The Fountains of Paradise
E110811
The Fountains of Paradise is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke that centers on the visionary construction of a space elevator on a fictionalized Sri Lankan island, exploring themes of technological ambition, religion, and human progress.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Fountains of Paradise canonical | 6 |
| The Fountains of Paradise universe | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T900789 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Fountains of Paradise Context triple: [Arthur C. Clarke, notableWork, The Fountains of Paradise]
-
A.
The City and the Stars
The City and the Stars is a classic science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke that explores themes of immortality, memory, and the cyclical nature of civilization in a far-future utopian city.
-
B.
Childhood's End
Childhood's End is a landmark science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke that explores humanity's transcendence and the profound consequences of a seemingly benevolent alien intervention.
-
C.
The Gods Themselves
The Gods Themselves is a science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov that explores parallel universes, alien intelligences, and the consequences of tampering with fundamental physical laws.
-
D.
Ringworld
Ringworld is a science fiction megastructure concept, popularized by Larry Niven’s novel of the same name, depicting a vast artificial ring encircling a star to provide an enormous habitable surface area.
-
E.
Rendezvous with Rama
Rendezvous with Rama is a classic hard science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke that explores humanity’s encounter with a mysterious alien starship entering the Solar System.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Fountains of Paradise Target entity description: The Fountains of Paradise is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke that centers on the visionary construction of a space elevator on a fictionalized Sri Lankan island, exploring themes of technological ambition, religion, and human progress.
-
A.
The City and the Stars
The City and the Stars is a classic science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke that explores themes of immortality, memory, and the cyclical nature of civilization in a far-future utopian city.
-
B.
Childhood's End
Childhood's End is a landmark science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke that explores humanity's transcendence and the profound consequences of a seemingly benevolent alien intervention.
-
C.
The Gods Themselves
The Gods Themselves is a science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov that explores parallel universes, alien intelligences, and the consequences of tampering with fundamental physical laws.
-
D.
Ringworld
Ringworld is a science fiction megastructure concept, popularized by Larry Niven’s novel of the same name, depicting a vast artificial ring encircling a star to provide an enormous habitable surface area.
-
E.
Rendezvous with Rama
Rendezvous with Rama is a classic hard science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke that explores humanity’s encounter with a mysterious alien starship entering the Solar System.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | science fiction novel ⓘ |
| author | Arthur C. Clarke ⓘ |
| awarded |
British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel
ⓘ
linked to:
British Science Fiction Association Award
Hugo Award for Best Novel ⓘ Nebula Award for Best Novel ⓘ
linked to:
Nebula Award
|
| awardYear |
1979 BSFA Award for Best Novel
ⓘ
1979 Nebula Award for Best Novel ⓘ 1980 Hugo Award for Best Novel ⓘ
linked to:
Hugo Award for Best Novel
|
| centralTheme |
human progress
ⓘ
religion ⓘ space elevator construction ⓘ technological ambition ⓘ |
| containsElement |
ancient religious site on a mountain
ⓘ
fictional Buddhist monastery ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| coverArtist | Peter Goodfellow ⓘ |
| exploresConcept |
advanced engineering megastructures
ⓘ
geostationary orbit ⓘ space elevator ⓘ |
| genre |
hard science fiction
ⓘ
science fiction ⓘ |
| hasInfluenceOn |
later space elevator studies
ⓘ
popularization of the space elevator concept ⓘ |
| hasMottoOrQuote | Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic (Clarke’s Third Law, thematically referenced) ⓘ |
| inspiredBy |
Adam's Peak
ⓘ
Sigiriya ⓘ
linked to:
Ancient City of Sigiriya
Sri Lanka ⓘ |
| ISBN | 978-0-575-02494-5 ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainCharacter |
Vannevar Morgan
ⓘ
linked to:
Vannevar Bush
|
| mainLocation | Mount Taprobane ⓘ |
| mediaType | print ⓘ |
| narrativeFocus | design and construction of a space elevator ⓘ |
| narrativeStructure | interweaving past and future timelines ⓘ |
| notableFor |
early detailed fictional treatment of a space elevator
ⓘ
integration of engineering realism with spiritual themes ⓘ |
| originalPublicationYear | 1979 ⓘ |
| protagonistOccupation | engineer ⓘ |
| publicationDate | 1979 ⓘ |
| publisher | Victor Gollancz Ltd ⓘ |
| relatedWork | The Space Elevator (conceptual essays by Arthur C. Clarke) ⓘ |
| setIn |
fictionalized Sri Lanka
ⓘ
island of Taprobane ⓘ |
| timePeriodOfSetting | 21st century ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Fountains of Paradise Description of subject: The Fountains of Paradise is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke that centers on the visionary construction of a space elevator on a fictionalized Sri Lankan island, exploring themes of technological ambition, religion, and human progress.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: The Fountains of Paradise
The Space Elevator (conceptual essays by Arthur C. Clarke)
→
workOfAuthorAlsoKnownFor
→
The Fountains of Paradise
ⓘ
The Space Elevator (conceptual essays by Arthur C. Clarke)
→
relatedWork
→
The Fountains of Paradise
ⓘ