The Nine Billion Names of God
E112596
"The Nine Billion Names of God" is a classic science fiction short story by Arthur C. Clarke that explores themes of religion, technology, and the end of the universe through a Tibetan monastery's quest to list all possible names of God.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Nine Billion Names of God canonical | 2 |
| The Nine Billion Names of God and Other Stories | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T900791 — 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 Nine Billion Names of God Context triple: [Arthur C. Clarke, notableWork, The Nine Billion Names of God]
-
A.
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.
-
B.
The Fountains of Paradise
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.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
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.
-
E.
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.
- 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 Nine Billion Names of God Target entity description: "The Nine Billion Names of God" is a classic science fiction short story by Arthur C. Clarke that explores themes of religion, technology, and the end of the universe through a Tibetan monastery's quest to list all possible names of God.
-
A.
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.
-
B.
The Fountains of Paradise
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.
-
C.
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.
-
D.
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.
-
E.
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.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
science fiction short story
ⓘ
short story ⓘ |
| author | Arthur C. Clarke ⓘ |
| authorNationality | British ⓘ |
| centralTheme |
apocalypse and end of the universe
ⓘ
faith versus rationalism ⓘ limits of human understanding ⓘ relationship between religion and technology ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| exploresConcept |
computational enumeration of divine names
ⓘ
intersection of Eastern religion and Western technology ⓘ |
| featuresCharacterGroup |
Tibetan monks
ⓘ
computer technicians ⓘ |
| featuresTechnology | computer ⓘ |
| firstPublicationYear | 1953 ⓘ |
| firstPublishedIn | Star Science Fiction Stories No. 1 ⓘ |
| genre | science fiction ⓘ |
| hasKeyEvent | completion of the list of divine names ⓘ |
| hasKeyObject |
electronic computer
ⓘ
starry sky ⓘ |
| hasMainLocationType | religious institution ⓘ |
| hasMoralOrMessage | human skepticism may not grasp cosmic purposes ⓘ |
| hasMotif |
clash of worldviews
ⓘ
cosmic revelation ⓘ countdown to an ending ⓘ |
| hasNarrativeTone |
philosophical
ⓘ
quietly ironic ⓘ |
| hasReligiousContext |
Buddhism
ⓘ
Tibetan Buddhism ⓘ |
| hasTimeSetting | 20th century ⓘ |
| hasTitleWordCount | 6 ⓘ |
| includedInCollection |
The Nine Billion Names of God and Other Stories
ⓘ
linked to:
The Nine Billion Names of God
The Other Side of the Sky ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| length | short story ⓘ |
| literarySignificance |
considered a classic of science fiction
ⓘ
frequently anthologized ⓘ |
| notableEnding | stars begin to go out ⓘ |
| originalForm | magazine anthology story ⓘ |
| originalMedium | print ⓘ |
| plotElement |
belief that listing all names of God will end the universe
ⓘ
monastery commissions a computer to list all possible names of God ⓘ |
| publisherOfFirstEdition | Ballantine Books ⓘ |
| setting |
Himalayas
ⓘ
Tibetan monastery ⓘ |
| structure | third-person narrative ⓘ |
| timePeriodOfWriting | early 1950s ⓘ |
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 Nine Billion Names of God Description of subject: "The Nine Billion Names of God" is a classic science fiction short story by Arthur C. Clarke that explores themes of religion, technology, and the end of the universe through a Tibetan monastery's quest to list all possible names of God.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
The Nine Billion Names of God
→
includedInCollection
→
The Nine Billion Names of God and Other Stories
ⓘ
linked to: The Nine Billion Names of God