“Call it ritual, if you like, but it’s a fundamental part of our belief. If so, there was no trace of annoyance in the reply. The lama hesitated for a fraction of a second, and Wagner wondered if he had offended him. But exactly what is the purpose of this project?” “Now I see why you wanted to hire one of our machines. “Yes: we expected it would take us about fifteen thousand years to complete the task.” “And you have been doing this for three centuries?”

“We have reason to believe,” continued the lama imperturbably, “that all such names can be written with not more than nine letters in an alphabet we have devised.” We have been compiling a list which shall contain all the possible names of God.” It is somewhat alien to your way of thought, so I hope you will listen with an open mind while I explain it.” “This is a project on which we have been working for the last three centuries - since the lamasery was founded, in fact. As we wish you to modify the output circuits, the machine will be printing words, not columns of figures.” However, for our work we are interested in letters, not numbers.

“Your Mark V Computer can carry out any routine mathematical operation involving up to ten digits. “Gladly,” replied the lama, readjusting his silk robes and carefully putting away the slide rule he had been using for currency conversions. Could you explain just what you intend to do with it?” I don’t wish to be inquisitive, but I should hardly have thought that your - ah - establishment had much use for such a machine. “As far as I know, it’s the first time anyone’s been asked to supply a Tibetan monastery with an Automatic Sequence Computer.

Wagner, with what he hoped was commendable restraint. “This is a slightly unusual request,” said Dr. Library > The Nine Billion Names of God The Nine Billion Names of God Arthur C.

The 9 billion names of god