Can we glimpse God through programming?

http://builtbyimpulse.com/god-in-the-machine/

by jkoschei • 14 years ago

3 4 14 years ago

Very well put. I have lost entire days in the 'zone', starting at 10am and ending after dark, not even realizing that other in the office have left.. It's kind of like time travel :)

rtrocc• 14 years ago

If you abstract the layers of science , you'll realize that "God" is just a concept we've taught ourselves below the abstracted layer of language ,which in turn, is below the layer of science. Therefore there's something higher, which we don't know of because we haven't developed enough to reach that depth of abstraction ;)

dalke• 14 years ago

So... the layer of science is one of the layers of science? That makes no sense.

In any case, I don't see any "layers" to science except metaphorically and as a simplification; how do you know that you can "abstract the layers of science"?

kls• 14 years ago

I remember having two epiphanies related to this subject. The first was when I learned linear algebra and variable replacement and I thought to myself, that if it is all designed this is how the unknown becomes known. The other was the more profound and was when I first learned to code. I remember when it (programming logic) really hit me, I was in the bathroom watching the running water in the faucet. When I realized that with the natural laws of hydraulics and my own universe (the compiler and run time) I could build the same thing in another world. I then started to analyze everything in that form of logical pattern. I recall it vividly because it was an extreme moment of clarity in my life. It was also the point at which I questioned the realness of reality more. The more I questioned and read about the extreme edges of science like quantum physics, the more I questioned the realness of reality.

A while later, I read an article in which some individuals took computational theories that where belied to be the constructs of the human mind and not part of the natural universe, at least not part of them external to the computer they where designed on, they took these theories and went looking for them in nature to their surprise they found them, in many not only did they find them but many times there natural implementation was superior in efficiency and elegance to the one conceived of in the human mind.

Many times science discounts this kind of seeming connectedness of the universe by saying that it is unproven or coincidence which would be fine if they did not in the same breath say that philosophy is dead and that science has killed it. These mysteries in life are what keep me interested and I am glad that we have science, philosophy and theology as they all help shape the wonder-lust that is life.

Can we glimpse God through programming?

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