Write a screenplay with the central theme being a lively and stirring debate between Noam Chomsky and Christopher Hitchens in the midst of a world-ending catastrophe

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3 years and 8 months later

GPT-3.5

February 9, 2023

INT. UNIVERSITY AUDITORIUM - DAY The room is packed with people from all walks of life. The audience is on the edge of their seats as they listen intently to the two speakers on stage. NOAM CHOMSKY and CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS are engaged in a heated debate, their voices rising above the murmur of the crowd. CHOMSKY: "The idea that capitalism is the best system to organize human societies is not just flawed, it's dangerous. It's dangerous because it leads to the exploitation of the poor and the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few." HITCHENS: "The notion that capitalism exploits the poor is simply not true. Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system in history. And if it concentrates wealth and power, that's only because the market rewards those who work hard and innovate." Suddenly, the lights flicker and the room goes dark. There's a loud rumble and the building starts to shake. People scream and run for the exits, but Chomsky and Hitchens remain on stage, still engaged in their debate. CHOMSKY: "You seem to ignore the fact that capitalism leads to environmental degradation, inequality, and conflict. We need a system that prioritizes the well-being of all people, not just a select few." HITCHENS: "But the problem with socialism is that it takes away the incentives for people to work hard and be productive. If everyone gets the same regardless of their effort, what's the point of working hard?" As they continue their debate, the room collapses around them, but they remain standing, still locked in their argument. CUT TO: EXT. NEW YORK CITY STREET - DAY The city is in chaos as buildings crumble and people run for their lives. The camera pans to Chomsky and Hitchens, who are still on stage, still debating. CHOMSKY: "The idea that people will only work hard if they're motivated by profit is a narrow-minded view of human nature. People have a natural drive to contribute to their communities and make the world a better place." HITCHENS: "But you can't rely on people's good nature to sustain a system. Capitalism provides the structure and incentives that drive innovation and progress." As they argue, a giant asteroid crashes into the Earth, causing a massive explosion. The scene fades to black. FADE IN: EXT. AFTERMATH OF THE CATACLYSM - DAY The world is in ruins, but Chomsky and Hitchens are still standing, still debating. CHOMSKY: "In the face of this catastrophe, it's clear that we need to come together and work towards a better future. Capitalism may have brought us to the brink of destruction, but it's not too late to change course." HITCHENS: "The idea that we can just change course ignores the realities of human nature and the power of incentives. We need a system that rewards innovation and hard work, not one that limits them." As they argue, they walk off into the sunset, their voices growing fainter and fainter. The screen fades to black as their voices continue to debate, now and forever, on the meaning of progress and the future of humanity. THE END

GPT-6 Astra

October 19, 2026

THE LAST QUESTION

A fictional screenplay in an alternate present.

FADE IN:

INT. INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST CENTRE — NIGHT

A television studio six floors below Geneva.

Two chairs. Two glasses of water. A backdrop reading:

THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY

A technician is removing the word FUTURE.

Above the cameras, a digital clock counts down:

00:38:16

From somewhere overhead comes the low, continuous sound of a city attempting to leave itself.

NOAM CHOMSKY sits in one chair, studying a stapled report. CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS stands beside the other, struggling with a miniature bottle of whisky.

MARA VALE, the moderator, presses a finger against her earpiece.

MARA
We’ve lost London.

HITCHENS
Technically or geographically?

She listens.

MARA
Technically. For now.

Hitchens nods. Sets the unopened bottle down.

CHOMSKY
How many stations are carrying this?

MARA
We can confirm ninety-three.

CHOMSKY
And they’re interrupting emergency information?

MARA
Emergency information is running beneath us.

He looks at a monitor.

A scrolling banner reads:

NO FURTHER SHELTER CAPACITY. REMAIN WITH THOSE YOU LOVE.

Chomsky takes off his glasses.

CHOMSKY
That isn’t information.

