The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke
The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke
urbigenous.net /library/nine_billion_names_of_god.html
5 comments
Link isn't working, here's one that does:
So sorry, fixed that.
Thanks! Came to say the same thing but I wouldn't have found the link. You're a benefit to the Internet.
When the story came out, 9 billion was an unimaginably large number. These days, 'a billion' is part of our everyday conversation.
As a young person with an interest in languages and an eye towards working professionally as a computer programmer, I found this story especially delightful. It was one of the ones that led me to read more Clarke.
And the parenthetical near the end hit me even harder than the last line did.