Jennifer Allen
By Jennifer Allen
As a 19-year-old college sophomore, I felt like I’d already tapped into quite a variety of science-fiction and fantasy stories. I had already been watching the original Star Trek (thanks to my mother) since I was 6. I first watched Star Wars: A New Hope on cable TV when I was 9. I first caught Doctor Who reruns on PBS at 10. I read both The Hobbit and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in the same summer when I was 11. The Last Unicorn, both book and film adaptation, are still on my shelf to this day. I started playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (also encouraged by my mother) at 14.
I think you get the picture…
And yet it still seemed so unusual upon choosing my class schedule in 1993 to discover a 200-level Course dedicated to reading and discussing science-fiction literature. At first, I mistook it to be an “Easy A” class… with my young, smug attitude thinking I’d already seen and read enough to breeze through it. Contrarily, it ended up being one of the more difficult literature courses I’d ever partake in.
Introductions were given to all of us as students to authors who had inspired many contemporary works we still enjoy. Writers like Asimov, Miller, Bradbury, and Gibson were explored over the span of 3 and a half months, and I suddenly felt like a bumbling novice when it came to my knowledge of the genre at large.
Each one of these unique tales provided a deeper understanding of core fundamentals which make science-fiction what it is.
And keep in mind this was 6 years before the world would even begin to accept and appreciate “geek culture” via a little film known as The Matrix…
Out of all the great stories I read for this course, the one which stood out to me the most was a short story written in 1953 by Arthur C. Clarke. The Nine Billion Names of God is a brief read at a little over 20 pages and yet after finishing it, you are left with a both a sense of existential thoughtfulness and the looming dread surrounding human mortality. It is a tale which fuses the world of modern technology with ancient mysticism and even to this day sparks discussions regarding cosmology and astrophysics in regard to origins of the universe.
“I’m sometimes asked how I would like to be remembered. I’ve had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer, space promoter and science popularizer. Of all these, I want to be remembered most as a writer — one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well.” ~ Arthur C. Clarke
The story begins with a Tibetan monk visiting an American scientist in Manhattan to discuss the purchase of a “Mark 5 Automatic Science Computer”. The latter, obviously, questions the former as to the reason for this purchase, as a Tibetan lamasery seems an unusual place even for a seemingly “simple” computer such as the Mark 5 Automatic Computer.
The monk explains that his order wishes to use the machine to calculate all possible configurations of within the Tibetan alphabet to discover the nine billion names of God. The process undertaken at the monastery had already begun three centuries prior by manually writing each one down. If continued by this method (discarding any nonsensical combinations) it would take another 15,000 years to complete. The computer would finish the project in 100 days, and once every name has been discovered the universe is destined to end.
Two computer technicians (named George and Chuck) are sent along with the machine to the Himalayan mountains in order to accomplish this task. The two witness the monks printing off pages and pages of what they deem as “gibberish” to which the holy men then painstakingly cut into strips and place into books. As the project nears completion, the technicians learn from the high lama that the monks believe this is their mission divined to them by God.
“They believe that when they have listed all His names — and they reckon that there are about nine billion of them — God’s purpose will be achieved. The human race will have finished what it was created to do, and there won’t be any point in carrying on. Indeed, the very idea is something like blasphemy… When the list’s completed, God steps in and simply winds things up… bingo!”
“Oh, I get it. When we finish our job, it will be the end of the world.” Chuck gave a nervous little laugh.
“That’s just what I said to [the high lama]. And do you know what happened? He looked at me in a very queer way, like I’d been stupid in class, and said, ‘It’s nothing as trivial as that.’”
As expected, the two men further discuss their skeptical views of this process as they slowly walk from the lamasery to the airfield where their transport awaits to take them home. One even mentions what a disappointment it will be if 300 years of dedication leads to a disappointing outcome. However, as the final pages emerge from the printer, they look up at the heavens if only to notice stars gradually disappearing within the night sky…
Clarke, notably an atheist, often wrote stories which focused on faith and human’s interpretations of the Divine. His true purpose for this narrative is in its use of Eastern religion vs Western science. In the story’s context involving Eastern Buddhist monks: the end of the world is only part of the start of the eventual rejuvenation of the universe — whereas the Western technicians are portrayed as materialists despite technological advancement and who interpret the finale as fearful and nihilistic.
I personally see the ending as a way for you as the reader to gain a sense that humanity is just another in a long line of God’s grand experiments. With the monks’ obligation fulfilled, a new cycle can begin, and another intelligent species would emerge to set forth on new journeys of self-realization and unity.
Ultimately, The Nine Billion Names of God is a brilliant apocalyptical tale in which the world doesn’t end in by means of extreme violence or ecological disaster… but instead by seeking knowledge of the unknown. It comes by means of a mere winking of stars as they disappear from the night sky, which in some respects can be much more terrifying.
This was also written (similar to other science-fiction writers of the time) as a cautionary tale in response to the Cold War and emerging news of nuclear weapons during the early 1950s. Even if man does not destroy himself imminently with these, Clarke’s story appears to suggest that something else could occur as a means to counteract it.
Perhaps in this day and age, the story deserves further interpretation and introspection. We as human beings struggle more than ever with the above “Western” view of our existence. It is now all about the sensationalism of the moment as almost everywhere you look there are materialistic viewpoints glamourizing the anarchic state of the human condition just to “get clicks.” Like George and Chuck, our ambitions extend no further than simply wanting to go home within a few hours as opposed to the more transcendent goals of the monks.
I guess we’ll have to see how it all works out…
As a side note, I also recommend watching the 2018 short film of The Nine Billion Names of God directed by Dominique Filhol which is available now on YouTube.
Jennifer Allen works at Saathee and is also a Podcaster, Blogger, Photographer, Graphic Artist, Gamer, Martial Arts Practitioner, and an all around Pop Culture Geek. You can reach her at saathee@saathee.com
