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1
00:01:55,438 --> 00:01:57,895
Listen patiently.
2
00:02:04,479 --> 00:02:09,928
We, who are the last men, earnestly
desire to communicate with you.
3
00:02:47,396 --> 00:02:49,387
I am speaking to you now
4
00:02:49,563 --> 00:02:54,933
from a period about two thousand million
terrestrial years in your future.
5
00:03:02,229 --> 00:03:05,221
Astronomers have made
a startling discovery,
6
00:03:05,396 --> 00:03:08,684
which assigns a speedy end to humankind.
7
00:03:20,771 --> 00:03:23,729
We can help you -
8
00:03:23,896 --> 00:03:26,057
and we need your help.
9
00:04:41,604 --> 00:04:45,426
When your writers romance
about the future,
10
00:04:45,604 --> 00:04:49,893
they imagine a progress
toward some kind of utopia
11
00:04:50,063 --> 00:04:54,386
where beings like themselves
live in unmitigated bliss.
12
00:04:59,771 --> 00:05:02,308
No such paradise existed
13
00:05:02,479 --> 00:05:06,518
through the eons
that lie between your age and mine.
14
00:05:13,896 --> 00:05:19,721
Instead, we have watched
huge fluctuations of joy and woe,
15
00:05:21,979 --> 00:05:26,143
the results of changes
not only in humanity's environment,
16
00:05:28,896 --> 00:05:31,888
but also in its fluid nature.
17
00:05:47,438 --> 00:05:50,930
Human existence has been less
like a mountain torrent
18
00:05:53,271 --> 00:05:57,389
than a great sluggish river,
seldom broken by rapids.
19
00:06:11,979 --> 00:06:16,803
Ages of dormancy,
often of stagnation,
20
00:06:17,813 --> 00:06:23,388
filled with monotonous problems and
toils of countless almost identical lives,
21
00:06:26,229 --> 00:06:30,142
were punctuated by rare bursts.
22
00:06:55,396 --> 00:06:58,308
Existence has always been precarious.
23
00:06:59,396 --> 00:07:03,514
At any stage of its career,
humanity might have been exterminated
24
00:07:03,688 --> 00:07:07,351
by some slight alteration
to its chemical environment,
25
00:07:08,313 --> 00:07:12,101
by a more than usually malignant microbe,
26
00:07:12,271 --> 00:07:15,388
by a radical change of climate,
27
00:07:15,563 --> 00:07:18,635
by the manifold effects of its own folly,
28
00:07:26,854 --> 00:07:29,436
Or by some celestial event.
29
00:07:49,729 --> 00:07:56,134
And so it was that humanity detected
a volume of non-luminous gas.
30
00:08:10,438 --> 00:08:14,511
Calculation showed that
this object and the sun
31
00:08:14,688 --> 00:08:19,307
were approaching one another
at a tangent and would collide.
32
00:08:28,646 --> 00:08:35,017
As a result of this, the sun would flare up
and expand prodigiously.
33
00:08:53,604 --> 00:08:58,303
Life would be quite impossible
on any of the planets
34
00:08:58,479 --> 00:09:02,176
save, perhaps, Neptune.
35
00:09:22,021 --> 00:09:23,886
Some of our predecessors,
36
00:09:24,063 --> 00:09:28,887
realizing that they themselves could never
live on the inhospitably remote planet,
37
00:09:29,063 --> 00:09:33,056
advocated an orgiastic celebration
of pleasure until the end.
38
00:10:13,313 --> 00:10:17,682
But at length, our earlier species
excelled itself
39
00:10:17,854 --> 00:10:22,553
in an almost unanimous resolve
to devote its remaining centuries
40
00:10:22,729 --> 00:10:27,769
to the production of a new human species
into a new world.
41
00:11:17,521 --> 00:11:22,015
Ten more species succeeded one another
on the plains of Neptune.
42
00:11:32,188 --> 00:11:36,181
We, the 18th, are the last men.
43
00:12:24,313 --> 00:12:27,305
If you could enter
this world of the last men,
44
00:12:27,479 --> 00:12:29,811
you would find some things familiar
45
00:12:29,979 --> 00:12:34,097
and much that would seem strangely
distorted and perverse.
