Unknown book

Hello all, hope someone can help here. I read a book about ten years back
and cannot remember the title or if it was Clarke or Asimov who wrote it. It
was a collection of short stories, I remember there was a picture of a
robotic/mechanical ant on the front that has climbed to the top of a hill
and overlooks the valley. One of the stories that I lover and only one I
remember was something to do with a super computer trying to discover the
greatest possible number that could be known to man. Predictions were that
if this number were ever to be discovered, man would have found the 'answer'
to the universe, and the universe would subsequently end. Upon the computer
discovering the number, the computers inventor notices that the stars in the
sky begin to fade out.......I thought it was good, and want to find the
book! Help please....

Chris


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In article <c82s7u$97d$1@newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk>,
"Ben D. Kok" <jenandchri.DeleteThis@homeontherange99.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:

 > Hello all, hope someone can help here. I read a book about ten years back
 > and cannot remember the title or if it was Clarke or Asimov who wrote it. It
 > was a collection of short stories, I remember there was a picture of a
 > robotic/mechanical ant on the front that has climbed to the top of a hill
 > and overlooks the valley. One of the stories that I lover and only one I
 > remember was something to do with a super computer trying to discover the
 > greatest possible number that could be known to man. Predictions were that
 > if this number were ever to be discovered, man would have found the 'answer'
 > to the universe, and the universe would subsequently end. Upon the computer
 > discovering the number, the computers inventor notices that the stars in the
 > sky begin to fade out.......I thought it was good, and want to find the
 > book! Help please....
 >
 > Chris

That would be Arthur C. Clarke's "The Nine Billion Names of God", except
that the computer's task was to construct 9-letter words instead of
computing a number.

--
Ed Seiler<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->