The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke, one of the most famous science fiction authors ever, and part of the "Big Three" of the genre (along with Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein), passed away today. In memory of this great science fiction writer I present "The Nine Billion Names of God", the 1953 science fiction short story that was so good it won a retrospective Hugo award. It is about a company that sells a computer to a Tibetan monestary so they can quickly finish listing all the possible names of God and fulfill their destinies. Non-Spoiler Summary In A Nutshell: "The Nine Billion Names of God" follows three employees of a computer company as they sell, deliver and maintain a relatively large and fast computer to a group of Tibetan monks. The monks want the computer to help them print out all the possible names of God, of which they believe there are about nine billion. They figured it would take fifteen thousand years to do it by hand, but with a computer the task can be reduced to a thousand days.…