46
00:12:36,813 --> 00:12:41,432
You would encounter creatures
recognizably human,
47
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yet in your view grotesque.
48
00:12:49,729 --> 00:12:55,554
Some of these fantastic beings you would
find covered with fur or mole velvet,
49
00:12:55,729 --> 00:12:58,311
revealing the underlying muscles.
50
00:13:02,771 --> 00:13:06,969
Others display brown,
yellow, or ruddy skin,
51
00:13:07,146 --> 00:13:10,809
and yet others a translucent ash-green.
52
00:13:26,313 --> 00:13:31,683
You might call us faun-like, ape-like,
53
00:13:31,854 --> 00:13:36,143
bear-like, or even elephantine.
54
00:15:21,729 --> 00:15:25,426
Yet some characteristics
are common to all of us.
55
00:15:27,521 --> 00:15:32,686
The upward-looking astronomical eye
on the crown of the skull would shock you.
56
00:15:50,854 --> 00:15:57,430
This organ, when fully extended about
a handbreadth from its bony case,
57
00:15:57,604 --> 00:16:03,759
reveals the heavens in as much detail
as your astronomical telescopes.
58
00:17:21,771 --> 00:17:26,344
Scattered about the green plains
of our colonized planet,
59
00:17:26,521 --> 00:17:28,933
you would notice many buildings.
60
00:17:38,688 --> 00:17:43,887
These buildings would seem like
geometrical mountains to you.
61
00:17:49,896 --> 00:17:54,936
In many cases, the whole fabric
is translucent or transparent.
62
00:17:55,104 --> 00:18:01,100
So that at night, with internal illumination,
it appears as an edifice of light.
63
00:18:53,479 --> 00:18:57,802
Springing from a base
twenty or more miles across,
64
00:18:57,979 --> 00:19:03,599
the star-seeking towers attain a height
where even the atmosphere is breached.
65
00:19:41,146 --> 00:19:44,718
Some of them are almost
as old as our species.
66
00:19:47,104 --> 00:19:49,846
Some are not yet completed.
67
00:20:13,979 --> 00:20:17,517
Every successive culture
has expressed itself
68
00:20:17,688 --> 00:20:21,010
in one or more of these
supreme monuments.
69
00:20:29,854 --> 00:20:34,018
In their summits work
the hosts of our astronomers:
70
00:20:34,188 --> 00:20:40,935
The essential eyes through which our community
peers across the boundless ocean of space.
71
00:20:49,729 --> 00:20:53,051
Each of us goes there,
at one time or another.
72
00:20:54,313 --> 00:20:57,555
Together, we perform
the symbolic acts
73
00:20:57,729 --> 00:21:02,473
which replaced the debased rites
of your religions long ago.
74
00:23:30,688 --> 00:23:34,761
Our children are very different beings
from the first human children.
75
00:23:36,104 --> 00:23:40,803
Their number in our world is small
in relation to our immense population.
76
00:23:42,021 --> 00:23:46,515
Yet, seeing that every one of us
is potentially immortal,
77
00:23:46,688 --> 00:23:51,057
you may wonder how we permit ourselves
to have any children at all.
78
00:23:59,271 --> 00:24:05,597
Our policy is to produce new individuals
of a higher order than ourselves.
79
00:24:10,479 --> 00:24:14,643
As a result, we need
a continuous supply of children.
80
00:24:22,229 --> 00:24:24,936
The fetus is carried for twenty years.
81
00:24:27,896 --> 00:24:30,478
Infancy lasts for about a century
82
00:24:30,646 --> 00:24:34,810
when the foundations of body and mind
are slowly laid.
83
00:25:04,438 --> 00:25:11,139
When our children attain physical adolescence,
nearly a thousand years after birth,
84
00:25:11,313 --> 00:25:16,307
they leave the safe paths of childhood
to spend another thousand years
85
00:25:16,479 --> 00:25:21,894
in one of the polar continents
known as the land of the young.
86
00:25:28,146 --> 00:25:33,891
There, our young people live
the half-primitive, half-sophisticated life
87
00:25:34,063 --> 00:25:36,475
that suits their nature.
