The Ultimate World

"The Ultimate World" by Bryce Walton is a science fiction novella written in the mid-20th century, specifically during the 1940s. The story explores themes of perfection, purpose, and the consequences of achieving all conceivable goals within an advanced civilization. Set in the ultimate City of Dhoma, the narrative questions what happens when perfection leads to stagnation and existential crisis. The plot centers around Amco, a resident of Dhoma, who awakens to find their utopian City in crisis due to a lack of purpose and motivation. The City, once vibrant and full of life, is now facing the possibility of annihilation after reaching an intellectual saturation point where no new challenges exist. Tasked by the City's Coordinator to explore the future via a space-time converter to find a solution, Amco discovers that civilization has devolved into sleep, where the inhabitants lie dormant, cut off from reality. They live in a state of endless dreams but at the cost of true existence. Ultimately, Amco learns that the pursuit of knowledge and experience leads to the realization that oblivion may be the true ultimate state, challenging the very essence of life and existence itself. The story culminates in the unsettling conclusion that further evolution may only circle back towards nothingness. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Bryce Walton was an American pulp fiction writer.