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.
(Fredric Brown, "Answer")