![]() ![]() My twin sister and I grew up in the fifties and devoured every anthology we could lay our hands on by Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Kornbluth etc. I read this story many years ago in a Sci Fi paperback pocket bood. The final sentence of the story has become a very popular cliché expression in the Polish fandom. When I teach the towers of Hanoi, I always quote Clarke's story. Each move is a holy act (analogous to a name of God), and the purpose of man is to do the 2^64-1 holy acts.10^30 is somewhat larger than nine billion. This story has always reminded me of the Towers of Hanoi myth. One of the most chilling, disturbing endings I've read. I actually had to strain to keep my eyes from prematurely reading the last line. This is as suspenseful as any story I've read. One of ACC's best short stories ever, and an glimpse of 1960s era computer science. God by exhausting a combinatorial library of possibilities. Programmers hired by a Buddhist sect seeking to find all true names of (click on names to see more mathematical fictionĪs much about computers as it is about mathematics, we join two A list compiled by Alex Kasman ( College of Charleston) ![]()
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