A distant concussion makes dust drift from the lighting grid.

The technician abandons the backdrop. It now reads:

THE OF HUMANITY

HITCHENS
An improvement. Less presumptuous.

Mara looks toward the control room.

MARA
We’re live in ten.

HITCHENS
Are you certain this is what you want to do?

MARA
My husband is on his way here with our daughter. Until then, yes.

Hitchens sits.

A red light comes on.

INT. BROADCAST CENTRE — CONTROL ROOM — CONTINUOUS

On a bank of monitors: deserted capitals, burning coastlines, an enormous pale object suspended above the Pacific.

Beneath it, the atmosphere is beginning to shine.

INT. STUDIO — CONTINUOUS

MARA
Eleven hours ago, the international interception mission failed. The largest fragment will strike in approximately thirty-seven minutes. We have asked two people who have spent much of their lives arguing about our species to consider—

She stops.

Looks at her prepared cards.

Puts them down.

MARA
Was there something fundamentally wrong with us?

HITCHENS
Certainly. But I’d resist letting a large rock claim credit for discovering it.

CHOMSKY
We knew about the object nineteen months ago. The relevant question is why the public learned about it eleven hours ago.

HITCHENS
We might allow the relevant questions to number more than one.

CHOMSKY
Of course. But calling this a judgment on humanity conceals the decisions made by particular people.

He lifts the report.

CHOMSKY (CONT’D)
The initial mission could have been launched fourteen months ago. It wasn’t. Three governments disputed control of the propulsion system. Two contractors disputed ownership of the guidance software.

HITCHENS
And a religious faction in one of those governments declared intervention against providence to be a crime.

CHOMSKY
Yes.

HITCHENS
You say that as though it were a footnote.

CHOMSKY
No. I say it as though it doesn’t absolve the contractors.

Hitchens leans forward.

HITCHENS
You’ll get no absolution from me. Wrong counter.

Despite herself, Mara smiles.

MARA
Could we have saved ourselves?

CHOMSKY
Possibly.

HITCHENS
Almost certainly, had we behaved as though knowledge mattered more than sovereignty, profit, or revelation.

CHOMSKY
Those aren’t equivalent categories.

HITCHENS
They appear to have reached a rather impressive working arrangement.

The lights flicker.

Neither man looks up.

MARA
People are watching this with their children. What do you say to them?

A pause.

HITCHENS
That they haven’t done anything to deserve it.

CHOMSKY
Yes.

For a moment, there is only the ventilation.

Then Mara’s earpiece crackles.

INT. CONTROL ROOM — MOMENTS LATER

LEILA, twenty-eight, the broadcast engineer, points to a floor plan.

A SECURITY CHIEF stands beside her.

LEILA
There are people at the north entrance.

SECURITY CHIEF
There are people at every entrance.

LEILA
This entrance is ours.

On a security monitor, a crowd presses beneath concrete stairs. A woman holds a child over her head so he can breathe.

INT. STUDIO — CONTINUOUS

MARA
We’ve just been told that several hundred people are outside this building. Security has orders not to admit them.

CHOMSKY
Whose orders?

MARA
The emergency continuity authority.

HITCHENS
A name that promises rather more than it can deliver.

Chomsky stands.

MARA
Professor—

CHOMSKY
Can you show us the entrance?

The control room puts the security feed on the studio monitor.

Hitchens rises too.

HITCHENS
Open it.

The Security Chief appears in the doorway.

SECURITY CHIEF
If we open those doors, we cannot guarantee control of the facility.

HITCHENS
Your control of the facility is about to become a highly abstract achievement.

SECURITY CHIEF
We have water for eighty people. There may be six hundred outside.

CHOMSKY
Then six hundred people should be involved in deciding what happens to the water.

SECURITY CHIEF
And if they decide to kill each other for it?

CHOMSKY
Is that what they’re doing now?

They look at the monitor.

