Thinking about the encyclopedia point, what about collections of short stories? Something like Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories is great for browsing through, and over time the year-by-year format gives a kind of historiography of the future and a sense of what people in each decade were concerned and thinking about.
Also since no one has mentioned Asimov’s own short stories, I’d suggest The Last Question. Technically ends with a bit of blasphemy from a certain POV, but it doesn’t sound like that’s a problem here.
Thinking about the encyclopedia point, what about collections of short stories? Something like Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories is great for browsing through, and over time the year-by-year format gives a kind of historiography of the future and a sense of what people in each decade were concerned and thinking about.
Also since no one has mentioned Asimov’s own short stories, I’d suggest The Last Question. Technically ends with a bit of blasphemy from a certain POV, but it doesn’t sound like that’s a problem here.