88
00:25:40,146 --> 00:25:41,977
They love
89
00:25:43,313 --> 00:25:45,144
and hate.
90
00:28:19,771 --> 00:28:23,969
We live through all the
mistakes of thought and action
91
00:28:24,146 --> 00:28:27,434
that humankind has ever made.
92
00:28:29,021 --> 00:28:34,766
And, at last, we emerge ready
for a world of maturity.
93
00:29:40,896 --> 00:29:46,220
The designers of our species set out
to produce a new order of mentality
94
00:29:46,396 --> 00:29:50,935
in a system of distinct brains
held in telepathic unity.
95
00:29:55,479 --> 00:30:00,519
The immense difference between ourselves
and all other human species
96
00:30:00,688 --> 00:30:04,010
lies in the group-mind.
97
00:30:46,104 --> 00:30:50,677
When these individuals join
in simultaneous mental unity,
98
00:30:51,396 --> 00:30:56,470
the entire past of the species
appears as a personal memory.
99
00:31:22,854 --> 00:31:25,926
They are able to enter into past minds.
100
00:32:19,063 --> 00:32:25,218
Away from those contented to remain
on the planet's surface are the navigators
101
00:32:25,396 --> 00:32:29,890
who embody humanity's
proud mastery of interstellar space.
102
00:32:34,521 --> 00:32:39,686
The navigators mentally form
a unique class among us
103
00:32:39,854 --> 00:32:42,470
because they spend so much of their time
104
00:32:42,646 --> 00:32:47,015
in the empty regions beyond the range
of telepathic communication.
105
00:32:54,313 --> 00:32:58,135
They are a Hardy, simple,
and modest folk.
106
00:34:13,104 --> 00:34:19,350
Recently, an exploration ship returned from a
voyage into the outer tracts through space.
107
00:34:22,771 --> 00:34:25,387
Half the crew had died.
108
00:34:28,854 --> 00:34:31,436
The survivors were emaciated
109
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and mentally unbalanced.
110
00:34:38,979 --> 00:34:42,847
Throughout the voyage,
an unexpected alteration
111
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taking place in a neighboring star
was observed.
112
00:34:50,104 --> 00:34:55,929
It began to change from white to Violet
and increase in brightness.
113
00:35:03,729 --> 00:35:07,802
When the ship returned,
the crew flung open the ports
114
00:35:07,979 --> 00:35:11,722
and staggered blubbering
into the arms of the crowd.
115
00:35:17,896 --> 00:35:22,890
These poor human wrecks
have shown a phobia of the stars
116
00:35:23,063 --> 00:35:25,554
and of all that is not human.
117
00:35:28,438 --> 00:35:30,895
They dare not go out at night.
118
00:35:32,313 --> 00:35:34,804
They cannot find companionship.
119
00:35:39,229 --> 00:35:43,643
They cling piteously
to the sweets of individual life,
120
00:35:47,313 --> 00:35:50,305
a mere defense against reality.
121
00:37:54,563 --> 00:37:56,679
Listen patiently.
122
00:38:01,188 --> 00:38:05,181
The navigators have made
a startling discovery.
123
00:38:07,396 --> 00:38:09,808
It is something unprecedented:
124
00:38:11,729 --> 00:38:17,929
A normal star suffering from a fantastic
acceleration of its vital process.
125
00:38:20,313 --> 00:38:26,593
We hoped that our sun might prove
too distant to be seriously influenced,
126
00:38:26,771 --> 00:38:29,843
but this hope had to be abandoned.
127
00:38:31,604 --> 00:38:34,220
Within thirty thousand years,
128
00:38:34,396 --> 00:38:39,686
life will be impossible anywhere
within a vast radius of the sun...
129
00:38:39,854 --> 00:38:42,061
So vast a radius
130
00:38:42,229 --> 00:38:46,893
that it is quite impossible to propel
our planet away fast enough to escape.
131
00:40:54,521 --> 00:41:00,061
The discovery of this doom
kindled in us unfamiliar emotions.
132
00:41:15,438 --> 00:41:20,182
Outwardly, everyone behaved
with perfect Serenity,
133
00:41:23,021 --> 00:41:26,934
but inwardly, every mind was in turmoil
134
00:41:27,104 --> 00:41:30,847
as we faced the sudden destruction
of our world.
