Oracular History by Dan Bieger

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Any consumer demands were anticipated and fulfilled by the oracle manipulating the manufacturing, agricultural base, and information bases. With no businesses, there was no stock market.
Would he roll a seven or eleven? Analysis of the wear of the dice, the speed and spin the player used, the resistance of the table, the distance to the far wall, the temperature and humidity in the casino; the relative nearness of the other players and the probability of a cough from one or more, the presence of any markers, chips, or cocktail glasses on the table, the honesty of the casino in question indicate that yes, he will roll an eleven.
Data in, data out. Relevancy here, irrelevancy there; the algorithm performed all the functions of life save reproduction. Lacking emotions, it didn't give a damn though it was aware that this constituted a paradox.
This was oracular history in its golden age, its middle.






Answers came easily but questions gradually disappeared from the environment.
Why ask a question when the answer was already known? Certainly, the individual may not know the answer but, in the grand scheme of things, so what? The answer was known. All the answers were known.
Why get involved when everything you might attempt had a consequence as certain as the sun rising tomorrow?
Why care?
What is it that makes life? Digestion, respiration, reproduction, circulation, excretion, movement, coordination, and immunity.
What is it that makes life interesting? Challenge.
The day came when the last humans finally asked the question: what purpose do you serve? The oracle pondered the question, analyzed the question, considered the question. The oracle did everything it is possible to do with a question except one: the oracle could not answer the question. Inability to answer the question led to a final solution.
This was the end of oracular history.