Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

Post 30.  04/16/2018 continued . . .

Enformation Engines

Cosmic Computer Programmer

The necessity for a system designer is simply a logical conclusion from the computer analogy, unless of course the system is self-existent and self-organized3. But there is no such thing in the real world. So we must look outside the system for information about how it came to be arranged in a manner that is meaningful to inquiring minds. As Albert Einstein mused, “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible”. He too seemed to think that the world must have been enformed by some mysterious external agency, which he called, half jokingly, "dear God".

Most physicists today claim to have no need for that hypothesis, but their proposed alternatives are just as incom-prehensible as a preter-natural creator4. So, for convenience, I continue to refer to that unknowable agent as G*D.  However, the ultimate purpose or goal of our time-limited experiment in evolution is something beyond the reach of natural Science. That's why most religions have relied on seers & prophets to communicate directly with the mind of the Maker. But history has shown that their imaginative guesses conflict with one another. And they are no more accurate at predicting the future than random coin-flipping. Furthermore, as information processors, their knowledge output gets more & more unreliable as they project into the remote past or the far future. Not what you'd expect from divine revelation.

That's why early scientists began to rely more on their personal ingenuity than on authorized auguries or scriptural doctrines, to gain useful information about how the engine of the world operates. This practical knowledge, called Science, allows humans to re-direct aimless physical energy toward their own selfish goals. The embodiment of such focused know-how is called “technology”, and has allowed us to rapidly change our mode of transportation from a walking pace, to horse gallop, to automotive speeds, and now to rocket-propelled travel. Seers haven't been nearly as productive.

Those tradition-bound religions are still processing their information at a snail's pace, compared to astounding changes propelled by scientific procedures. Early Deists, seeking better understanding of their world, abandoned the out-dated technology of their former religions, and adopted the cutting-edge methods of Science for discovering signs of divine programming embodied in the creation itself. One of those indicators is the statistically unexpected sensible arrangement and intelligibility of the universe, that prompted Einstein's expression of wonder. He knew that, according to the Law of Thermodynamics, there are millions of ways to disorganize, and only a few paths to stable enduring organic arrangements.

Of course, any such apparently designed patterns in nature must be interpreted into more concrete concepts, such as intentional agency, that are meaningful & useful for non-philosophers. But instead of turning to horse & buggy biblical exegesis, we can now make use of progressive philosophical analysis & synthesis, based on the timeless laws of Logic & Mathematics, which are the coded language5 of the original Enformation Engine we call The Cosmos. 

End of Post 30

The original information processor

3. Eternal Universe :
   Einstein originally assumed that our world was eternal & infinite. But he later renounced the idea, when it became obvious that the universe had a beginning, and faced an ignominious end as it fades to black.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_universe

4. Pre-Big Bang Theories    Multiverse and Many World scenarios are mathe-matically plausible but empirically unprovable and not falsifiable. Hence, they are no more scientific than any other imaginary explanations for “why is there something instead of nothing”.
   The G*D hypothesis is therefore as logical as any. And it’s more explanatory for Progression in evolution, and for the Qualia that appeal to the human mind.

5. The Code :
Decoding mathematical physics into metaphorical concepts for non-scientists is fraught with ways to go wrong. So, any beliefs drawn from such exegesis must be balanced with a skeptical eye toward self-deception.

"If we do discover a theory of everything...it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we would truly know the mind of God."
Steven Hawking
Theoretical Physicist