God Is the Machine

Wired ^ | December 2002 | Kevin Kelly

[FreetheSouth!]

Universe has encountered an problem. Would you like to send GOD an error report?

[Abcdefg]

IMHO, there is only analog pretending to be digital.

[Illbay]

I just had a great thought. Maybe instead of this maddening diet I'm on, I can just somehow squeeze my corpulent self into a much slimmer "Zip" archive?

[JRandomFreeper]

IMHO, there is only analog pretending to be digital.

Bucky did some research on microscopic bubbles and found out that the circumference of a microscopic bubble is actually a series of straight lines.

Sorta sounds like digital pretending to be analog. ;>)

/john

[JRandomFreeper]

I can just somehow squeeze my corpulent self into a much slimmer "Zip" archive?

Sorry, it's like trying to compress a .jpg. You are stored at the optimum compression. Further compression results in a larger file size. ;>)

/john

[JRandomFreeper]

!gnip

[cornelis]

In the movie The Matrix . . .

Oh, now I get it.

[FreetheSouth!]

Nope, you’re stuck with weight lossy compression.

[Steel and Fire and Stone]

Would you like to send GOD an error report?

He already knows about the errors (original sin), pre-planned for it, and has coded the resolution (man chooses God over sin; God saves man).

Just remember, God is not linear. He has no beginning, and no end. He exists outside our time dimension. Only he can fix the program.

SFS

[FairWitness]

If nature computed, why not the entire universe? The first to put down on paper the outrageous idea of a universe-wide computer was science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. In his 1956 short story "The Last Question," humans create a computer smart enough to bootstrap new computers smarter than itself. These analytical engines recursively grow super smarter and super bigger until they act as a single giant computer filling the universe. At each stage of development, humans ask the mighty machine if it knows how to reverse entropy. Each time it answers: "Insufficient data for a meaningful reply." The story ends when human minds merge into the ultimate computer mind, which takes over the entire mass and energy of the universe. Then the universal computer figures out how to reverse entropy and create a universe.

According to my recollection of the story, at the point where the universe/computer figures out how to reverse entropy, it proclaims the answer to the "final question" in this manner: "Let there be light!"

[FreetheSouth!]

You wouldn’t happen to be a Bob Heinlein fan, would you now?

[Ciexyz]

Cool article.

[FairWitness]

I'm in no way a Heinlein "expert", like some Freepers I've observed, but I have read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Friday and, of course, Stranger in a Strange Land. I've read a lot more of Asimov than of Heinlein, including The Final Question that is cited in the article above.

[Erasmus]

>>I can just somehow squeeze my corpulent self into a much slimmer "Zip" archive?

>Sorry, it's like trying to compress a .jpg. You are stored at the optimum
>compression. Further compression results in a larger file size. ;>)

I've tried to reduce myself on a number of occasions, but I keep encountering a loss of resolution.

[FreetheSouth!]

Me too, usually around Jan. 20th

[TopQuark]

I've tried to reduce myself on a number of occasions, but I keep encountering a loss of resolution.

Perhaps, there is no problem with resolution: maybe the prescription for your glasses ran out?

(I am paraphrasing S. Wright).

[FreetheSouth!]

I’ve read about all of them, but Robert Heinlein holds a very special place in my heart and bookshelf.

[Illbay]

That explains a LOT.

[lepton]

.jpgs can be compressed...it just starts taking more and more proccessing power, and varying algorithms. You could theorhetically compress down to a single bit and a set of decompression instructions...it's merely impractical. :)

[lepton]

Bucky did some research on microscopic bubbles and found out that the circumference of a microscopic bubble is actually a series of straight lines.

Rather like the old attempts to solve for Pi. Given that bubbles are made of atoms and molecules, any attempt to define it would have to appear as a series of lines connecting the probability centers of the atoms and molecules. That, however, doesn't prove the point in the article. The article assumes that 1) there are minimum increments to everything, and 2) that a point where you can get an agreement between digital models and analogish symbolism is the proper place to stop enlarging. The latter seems much like an argument Dr. Sowell makes in pointing out statistical analysis flaws.