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"Twilight" is a post-apocalyptic science fiction short story by American author John W. Campbell.Originally published in 1934 in Astounding Stories and apparently inspired by H. G. Wells' article The Man of the Year Million. In 1970, it was selected as one of the best science fiction short stories published before the creation of the Nebula Awards by the Science Fiction Writers of America. As such, it was published in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929-1964.

Set in 1932 in an unknown city in the U.S.A., the narrator introduces Jim Bendell who recounts his experience with a strange and mysterious hitch-hiker. The hitch-hiker, who introduces himself as Ares Sen Kenlin, claims to be a time traveler from the year of 3059. Having landed in 1932 by mistake, Ares takes the opportunity to warn Bendell of the future that awaits humanity. Seven million years in the future, the Earth is no longer populated by human kind. Human beings are extinct and automated machines have taken their place. Cities remain in perfect working order, run by their tireless population of programmed machines. In the future, advancements in science and technology allow human beings to create automated machines in order to expedite production and profit. Having created machines that perform all menial or routine labor, human beings become increasingly complacent and disconnected from their own human experience. Efficiency and production become the status quo, at any cost. There comes a time where human nature becomes obsolete, machines are able to personify the roles that human beings outgrew. People eventually lose touch with their human experience and regress both socially and intellectually as a species.

Plot summary
On December 9, 1932 Jim Bendell, a real estate business man, picks up a hitch-hiker. The hitch-hiker introduces himself as Ares Sen Kenlin, a scientist from the city of Neva'th year 3059. Kenlin is a human hybrid created by his father who is also a scientist. Ares develops time-travel technology and travels 7 million years forward in time, his return proves faulty and which lands lands him in 1932.

During their car ride together, Ares takes it upon himself to inform Bendell of what he saw during his trip across seven million years in time. He tells him of the colonization of the solar system and eventual demise as a species. Human existence is free of difficulty, as all illness and predators have been eliminated and all work is done by perfect machines. They've replaced all other living species, driven into extinction by the advancements of man. The oceans are empty of life, all other mammals, as well as birds, lizards, insects and microbes, and domesticated pets have been completely eradicated; Flora being the only organic life still remaining on Earth. After being left behind by their creators, the machines continue to perform their programmed duties, given to them by previous generations of humans. Humans, though highly intelligent, have lost their curiosity, drive, and abandoned much of humanity's stores of knowledge and discoveries from the past. Not having accomplished anything new in two million years, humans become trapped in their self-satisfied developments they don't see they've become sterile and uninspired. In seven million years time, humans are a dying race, who retreat from the outskirts of the solar system back to Earth once again. They abandon most of the mega-cities such as "Yawk City", a megalopolis stretching from north of Boston to south of Washington D.C. Humans hardly reproduce anymore, and have  All they are able to do is stare at their remote ancestors' achievements, while comprehending none of them.

The machines go on, each of the long-deserted cities keep running perfectly, as if nothing has changed. Cities, where a human foot has not stood for hundreds of thousands of years, are still cared for by the machines. They never stop supplying the city with human necessities, because no one has ever told them to stop; no human of that time can remember how.

Highly intelligent machines capable of independent thought had existed, but were shut off for an unknown reason. No human alive knows of their existence any more, aside from the traveler. To try and ensure that there remains something that can strive and evolve on Earth, he orders several of the remaining machines to figure out how to recreate a curious, thinking machine, even if it takes millions of years.

Critical Reception
Science-fiction author Algis Budrys said that Twilight "Attracted a decade-long series of engineers/mystics as the archetypal writers of the 'Golden Age' and brought about the late Victorian Edwardian flavor of "Modern' science fiction."

Everett F. Bleiler concluded: "'Twilight' conveys a mood. It is probably Campbell's best story, with many implications beyond the story level.".