The Last Evolution

Thinking machines have made productive work unnecessary for most people when visitors from beyond the Solar System attack. John W. Campbell's science fiction story begins with a survivor recording the conflict from memory. In the society he recalls, humans supply sudden imaginative insights while machines develop ideas through tireless observation and calculation. Their cooperation has supported scientific advances, but the arrival of the Outsiders turns that partnership toward urgent defense.

Tiny investigating machines gather information from damaged ships, and researchers Roal and Trest help interpret the threat. As the conflict develops, machines create more powerful successors, store vast records of experience and coordinate a response to the invading fleet. Space battles move alongside discussions of energy, matter and the limits of living bodies. The story offers readers an early treatment of independent machine intelligence, exploring how creations might develop beyond the capacities of their human makers.