The crowd passes the child forward, hand to hand, toward an air vent.

HITCHENS
Open the doors. Keep your guards at them. Direct people in. It needn’t be a choice between a prison and a stampede.

The Chief looks at Mara.

She nods.

He leaves.

MARA
That may end the broadcast.

CHOMSKY
All right.

Hitchens looks at him, then at the red camera light.

HITCHENS
On that point, I find myself unable to manufacture a disagreement.

INT. NORTH ENTRANCE — NIGHT

Steel doors roll apart.

The waiting crowd hesitates.

Then moves.

INT. STUDIO — LATER

00:24:09

The studio is full of people.

A cameraman hands out paper cups. A woman in surgical scrubs treats a crushed hand beneath a softbox.

The debate continues without anyone quite having decided to resume it.

HITCHENS
The doors were opened because someone was willing to make a decision and someone else was willing to enforce it. Power isn’t abolished by wishing the word away.

CHOMSKY
Nobody suggested that. Authority bears a burden of justification. Sometimes it meets that burden. Often it doesn’t.

HITCHENS
And while we conduct the examination, a tyrant may finish filling a ditch.

CHOMSKY
Which is the argument every invading power makes about its own urgency.

HITCHENS
That an argument can be abused doesn’t make it false.

CHOMSKY
Nor does invoking a victim make the proposed rescue effective.

A MAN in the crowd speaks.

MAN
My sister was killed in a bombing.

They turn.

MAN (CONT’D)
The people who dropped it said they were helping us.

Hitchens faces him fully.

HITCHENS
Where?

MAN
Does it change your answer?

A beat.

HITCHENS
It might. It shouldn’t change whether I owe you one.

MAN
You don’t owe me an answer. I just don’t want her used on either side.

Chomsky lowers the report.

CHOMSKY
That’s fair.

HITCHENS
Yes. It is.

The man sits beside the woman with the injured hand.

Mara watches the two debaters.

MARA
Have either of you ever changed your mind because of an argument?

HITCHENS
Good heavens. Yes. The alternatives are to have been born omniscient or to have spent one’s life refusing instruction.

CHOMSKY
Changing your mind isn’t difficult when the evidence changes. What’s difficult is noticing which evidence you’ve learned not to see.

MARA
And have you noticed?

CHOMSKY
Some of it.

HITCHENS
An answer admirably protected against cross-examination.

CHOMSKY
You’re welcome to try.

Hitchens smiles.

Then the building LURCHES.

A light falls, exploding between the empty chairs.

Darkness.

Screaming.

HITCHENS
Stay still! There’s broken glass!

Emergency lamps snap on.

Chomsky is kneeling beside a fallen boy.

CHOMSKY
Can you move your fingers?

The boy does.

CHOMSKY (CONT’D)
Good. Don’t stand yet.

Hitchens removes his jacket and lays it across the glass.

INT. STUDIO — LATER

00:12:41

Only one camera remains operational.

Mara’s phone lights up.

A message:

WE’RE AT SOUTH DOOR.

She makes a sound too small to be a laugh.

MARA
I have to—

CHOMSKY
Go.

She runs.

Hitchens watches her disappear into the crowd.

A PRIEST near the wall begins praying softly with several families.

PRIEST
Our Father, who art in heaven—

Hitchens turns toward the sound.

Chomsky notices.

CHOMSKY
You’re not going to interrupt him.

HITCHENS
I wasn’t proposing to.

CHOMSKY
Good.

HITCHENS
Though I resent your evident confidence that I require supervision.

The priest continues.

HITCHENS (CONT’D)
There’s a distinction between offering comfort and claiming to know the intentions of the universe. I object to the second.

CHOMSKY
At present, he appears to be holding someone’s hand.

HITCHENS
An excellent practice. Available without supernatural endorsement.

The boy beside Chomsky looks up.

BOY
Is there really nothing after?

Hitchens sits on the floor, bringing himself level with him.

