stories 1953. Extensive\n    research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this\n    publication was renewed.\n\n\n          _It's well established now that the way you put a question\n           often determines not only the answer you'll get, but the\n           type of answer possible. So ... a mechanical answerer,\n           geared to produce the ultimate revelations in reference to\n           anything you want to know, might have unsuspected\n           limitations._\n\n\n                       _Ask A Foolish Question_\n\n\n                         _by_ ROBERT SHECKLEY\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nAnswerer was built to last as long as was necessary--which was quite\nlong, as some races judge time, and not long at all, according to\nothers. But to Answerer, it was just long enough.\n\nAs to size, Answerer was large to some and small to others. He could\nbe viewed as complex, although some believed that he was really very\nsimple.\n\nAnswerer knew that he was as he should be. Above and beyond all else,\nhe was The Answerer. He Knew.\n\nOf the race that built him, the less said the better. They also Knew,\nand never said whether they found the knowledge pleasant.\n\nThey built Answerer as a service to less-sophisticated races, and\ndeparted in a unique manner. Where they went only Answerer knows.\n\nBecause Answerer knows everything.\n\nUpon his planet, circling his sun, Answerer sat. Duration continued,\nlong, as some judge duration, short as others judge it. But as it\nshould be, to Answerer.\n\nWithin him were the Answers. He knew the nature of things, and why\nthings are as they are, and what they are, and what it all means.\n\nAnswerer could answer anything, provided it was a legitimate question.\nAnd he wanted to! He was eager to!\n\nHow else should an Answerer be?\n\nWhat else should an Answerer do?\n\nSo he waited for creatures to come and ask.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"How do you feel, sir?\" Morran asked, floating gently over to the old\nman.\n\n\"Better,\" Lingman said, trying to smile. No-weight was a vast relief.\nEven though Morran had expended an enormous amount of fuel, getting\ninto space under minimum acceleration, Lingman's feeble heart hadn't\nliked it. Lingman's heart had balked and sulked, pounded angrily\nagainst the brittle rib-case, hesitated and sped up. It seemed for a\ntime as though Lingman's heart was going to stop, out of sheer pique.\n\nBut no-weight was a vast relief, and the feeble heart was going again.\n\nMorran had no such problems. His strong body was built for strain and\nstress. He wouldn't experience them on this trip, not if he expected\nold Lingman to live.\n\n\"I'm going to live,\" Lingman muttered, in answer to the unspoken\nquestion. \"Long enough to find out.\" Morran touched the controls, and\nthe ship slipped into sub-space like an eel into oil.\n\n\"We'll find out,\" Morran murmured. He helped the old man unstrap\nhimself. \"We're going to find the Answerer!\"\n\nLingman nodded at his young partner. They had been reassuring\nthemselves for years. Originally it had been Lingman's project. Then\nMorran, graduating from Cal Tech, had joined him. Together they had\ntraced the rumors across the solar system. The legends of an ancient\nhumanoid race who had known the answer to all things, and who had\nbuilt Answerer and departed.\n\n\"Think of it,\" Morran said. \"The answer to everything!\" A physicist,\nMorran had many questions to ask Answerer. The expanding universe; the\nbinding force of atomic nuclei; novae and supernovae; planetary\nformation; red shift, relativity and a thousand others.\n\n\"Yes,\" Lingman said. He pulled himself to the vision plate and looked\nout on the bleak prairie of the illusory sub-space. He was a biologist\nand an old man. He had two questions.\n\nWhat is life?\n\nWhat is death?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAfter a particularly-long period of hunting purple, Lek and his\nfriends gathered to talk. Purple always ran thin in the neighborhood\nof multiple-cluster stars--why, no one knew--so talk was definitely in\norder.\n\n\"Do you know,\" Lek said, \"I think I'll hunt up this Answerer.\" Lek\nspoke the Ollgrat language now, the language of imminent decision.\n\n\"Why?\" Ilm asked him, in the Hvest tongue of light banter. \"Why do you\nwant to know things? Isn't the job of gathering purple enough for\nyou?