Arthur C. Clarke had a doozy of a short story some decades ago about a team of computer experts who had delivered a big super-computer to a Tibetan lamasery and taught the monks how to use it.

The monks had the belief that if they could learn all 9 billion names of God, the universe would end. Since, to them, this would mean the end of having to reincarnate onto the tediously repetitive wheel of life and death, they felt that a computer could aid them greatly in the task. They were already hard at it when the computer experts left.

On the way back down the mountain, they were laughing up their sleeves at the whole operation, especially the silly beliefs of the monks. Suddenly, one of them pointed at the sky and said, "My God! Look!" The others looked up.

One by one, the stars were winking out.

Don Firth