The Nine Billion Names of God

Short story by Arthur C. Clarke, 1953

An American computer company gets a strange request from a Tibetan monk to procure for a him a large number of computers. The monk says his monastery requires the computers to speed up the process of going through what he says are all 9,000,000,000 possible names of God--a process that would take thousands of years without the use of these computers (which would only require a couple of months). The two assistants that are sent to Tibet to help with the use of these computers become quite unnerved when they find out why the monks want to go through all these possibilities.

Strangely enough, I first came across this story as required reading when I was a student in a Catholic middle school. I was greatly intrigued. I pondered the dramatic ending for weeks to come as I waited for sleep to come at bedtime. 

It's a really quick read and well worth the ten minutes or less it should take to complete. You can find it right here, online.

I found the photo of Yumbulagang Monastery (appropriately from Tibet) at "Within the Crainium". Its author, "joke du jour", said it reminded him of the monastery from this story and it really did to me, too. I mean look at this photo as you read the story, and all given details from the text seem completely accurate to those of the photo! Anyways, I hope you enjoy.

Well that about wraps it up for today's science fiction. I hope to keep these posts regular but, alas! Another semester of college is just around the corner. However, I will do my best to persevere, fellow Robo-Nerds.

Space out!

--Liam