\"\n\n\"No,\" Lek said, still speaking the language of imminent decision. \"It\nis not.\" The great job of Lek and his kind was the gathering of\npurple. They found purple imbedded in many parts of the fabric of\nspace, minute quantities of it. Slowly, they were building a huge\nmound of it. What the mound was for, no one knew.\n\n\"I suppose you'll ask him what purple is?\" Ilm asked, pushing a star\nout of his way and lying down.\n\n\"I will,\" Lek said. \"We have continued in ignorance too long. We must\nknow the true nature of purple, and its meaning in the scheme of\nthings. We must know why it governs our lives.\" For this speech Lek\nswitched to Ilgret, the language of incipient-knowledge.\n\nIlm and the others didn't try to argue, even in the tongue of\narguments. They knew that the knowledge was important. Ever since the\ndawn of time, Lek, Ilm and the others had gathered purple. Now it was\ntime to know the ultimate answers to the universe--what purple was,\nand what the mound was for.\n\nAnd of course, there was the Answerer to tell them. Everyone had heard\nof the Answerer, built by a race not unlike themselves, now long\ndeparted.\n\n\"Will you ask him anything else?\" Ilm asked Lek.\n\n\"I don't know,\" Lek said. \"Perhaps I'll ask about the stars. There's\nreally nothing else important.\" Since Lek and his brothers had lived\nsince the dawn of time, they didn't consider death. And since their\nnumbers were always the same, they didn't consider the question of\nlife.\n\nBut purple? And the mound?\n\n\"I go!\" Lek shouted, in the vernacular of decision-to-fact.\n\n\"Good fortune!\" his brothers shouted back, in the jargon of\ngreatest-friendship.\n\nLek strode off, leaping from star to star.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAlone on his little planet, Answerer sat, waiting for the Questioners.\nOccasionally he mumbled the answers to himself. This was his\nprivilege. He Knew.\n\nBut he waited, and the time was neither too long nor too short, for\nany of the creatures of space to come and ask.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThere were eighteen of them, gathered in one place.\n\n\"I invoke the rule of eighteen,\" cried one. And another appeared, who\nhad never before been, born by the rule of eighteen.\n\n\"We must go to the Answerer,\" one cried. \"Our lives are governed by\nthe rule of eighteen. Where there are eighteen, there will be\nnineteen. Why is this so?\"\n\nNo one could answer.\n\n\"Where am I?\" asked the newborn nineteenth. One took him aside for\ninstruction.\n\nThat left seventeen. A stable number.\n\n\"And we must find out,\" cried another, \"Why all places are different,\nalthough there is no distance.\"\n\nThat was the problem. One is here. Then one is there. Just like that,\nno movement, no reason. And yet, without moving, one is in another\nplace.\n\n\"The stars are cold,\" one cried.\n\n\"Why?\"\n\n\"We must go to the Answerer.\"\n\nFor they had heard the legends, knew the tales. \"Once there was a\nrace, a good deal like us, and they Knew--and they told Answerer. Then\nthey departed to where there is no place, but much distance.\"\n\n\"How do we get there?\" the newborn nineteenth cried, filled now with\nknowledge.\n\n\"We go.\" And eighteen of them vanished. One was left. Moodily he\nstared at the tremendous spread of an icy star, then he too vanished.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"Those old legends are true,\" Morran gasped. \"There it is.\"\n\nThey had come out of sub-space at the place the legends told of, and\nbefore them was a star unlike any other star. Morran invented a\nclassification for it, but it didn't matter. There was no other like\nit.\n\nSwinging around the star was a planet, and this too was unlike any\nother planet. Morran invented reasons, but they didn't matter. This\nplanet was the only one.\n\n\"Strap yourself in, sir,\" Morran said. \"I'll land as gently as I can.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nLek came to Answerer, striding swiftly from star to star. He lifted\nAnswerer in his hand and looked at him.\n\n\"So you are Answerer,\" he said.\n\n\"Yes,\" Answerer said.\n\n\"Then tell me,\" Lek said, settling himself comfortably in a gap\nbetween the stars, \"Tell me what I am.\"\n\n\"A partiality,\" Answerer said. \"An indication.\"\n\n\"Come now,\" Lek muttered, his pride hurt. \"You can do better than\nthat. Now then. The purpose of my kind is to gather purple, and to\nbuild a mound of it. Can you tell me the real meaning of this?