The Nine Billion Names of God

The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke

by Arthur C. Clarke

Shares rank 24 of 32 short stories by recommenders

People recall its idea of a machine exhausting a finite list, and a memorable closing line that stays with readers.

3 people gave an opinion

Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes

The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works

The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.

Each mark is one comment

Machine exhausting a finite list
“which actually deals with the finiteness of the list of problems that a machine successfully exhausts”
Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “Tao: Open math problems being non-renewably mined by AI”
Powerful line from the story
“it was an incredibly powerful line when I encountered it in the story”
Comment from 18 Apr 2026 in “Isaac Asimov: The Last Question”

2 of the 3 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“which actually deals with the finiteness of the list of problems that a machine successfully exhausts”

RecommendsComment from 9 Sep 2026 in “Tao: Open math problems being non-renewably mined by AI”

“it was an incredibly powerful line when I encountered it in the story”

RecommendsComment from 18 Apr 2026 in “Isaac Asimov: The Last Question”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.

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The Nine Billion Names of Godby Arthur C. ClarkeThis page	3	0	100%	2	—	—