The Nine Billion Names of God

1953 short story by Arthur C. Clarke

This article is about the short story. For the short story collection, see The Nine Billion Names of God (collection).

"The Nine Billion Names of God"

Short story by Arthur C. Clarke

1974 collection of short stories

Country| United Kingdom
Language| English
Genre(s)| Science fiction
Publication
Published in| Star Science Fiction Stories No. 1
Publication type| Anthology
Media type| Print, e-book, audiobook
Publication date| 1953

"The Nine Billion Names of God" is a 1953 science fiction short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. The story was among the stories selected in 1970 by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the best science fiction short stories published before the creation of the Nebula Awards. It was reprinted in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964.

## Plot summary

[edit]

In a Tibetan lamasery, the monks seek to list all of the names of God. They believe the Universe was created for this purpose, and that once this naming is completed, God will bring the Universe to an end. Three centuries ago, the monks created an alphabet in which they calculated they could encode all the possible names of God, numbering about 9,000,000,000 ("nine billion") and each having no more than nine characters. Writing the names out by hand, as they had been doing, even after eliminating various nonsense combinations, would take another 15,000 years;[note 1] the monks wish to use modern technology to finish this task in 100 days.[note 2]

They rent a computer capable of printing all the possible permutations, and hire two Westerners to install and program the machine. The computer operators are skeptical but play along. After three months, as the job nears completion, they fear that the monks will blame the computer (and, by extension, its operators) when nothing happens. The Westerners leave slightly earlier than their scheduled departure without warning the monks, so that it will complete its final print run shortly after they leave. On their way to the airfield they pause on the mountain path. Under a clear night sky they estimate that it must be just about the time that the monks are pasting the final printed names into their holy books. Then they notice that "overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out."

## Reception

[edit]

In 2004, "The Nine Billion Names of God" won the retrospective Hugo Award for Best Short Story for the year 1954.[1] Kirkus Reviews called it "quietly remarkable",[2] and The Guardian considered it to be a "wonderful apocalyptic rib-tickler".[3] Stating that the story "introduced many Western readers to an intriguing speculation in Oriental religions", Carl Sagan in 1978 listed "The Nine Billion Names of God" as among the "rare few science‐fiction [stories that] combine a standard science‐fiction theme with a deep human sensitivity".[4] In 1986 it was included in the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 15 as one of the best science fiction short stories of 1953.

Gary K. Wolfe noted that the story is "patently at odds with Clarke's scientific rationalism".[5] Paul J. Nahin has pointed out that, due to the delay imposed by the speed of light, an omniscient God would have had to destroy all the stars in the universe years earlier so that their "synchronized vanishing" would be visible at exactly the time that the monks completed their task.[6]

In 2003, Clarke reported having been told that the Dalai Lama had found the story "very amusing".[7]

## Adaptations

[edit]

"The Nine Billion Names of God" was adapted into a 1985 episode of the Canadian radio series Vanishing Point.

In 2011 the story was loosely adapted into a 2011 Portuguese short film, Scr1ptum, by Swiss director Matthias Fritsche.[8] In 2018, the story was adapted into a short film with the same title as the short story by Dominique Filhol.[9]

## See also

[edit]

* Novels portal

* Names of God
* Brute-force attack
* Tower of Hanoi, a puzzle whose legendaria incorporate a similar end to the Universe
* "The Library of Babel", a 1941 short story by Jorge Luis Borges which also deals with collecting all the possible permutations of a character string
* "The Fife of Bodidharma", a 1959 short story by Cordwainer Smith, reprinted in The Rediscovery of Man
* Jorge Palma, a Portuguese singer whose 1972 song was named after and inspired by the story
* "The Nine Billion Names of God", a 1984 short story by Carter Scholz about an exact replica of Clarke's story[note 3]
* Darren Aronofsky's Pi (1998), in which a computer is used to divine the 216-character name of God
* "Seventy-Two Letters", a 2000 novella by Ted Chiang
* "Godfellas", a 2002 Futurama episode partially inspired by the story
* "Last Contact", a 2007 short story by Stephen Baxter about humans experiencing the universe ending in a Big Rip
* "Nightfall", a short story by Isaac Asimov with a similar climax

## Explanatory notes

[edit]

1. ^ about 1600 per day
2. ^ about 1000 per second
3. ^ See article by Arnaud Regnauld, « Du nom d'auteur au non-auteur : la signature en question dans les nouvelles de Carter Scholz », Cahiers du GRAAT n°35, « La négation : formes, figures, conceptualisation », Stéphanie Bonnefille et Sébastien Salbayre dir., Presses de l’université François Rabelais, Tours, octobre 2006, pp. 191–204

## References

[edit]