\"\n\n\"Your question is without meaning,\" Answerer said. He knew what purple\nactually was, and what the mound was for. But the explanation was\nconcealed in a greater explanation. Without this, Lek's question was\ninexplicable, and Lek had failed to ask the real question.\n\nLek asked other questions, and Answerer was unable to answer them. Lek\nviewed things through his specialized eyes, extracted a part of the\ntruth and refused to see more. How to tell a blind man the sensation\nof green?\n\nAnswerer didn't try. He wasn't supposed to.\n\nFinally, Lek emitted a scornful laugh. One of his little\nstepping-stones flared at the sound, then faded back to its usual\nintensity.\n\nLek departed, striding swiftly across the stars.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAnswerer knew. But he had to be asked the proper questions first. He\npondered this limitation, gazing at the stars which were neither large\nnor small, but exactly the right size.\n\nThe proper questions. The race which built Answerer should have taken\nthat into account, Answerer thought. They should have made some\nallowance for semantic nonsense, allowed him to attempt an\nunravelling.\n\nAnswerer contented himself with muttering the answers to himself.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nEighteen creatures came to Answerer, neither walking nor flying, but\nsimply appearing. Shivering in the cold glare of the stars, they gazed\nup at the massiveness of Answerer.\n\n\"If there is no distance,\" one asked, \"Then how can things be in other\nplaces?\"\n\nAnswerer knew what distance was, and what places were. But he couldn't\nanswer the question. There was distance, but not as these creatures\nsaw it. And there were places, but in a different fashion from that\nwhich the creatures expected.\n\n\"Rephrase the question,\" Answerer said hopefully.\n\n\"Why are we short here,\" one asked, \"And long over there? Why are we\nfat over there, and short here? Why are the stars cold?\"\n\nAnswerer knew all things. He knew why stars were cold, but he couldn't\nexplain it in terms of stars or coldness.\n\n\"Why,\" another asked, \"Is there a rule of eighteen? Why, when eighteen\ngather, is another produced?\"\n\nBut of course the answer was part of another, greater question, which\nhadn't been asked.\n\nAnother was produced by the rule of eighteen, and the nineteen\ncreatures vanished.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAnswerer mumbled the right questions to himself, and answered them.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"We made it,\" Morran said. \"Well, well.\" He patted Lingman on the\nshoulder--lightly, because Lingman might fall apart.\n\nThe old biologist was tired. His face was sunken, yellow, lined.\nAlready the mark of the skull was showing in his prominent yellow\nteeth, his small, flat nose, his exposed cheekbones. The matrix was\nshowing through.\n\n\"Let's get on,\" Lingman said. He didn't want to waste any time. He\ndidn't have any time to waste.\n\nHelmeted, they walked along the little path.\n\n\"Not so fast,\" Lingman murmured.\n\n\"Right,\" Morran said. They walked together, along the dark path of the\nplanet that was different from all other planets, soaring alone around\na sun different from all other suns.\n\n\"Up here,\" Morran said. The legends were explicit. A path, leading to\nstone steps. Stone steps to a courtyard. And then--the Answerer!\n\nTo them, Answerer looked like a white screen set in a wall. To their\neyes, Answerer was very simple.\n\nLingman clasped his shaking hands together. This was the culmination\nof a lifetime's work, financing, arguing, ferreting bits of legend,\nending here, now.\n\n\"Remember,\" he said to Morran, \"We will be shocked. The truth will be\nlike nothing we have imagined.\"\n\n\"I'm ready,\" Morran said, his eyes rapturous.\n\n\"Very well. Answerer,\" Lingman said, in his thin little voice, \"What\nis life?\"\n\nA voice spoke in their heads. \"The question has no meaning. By 'life,'\nthe Questioner is referring to a partial phenomenon, inexplicable\nexcept in terms of its whole.\"\n\n\"Of what is life a part?\" Lingman asked.\n\n\"This question, in its present form, admits of no answer. Questioner\nis still considering 'life,' from his personal, limited bias.\"\n\n\"Answer it in your own terms, then,\" Morran said.