Xref: utzoo sci.philosophy.tech:578 rec.arts.sf-lovers:12070 rec.mag:42
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!cornell!rochester!ur-tut!srg2
From: srg2@ur-tut (Stacey Greenstein)
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech,rec.arts.sf-lovers,rec.mag
Subject: Re: Ed Fredkin
Message-ID: <1441@ur-tut.UUCP>
Date: 20 Mar 88 09:18:24 GMT
References: <3829@chinet.UUCP>
Reply-To: srg2@tut.cc.rochester.edu.UUCP (Stacey Greenstein)
Organization: Univ. of Rochester Computing Center
Lines: 30

In article <3829@chinet.UUCP> rissa@chinet.UUCP (Patricia O Tuama) writes:
>From the April ATLANTIC MONTHLY:
>"Did the Universe Just Happen?"  by Robert Wright
>Controversial scientist Edward Fredkin says no -- that the universe 
>is a computer, and was built for a purpose.  Fredkin believes that 
>information is more fundamental than matter or energy, that all of 
>reality is governed by a single programming rule, and that the uni-
>verse may have been created to get the answer to a question.
>-------------------------------------------------------------------
>The universe is a computer, designed to answer a question.
>Why does this sound so familiar?
>				              .
>				t r i s h a   o t u a m a

Well, let me think.  If forty-two just happened to pop into my head, would you
say it were a coincidence, or that the programming has lead me to think of
the number forty-two? If the Universe is indeed a giagantic computer, Douglas
Adams would be an integral part of its programming, I would say!  If Fredkin
is correct, then forty-two may only be just a step along the way towards the
final answer.  Forty-two may just be the final answer hypercoded Recursively
so that the remaining program is just what is needed to decoded the number
forty-two.  Or this could all be just the mindless babblings of a twenty year
old who has yet to go to bed and it is past four fifteen in the morning...


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