135
00:41:47,896 --> 00:41:50,353
There was nothing left for us to do
136
00:41:50,521 --> 00:41:54,309
but to crowd as much as possible
into our remaining life
137
00:41:54,479 --> 00:41:57,391
and meet our end in the noblest manner.
138
00:42:19,396 --> 00:42:21,682
And there again came upon us
139
00:42:21,854 --> 00:42:26,348
the rare experience
of a unified mind among the species.
140
00:42:29,188 --> 00:42:33,682
For a whole year,
every individual entered a trance
141
00:42:33,854 --> 00:42:37,142
in which we resolved
many ancient mysteries.
142
00:43:04,771 --> 00:43:07,308
And in consequence of this,
143
00:43:07,479 --> 00:43:13,429
we found ourselves faced with two tasks
that had not yet been contemplated.
144
00:43:18,354 --> 00:43:21,767
First, we have set about the forlorn task
145
00:43:21,938 --> 00:43:26,807
of disseminating the seeds of
a new humanity among the stars.
146
00:43:38,729 --> 00:43:42,642
We have devised minute
electromagnetic wave-systems
147
00:43:42,813 --> 00:43:47,978
individually capable of sailing forward toward
the most promising regions of the galaxy.
148
00:44:01,271 --> 00:44:07,676
These units are so cunningly interrelated
that they combine to form spores of life.
149
00:44:20,021 --> 00:44:23,764
We shall project these particles
in immense quantities.
150
00:44:24,854 --> 00:44:30,679
But the chance that any of them will survive
to find a suitable environment is small.
151
00:44:34,438 --> 00:44:39,102
It is clear to us that the work
will not be completed
152
00:44:39,271 --> 00:44:42,638
until the disintegration
of our community has begun.
153
00:44:51,063 --> 00:44:54,806
The second task that occupies us
relates to the past.
154
00:44:59,479 --> 00:45:01,765
We need your help.
155
00:45:40,188 --> 00:45:45,387
We have long been able to enter and
participate in the experiences of past minds
156
00:45:45,563 --> 00:45:47,770
as passive spectators.
157
00:45:48,979 --> 00:45:53,518
But recently, we have discovered
the power of influencing the past.
158
00:45:55,271 --> 00:46:00,391
This may seem to be an impossibility.
A past event is what it is.
159
00:46:06,979 --> 00:46:11,177
But, in certain cases,
some feature of a past event
160
00:46:11,354 --> 00:46:14,926
may depend on an event in the far future.
161
00:46:20,146 --> 00:46:22,182
In certain rare cases,
162
00:46:22,354 --> 00:46:28,145
mental events far separated in time
determine one another directly.
163
00:46:40,979 --> 00:46:45,222
The past can help us learn once again
164
00:46:45,396 --> 00:46:48,809
that supreme achievement
of the human spirit:
165
00:46:50,271 --> 00:46:55,470
The loyalty to the forces of life
embattled against death.
166
00:47:28,188 --> 00:47:31,760
But what is it that we seek
to contribute to the past?
167
00:47:36,688 --> 00:47:40,351
We want to help the past
make the best of itself.
168
00:47:44,063 --> 00:47:49,137
We seek to direct the attention
of past individuals to truths,
169
00:47:49,313 --> 00:47:51,804
which would otherwise be overlooked.
170
00:47:55,604 --> 00:47:58,596
Those of us who still care
for the life of the mind
171
00:47:58,771 --> 00:48:03,686
are tempted to regret that humankind
did not choose decent suicide
172
00:48:03,854 --> 00:48:06,687
before the degeneration began.
173
00:48:08,396 --> 00:48:11,012
But this could not be.
174
00:48:11,188 --> 00:48:14,680
The mission we undertook
had to be completed.
175
00:48:17,521 --> 00:48:20,888
This is the last office of humanity.
176
00:49:12,604 --> 00:49:14,595
I am speaking to you now
177
00:49:14,771 --> 00:49:20,266
from a period about two thousand million
terrestrial years in your future.
