SF 90's ideas are new lifeform at end of universe.

[Christopher]

I am searching for the title and author of a novelette/novella/short story?, probably published in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine around 1995. It was set after the heat death of the universe, when both matter and energy had successively succumbed to entropy, and life forms evolved and now existed only as ideas. There was a battle between good ideas and bad ideas, of course. (I remember there being "Nixons" based on Richard M. Nixon, and the protagonist was a fictional hero like Captain Future or the personification of a children's toy.) Thank you in advance for your help; your reply may change the fate of the universe ;-)

[Andy]

Allen Steele''s The Death Of Captain Future was published in Asimovs magazine in 1995.

[Andy]

Ps the idea of ideas being a life form is reminscent of Greg Benford's far future series, and I think excerpts from those books were published in Asimov's too.

[Christopher]

Thank you Andy. I'd originally thought the story was entitled "The Death of Captain Future", but when I read a summary of that story I realized that it wasn't the same. Nevertheless, I figured that I associate the story with that title for some reason, so I imagine that it was published around the same timeframe, and most of my non-novel SF reading back then was Asimov's. I'll look into Benford's work now. Thanks again!

[Andy]

Here's a link to tables of contents for Asimovs http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/seriesgr...

[Andy]

This articles talks about Benford's idea of competing ideas.http://extropians.weidai.com/extropia...

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Christopher, are you still looking for this work or did you find it?

[Christopher]

Lobstergirl wrote: "Christopher, are you still looking for this work or did you find it?"

I'm afraid I never did. The image is very clear in my head, but I haven't found anything in the table of contents of the SF magazines of the period. If I ever do find it, you'll be among the first to know…

[Kate]

Christopher, you can bump your thread every month or so. That keeps it near the top of the folder, and more eyes will see it. One of them MUST know this book!

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Still looking now?

[Christopher]

I never found it, no matter how much I searched. I’m beginning to believe It was an extended literary hallucination.

[Christopher]

Hmm, I just saw this (2017) book being being promoted on Amazon. Too new to be the story I was looking for, and the plot is different, but I wonder if the similarity in ideas is just a coincidence…

[Rosa]

What's the book?

[Christopher]

Sorry, I can’t believe I forgot to,paste that in.

Tricky Dick Nixon and the Heat Death of the Universe
by A. C. Teague


Overview
The Governing Intelligences were desperate. Now that the very black holes had evaporated like so many dust-choked watering holes, where could they turn for the survival drive they needed in the dying universe? The answer was clear: to the greatest survivor in a trillion years of infinitely variegated life: a human man named Richard Milhous Nixon.


https://www.amazon.com/Tricky-Dick-Ni...

[Christopher]

I’d just like to emphasize that the book found at the link I posted was published three years AFTER I posted the question regarding I book I remembered from decades before.

[Justanotherbiblophile]

Christopher wrote: "was published three years AFTER I posted the question regarding I book I remembered from decades before."

Author is old, and this was "self-published" on amazon, so rights may have reverted to her, after its first print publication.

[Christopher]

I finally bought and read the more recent self-published story, and aside from featuring Nixon and the heat death of the universe, it’s not at all the same.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

How about now?