>At the risk of delving into the metaphysical, has anyone heard of the theory
>that all matter, particles, and energy in the Universe are quantified in some
>giant super-computer somewhere (some might refer to this as a sort of God).

I don't know what this theory is called, or even if it has an "official"
name. It's similar, however, to the idea of Anti-Materialism proposed by
Irish philosopher George Berkely in his "Three Dialogues between Hylas and
Philonus." He proposed, way back in 1713, that the material world didn't
actually exist, and that we exist solely in God's imagination, with the
experience of the material world fed to us straight from the mind of God
itself.

The change from God's imagination to God's supercomputer is fairly
superficial in this forum, since we are after all asserting that the mind
and the computer might eventually be indistinguishable. The theory is more
or less unrefutable, but at the same time it remains unprovable, since we
are postulating things that exist outside of the universe and our ability
to observe. (/Where/ does the proposed supercomputer exist?) In the end,
as with most philosophical debates, it becomes a matter of what you want to
believe.

-David



------
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes -- and ships -- and sealing wax --
Of cabbages -- and kings --
And why the sea is boiling hot --
And whether pigs have wings."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
------
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who
has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has
intended us to forego their use."
- Galileo
------
What better way to be freaks than to be freaks together?
- jl&de