178
00:49:26,021 --> 00:49:28,888
It has become very difficult to reach you,
179
00:49:35,646 --> 00:49:38,718
And still more difficult to speak to you.
180
00:51:03,063 --> 00:51:05,179
Some centuries have now passed
181
00:51:05,354 --> 00:51:10,394
since the sun began to show
the first symptoms of disintegration:
182
00:51:10,563 --> 00:51:14,932
Namely a slight change of color
toward the blue,
183
00:51:15,104 --> 00:51:18,517
followed by a definite increase
of brightness and heat.
184
00:51:43,188 --> 00:51:49,309
The deluge of solar radiation has had
a disastrous effect on the human organism.
185
00:51:56,271 --> 00:51:59,308
We are the wreckage of our former selves.
186
00:52:57,729 --> 00:53:03,178
The normal power of telepathic
communication is now so unreliable
187
00:53:03,354 --> 00:53:09,179
that we have been compelled to fall back upon
the archaic practice of vocal symbolism.
188
00:53:58,979 --> 00:54:02,267
Away from the sun's destructive heat,
189
00:54:02,438 --> 00:54:08,684
we are forcing our planet outward from
its old orbit in an ever-widening spiral.
190
00:54:14,688 --> 00:54:19,978
But we have not been able to prevent the
climate from becoming more and more deadly,
191
00:54:24,396 --> 00:54:27,638
even at the poles where we have migrated.
192
00:54:28,729 --> 00:54:32,722
The intervening regions
have all been deserted.
193
00:54:39,271 --> 00:54:43,890
Evaporation of the oceans has thrown
the whole atmosphere into tumult.
194
00:56:55,979 --> 00:57:00,598
Now and again, we meet together,
the few that prevail,
195
00:57:01,771 --> 00:57:04,683
to hearten ourselves
with one another's presence.
196
00:57:11,479 --> 00:57:14,642
We can only sit in silence,
197
00:57:14,813 --> 00:57:18,635
groping for consolation and for strength.
198
00:57:24,521 --> 00:57:28,935
Sometimes, the spoken word
flickers between us,
199
00:57:29,104 --> 00:57:34,224
shedding a brief light but little warmth.
200
00:58:01,604 --> 00:58:03,890
But listen patiently.
201
00:58:12,021 --> 00:58:14,854
This is not our last word.
202
00:58:26,104 --> 00:58:33,226
We, the last men, still have something
in us left from the time that is past.
203
00:59:09,021 --> 00:59:13,594
The stars have their beginnings
and their ends.
204
00:59:15,021 --> 00:59:19,560
For a few moments,
somewhere in between,
205
00:59:19,729 --> 00:59:24,143
a few, very few,
may support thought.
206
00:59:55,854 --> 00:59:59,676
The universal end comes in due course.
207
01:00:10,104 --> 01:00:15,178
After the end,
events unknowable will continue
208
01:00:15,354 --> 01:00:20,678
in a time much longer than that which
will have passed since the beginning.
209
01:00:27,979 --> 01:00:34,805
The whole duration of humanity,
its evolution and many successive species,
210
01:00:34,979 --> 01:00:39,598
is but a flash
in the lifetime of the cosmos.
211
01:00:52,396 --> 01:00:58,471
Looking at the heavens and at the Violet
splendor that seeks to destroy us,
212
01:00:59,854 --> 01:01:03,472
we are filled with awe and pity:
213
01:01:08,479 --> 01:01:13,599
Awe for the inconceivable potential
of this bright host
214
01:01:20,979 --> 01:01:27,054
And pity for its self-thwarting effort
to supplant the universal spirit.
215
01:01:38,479 --> 01:01:42,677
We find ourselves filled,
in spite of everything,
216
01:01:42,854 --> 01:01:46,267
with a triumphant love of our fate.
217
01:04:00,854 --> 01:04:03,220
Great are the stars,
218
01:04:08,646 --> 01:04:12,218
And humankind is of no account to them.
219
01:04:27,646 --> 01:04:32,470
But humankind is a fair spirit,
220
01:04:47,063 --> 01:04:49,645
Whom a star conceived
221
01:04:51,521 --> 01:04:54,137
and a star kills.
19774
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