1. ^ 1954 Retro Hugo Awards, at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved January 14, 2017
2. ^ "The Nine Billion Names of God - The Best Short Stories by Arthur C. Clarke", reviewed at Kirkus Reviews; published May 1, 1967; archived online September 21, 2011; retrieved January 14, 2017
3. ^ "Master of the Universe: A collection of stories from Arthur C Clarke is released with impeccable timing", by Robin McKie, in The Guardian; published January 21, 2001; retrieved January 14, 2017
4. ^ Sagan, Carl (May 28, 1978). "Growing up with Science Fiction". The New York Times. p. SM7. Retrieved December 12, 2018.
5. ^ "The Grand Tours of Arthur C. Clarke", by Gary K. Wolfe, in The New York Times; published March 9, 1997; retrieved January 14, 2017
6. ^ Nahin, Paul J. (2014). Holy Sci-Fi! Where Science Fiction and Religion Intersect. Science and Fiction. Springer-Verlag. doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-0618-5. ISBN 978-1-4939-0618-5.
7. ^ "The Other Side of the Sky:, reviewed by Alma A. Hromic, at SF Site; published 2003; retrieved January 14, 2017
8. ^ Scr1ptum (Short 2011) - IMDb at IMDb. Retrieved August 18, 2023.[unreliable source?]
9. ^ "The Nine Billion Names of God (2018)" at IMDb[unreliable source?]

## External links

[edit]

* "The Nine Billion Names of God" title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
* James Randi praising The Nine Billion Names of God as his favourite Clarke story Audio interview the day after Clarke's death

* v
* t
* e

Arthur C. Clarke

* Bibliography

Novels|

* Prelude to Space
* The Sands of Mars
* Islands in the Sky
* Against the Fall of Night
* Childhood's End
* Earthlight
* The City and the Stars
* The Deep Range
* A Fall of Moondust
* Dolphin Island
* Glide Path
* Imperial Earth
* The Fountains of Paradise
* The Songs of Distant Earth
* Cradle (with Gentry Lee)
* The Ghost from the Grand Banks
* The Hammer of God
* Richter 10 (with Mike McQuay)
* The Trigger (with Michael Kube-McDowell)
* The Light of Other Days (with Stephen Baxter)
* The Last Theorem (with Frederik Pohl)

Novel series|

| Space Odyssey|

* 2001: A Space Odyssey
* 2010: Odyssey Two
* 2061: Odyssey Three
* 3001: The Final Odyssey

|

Rama series|

* Rendezvous with Rama
* Rama II (with Gentry Lee)
* The Garden of Rama (with Gentry Lee)
* Rama Revealed (with Gentry Lee)

A Time Odyssey|

* Time's Eye (with Stephen Baxter)
* Sunstorm (with Stephen Baxter)
* Firstborn (with Stephen Baxter)

Short story
collections|

* Expedition to Earth
* Reach for Tomorrow
* Tales from the White Hart
* The Other Side of the Sky
* Tales of Ten Worlds
* The Nine Billion Names of God
* Of Time and Stars
* The Wind from the Sun
* The Best of Arthur C. Clarke
* The Sentinel
* Tales from Planet Earth
* More Than One Universe
* The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke

Non-fiction|

* Interplanetary Flight: An Introduction to Astronautics
* The Lost Worlds of 2001
* The View from Serendip
* The Odyssey File: The Making of 2010
* How the World Was One: Beyond the Global Village
* An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural

Adaptations|

* 2001: A Space Odyssey (comics)
* 2010: The Year We Make Contact (film)
* The Nine Billion Names of God (short film)
* Rendezvous with Rama (video game)
* "The Star" (TV episode)
* The Songs of Distant Earth (album)
* Rama (video game)
* Childhood's End (TV miniseries)

Related|

* Arthur C. Clarke in media
* Sir Arthur Clarke Award
* Arthur C. Clarke Award
* Geostationary orbit
* Clarke's three laws
* Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World
* Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers
* Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe
* Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies
* God, the Universe and Everything Else
* Great Basses wreck
* 4923 Clarke
* Serendipaceratops
* GRB 080319B

* v
* t
* e

Retro Hugo Award for Best Short Story

These Hugo awards were retroactively awarded for short stories published 50, 75, or 100 years prior

* "How We Went to Mars" by Arthur C. Clarke (1939)
* "Robbie" by Isaac Asimov (1941)
* "The Twonky" by Lewis Padgett (1943)
* "King of the Gray Spaces" or: "R is for Rocket" by Ray Bradbury (1944)
* "I, Rocket" by Ray Bradbury (1945)
* "Uncommon Sense" by Hal Clement (1946)
* "To Serve Man" by Damon Knight (1951)
* "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke (1954)

* Complete list
* Retro
* 1955–1960
* 1961–1980
* 1981–2000
* 2001–2020
* 2021–present

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* United States

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template