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In Eric Frank Russell's Now Inhale and Arthur C. Clarke's Nine Billion Names of God there are described Buddhist monks who have a task which will seem to take aeons to complete in order to bring about the end of the universe. I've seen this pop up a few times in pulp-era SF. My question is- are there any actual groups of people (they don't necessarily have to be Buddhist) who are busy working on a similarly seemingly impossibly long task which, upon completion, will end the universe?

The long version of 4'3" by John Cage doesn't count because they don't believe the world will end once they complete it.

Broklynite
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  • I didnt say religion, I said groups- no reason it has to be religious necessarily. – Broklynite Sep 17 '15 at 09:42
  • Even so, if it's about real-life groups, doesn't that make it off-topic here? – Rand al'Thor Sep 17 '15 at 09:44
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    One of the most popular recent questions had to do with what technologies from Back to the Future II exist in real life. I fail to see the distinction. This is an idea that has popped up at least a few times in SF and I am curious if it has any basis in reality. – Broklynite Sep 17 '15 at 09:45
  • Seems to be an edge case. The question references a fictionary topic from books but is looking for some real world example. – Thomas Sep 17 '15 at 09:45
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's not about science fiction or fantasy. – user14111 Sep 17 '15 at 09:45
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    I'd argue in favour of this being on-topic. It is, in effect, asking for real life examples of a common sci-fi trope, and we accept questions like that. – Dr R Dizzle Sep 17 '15 at 09:48
  • Of course that peopel belive in that! There are even dates - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events – Yasskier Sep 17 '15 at 09:48
  • Sorry, that link doesn't seem to work. I'm not asking about folks believing in the end of the world, but in protracted efforts to bring about the end of the world. – Broklynite Sep 17 '15 at 09:50
  • fixed https://goo.gl/fKVx1b – Yasskier Sep 17 '15 at 09:51
  • Found the link to the BTTF question: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/95971/which-2015-technologies-were-correctly-predicted-by-back-to-the-future-ii – Broklynite Sep 17 '15 at 09:58
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    SILENCE WILL FALL WHEN THE QUESTION IS ASKED… Sorry, couldn't resist. – AJL Sep 17 '15 at 10:25
  • @DrRDizzle Aliens visiting Earth is a common stfnal "trope", so I guess it's on-topic to ask if UFOs are real? Likewise ghosts, bigfeet, etc.? – user14111 Sep 17 '15 at 10:32

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