Twilight (short story)

Infobox short story |
name = Twilight
author = John W. Campbell
country = flag|USA
language = English
series =
genre = Science fiction short story
published_in =
publication_type =
publisher =
media_type = Print (Magazine)
pub_date = 1934
followed_by =

"Twilight" is a science fiction short story by John W. Campbell originally published in 1934.

Plot summary

The narrator relates his discussion with an oddly dressed man whom he had picked up by the side of the road. The traveler claimed to have been from 1000 years in the future, and to have developed time-travel technology with which he had first traveled 7 million years forward in time. He then overshot on his return trip, landing himself in 1932.

Most of the story relates his description of far future earth, in which man has colonized other bodies in the solar system but is nonetheless dying out. Human society is free of difficulty, as all illness and predators have been eliminated, and all service is handled by perfect machines. However, humans are also free of curiosity and have accomplished nothing new in about two million years.

Before leaving the far future, the narrator activates intelligent machines that he hopes will allow man's creations, if not man himself, to again learn and expand dominion into the stars.

"Twilight" was among the stories selected in 1970 by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one the best science fiction short stories of all time. As such, it was published in "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929-1964".