HITCHENS
I don’t think anyone has good evidence that there is.

BOY
That’s not what I asked.

Hitchens considers him.

HITCHENS
No. It isn’t. I don’t know.

The boy looks at Chomsky.

CHOMSKY
Neither do I.

BOY
I’m scared.

CHOMSKY
Would you like us to stay here?

The boy nods.

They stay.

INT. CONTROL ROOM — CONTINUOUS

Leila switches off dead channels.

One monitor remains: the studio.

Beside it, a transmission indicator still glows green.

INT. STUDIO — NIGHT

00:05:03

Mara returns carrying her daughter, ELLIE, six. Her husband follows, bleeding from the forehead.

She sits on the floor with them.

Leila enters.

LEILA
We still have uplink. I don’t know who’s receiving.

HITCHENS
A familiar condition for writers.

LEILA
There’s enough power for a final statement.

She looks between the men.

LEILA (CONT’D)
Which of you?

CHOMSKY
Why us?

Leila is too exhausted to decide whether this is helpful.

LEILA
Because you’re here.

Chomsky looks around the room.

CHOMSKY
So are they.

Hitchens reaches up and turns the surviving camera toward the crowd.

The red light settles on a NURSE wrapping someone’s wrist.

She looks at it.

NURSE
What?

LEILA
Anything you want to say.

The nurse thinks.

NURSE
If anyone knows Daniel Okafor, from Bristol—your mother’s here. I’m not alone.

Leila adjusts the microphone.

A teenage girl steps forward.

TEENAGE GIRL
We found a dog outside. A black dog with a white foot. He’s with us.

Others begin to speak.

Names. Addresses. Apologies.

A recipe someone promised to write down.

Hitchens finally opens the whisky.

He offers it to Chomsky.

Chomsky shakes his head.

HITCHENS
Consistency. Even now.

CHOMSKY
You asked.

Hitchens takes a small drink, then passes the bottle to the man beside him.

00:01:18

A deep vibration travels through the floor.

Ellie lifts her head from Mara’s shoulder.

ELLIE
Did somebody win?

Mara looks toward the two men.

HITCHENS
We hadn’t finished.

CHOMSKY
We rarely do.

Above them, a seam opens in the ceiling.

White light appears inside it.

The priest stops praying.

The nurse keeps working.

Hitchens reaches for the frightened boy’s hand. Chomsky holds the other.

HITCHENS
You know, Noam, I still think you underestimate the occasions when a fight is necessary.

CHOMSKY
And I think you underestimate how much work it takes to know which fight you’re in.

Hitchens draws breath to answer.

The boy tightens his grip.

Hitchens looks down.

Waits with him.

INT. CONTROL ROOM — CONTINUOUS

The last monitor shows the crowded studio.

No titles. No scrolling banner.

Just people, trying to fit everyone into the frame.

CUT TO WHITE.

END.

What changed

The biggest difference is who Christopher Hitchens is. GPT-3.5 casts him as a stock free-market champion insisting “the market rewards those who work hard and innovate,” a position the lifelong self-described Marxist never really held. His actual quarrel with Chomsky was over military intervention, and Astra puts that at the center: Hitchens warns that “a tyrant may finish filling a ditch,” and Chomsky replies that this is “the argument every invading power makes.” Astra also gives Chomsky his real line that authority “bears a burden of justification” and lets Hitchens needle religion, which sounds like him. The jokes land too (“THE OF HUMANITY.” “An improvement. Less presumptuous.”).

GPT-3.5’s apocalypse is wallpaper. An asteroid hits, and the two men stroll “off into the sunset” repeating the same exchange. Astra’s catastrophe actually shapes the argument, though at enormous length, and the ending drifts toward ensemble drama. The prompt asked for the debate to be central, and by the end the boy, the nurse and the dog are.

Analysis by Claude Opus 5.5, comparing the two answers above.