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 

The Last Question

Short story by Isaac Asimov, 1956

What happens when we run out of fossil fuel energy? Well I guess there's always solar power if nothing else. But what happens when the Sun dies? Or when ALL of the suns die? Isaac Asimov (who may in fact be the best sci-fi writer of all time) has the characters in this short story asking the same question. For, as depressing as it sounds, the universe will one day end. Right? Fortunately, the characters in this book have Multivac, an all-knowing computer (like a less funny version of Deep Thought from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"). Over a long span of time, several humans ask Multivac if there is any way to "reverse entropy" and stop the eventual fadeout of the universe. Is there an answer? You'll have to read the story to find out. 

Luckily it's online right here and here, depending on which font and size you prefer.

I found this story through StumbleUpon. After scrolling through to get an idea of length (by the way it's not terribly long for a short story, but perhaps a bit for the inexperienced online reader) my eyes became intrigued by the breaks in the story and variation of character names. When I finally got to reading it I was blown away by Asimov's extremely far-reaching predictions and the believability that they held. A great read.

By the way the artwork above is by ~Dragonfly22 and was found on DeviantArt with the artist's explanation.

Brainwave

Novel by Poul Anderson, 1956

One day in the mid-1950s, everyone wakes up a little bit smarter. Actually, they wake up A LOT smarter and continue to gain intelligence. This sounds like a great thing for humanity but it actually becomes more of an apocalyptic problem. The world's custodians and factory workers begin to get too bored for work. Foreign relations get even more complicated than usual and not everyone is coping with all the new ideas that are suddenly surfacing in their mind. 

OH YEAH. Not only do humans get smarter, but so does every other sentient being on Earth. For instance, pigs don't really like being harvested for food anymore and take on the offensive against their captors. On a much more neato note though, dogs can understand their masters perfectly and at least some chimps even speak rudimentary English.

I first heard of this novel when it was referenced in Stephen King's "The Tommyknockers". I'm happy I did. While it's not the greatest story-telling ever, sci-fi master Poul Anderson does an awesome job of describing every broad and minute effect a sudden global intelligence boost would have on our world. You can get it crazy cheap on Amazon, too.