\n\n\"The Answerer can only answer questions.\" Answerer thought again of\nthe sad limitation imposed by his builders.\n\nSilence.\n\n\"Is the universe expanding?\" Morran asked confidently.\n\n\"'Expansion' is a term inapplicable to the situation. Universe, as the\nQuestioner views it, is an illusory concept.\"\n\n\"Can you tell us _anything_?\" Morran asked.\n\n\"I can answer any valid question concerning the nature of things.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe two men looked at each other.\n\n\"I think I know what he means,\" Lingman said sadly. \"Our basic\nassumptions are wrong. All of them.\"\n\n\"They can't be,\" Morran said. \"Physics, biology--\"\n\n\"Partial truths,\" Lingman said, with a great weariness in his voice.\n\"At least we've determined that much. We've found out that our\ninferences concerning observed phenomena are wrong.\"\n\n\"But the rule of the simplest hypothesis--\"\n\n\"It's only a theory,\" Lingman said.\n\n\"But life--he certainly could answer what life is?\"\n\n\"Look at it this way,\" Lingman said. \"Suppose you were to ask, 'Why\nwas I born under the constellation Scorpio, in conjunction with\nSaturn?' I would be unable to answer your question _in terms of the\nzodiac_, because the zodiac has nothing to do with it.\"\n\n\"I see,\" Morran said slowly. \"He can't answer questions in terms of\nour assumptions.\"\n\n\"That seems to be the case. And he can't alter our assumptions. He is\nlimited to valid questions--which imply, it would seem, a knowledge we\njust don't have.\"\n\n\"We can't even ask a valid question?\" Morran asked. \"I don't believe\nthat. We must know some basics.\" He turned to Answerer. \"What is\ndeath?\"\n\n\"I cannot explain an anthropomorphism.\"\n\n\"Death an anthropomorphism!\" Morran said, and Lingman turned quickly.\n\"Now we're getting somewhere!\"\n\n\"Are anthropomorphisms unreal?\" he asked.\n\n\"Anthropomorphisms may be classified, tentatively, as, A, false\ntruths, or B, partial truths in terms of a partial situation.\"\n\n\"Which is applicable here?\"\n\n\"Both.\"\n\nThat was the closest they got. Morran was unable to draw any more from\nAnswerer. For hours the two men tried, but truth was slipping farther\nand farther away.\n\n\"It's maddening,\" Morran said, after a while. \"This thing has the\nanswer to the whole universe, and he can't tell us unless we ask the\nright question. But how are we supposed to know the right question?\"\n\nLingman sat down on the ground, leaning against a stone wall. He\nclosed his eyes.\n\n\"Savages, that's what we are,\" Morran said, pacing up and down in\nfront of Answerer. \"Imagine a bushman walking up to a physicist and\nasking him why he can't shoot his arrow into the sun. The scientist\ncan explain it only in his own terms. What would happen?\"\n\n\"The scientist wouldn't even attempt it,\" Lingman said, in a dim\nvoice; \"he would know the limitations of the questioner.\"\n\n\"It's fine,\" Morran said angrily. \"How do you explain the earth's\nrotation to a bushman? Or better, how do you explain relativity to\nhim--maintaining scientific rigor in your explanation at all times, of\ncourse.\"\n\nLingman, eyes closed, didn't answer.\n\n\"We're bushmen. But the gap is much greater here. Worm and super-man,\nperhaps. The worm desires to know the nature of dirt, and why there's\nso much of it. Oh, well.\"\n\n\"Shall we go, sir?\" Morran asked. Lingman's eyes remained closed. His\ntaloned fingers were clenched, his cheeks sunk further in. The skull\nwas emerging.\n\n\"Sir! Sir!\"\n\nAnd Answerer knew that that was not the answer.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAlone on his planet, which is neither large nor small, but exactly the\nright size, Answerer waits. He cannot help the people who come to him,\nfor even Answerer has restrictions.\n\nHe can answer only valid questions.\n\nUniverse? Life? Death? Purple? Eighteen?\n\nPartial truths, half-truths, little bits of the great question.\n\nBut Answerer, alone, mumbles the questions to himself, the true\nquestions, which no one can understand.\n\nHow could they understand the true answers?\n\nThe questions will never be asked, and Answerer remembers something\nhis builders knew and forgot.\n\nIn order to ask a question you must already know most of the answer.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *","title":"Ask a Foolish Question","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":2842}