The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke (urbigenous.net)
from Lacanoodle@literature.cafe to shortstories@literature.cafe on 29 Sep 2024 17:23
https://literature.cafe/post/13698000

#shortstories

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xantoxis@lemmy.world on 29 Sep 2024 17:52 next collapse

Link isn’t working, here’s one that does:

The Nine Billion Names of God: Arthur C. Clarke

Donjuanme@lemmy.world on 29 Sep 2024 18:06 next collapse

Thanks! Came to say the same thing but I wouldn’t have found the link. You’re a benefit to the Internet.

Lacanoodle@literature.cafe on 29 Sep 2024 18:41 collapse

So sorry, fixed that.

Dagwood222@lemm.ee on 29 Sep 2024 19:00 next collapse

When the story came out, 9 billion was an unimaginably large number. These days, ‘a billion’ is part of our everyday conversation.

jbrains@sh.itjust.works on 29 Sep 2024 21:16 collapse

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.