Intelligent Design meets the Singularity

George Rebane

[This is the addended transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 25 January 2017.]

OK folks, it’s time to take a break from politics and give our Trump trashing muscles a short rest – I’m sure we’ll be back at it soon enough, but in the meantime let’s talk about important things like the existence of God and the fate of mankind.  Scientists have made some very interesting recent advances that shed more light about the coming Singularity and also our understanding of God.  And in an intriguing sense these two ideas seem to have become entwined.  You may recall from past commentaries that Singularity is the anticipated event when machines reach and exceed human intelligence – that is, they become super-intelligent and no one knows what will happen to us all after that.  Many predict this event to occur during this century, perhaps even before 2050.

Today we live in the pre-Singularity years and witness accelerating technology surmounting humans in ever more complex skill sets that require higher and higher intelligence.  The visible result is growing systemic unemployment – more and more people leaving the workforce who can no longer sell their labor to maintain their quality of life.  You might also notice that few if any politicians want to talk about that since no one knows what to do about it.

Now consider world renowned physicist Michio Kaku, recognized for his work in string theory and cosmological philosophy.  Those are the fields attempting to unify Einstein’s relativity and Bohr’s quantum mechanics, and puzzle on the foundation of the universe and our place in it.  Dr Kaku is one of a growing cadre of scientists on the frontiers of human knowledge who no longer dismiss the notion of a universal super-intelligence or God.

In their physics research Kaku and colleagues encounter more and more evidence showing that our universe came into being by or through the mediation of intelligent design (ID), thereby pointing to the existence of an intelligent designer.  Many physicists, who today look into the tiny domains ruled by quantum mechanics, and outward at the visible cosmos that evolves according to Einstein’s relativity, conclude that the structure and order they see there is a unique arrangement of simplicity and beauty that didn’t have to be that way.  The universe could also have had a totally chaotic structure and dynamic not suitable for intelligent critters like us or those that we can imagine and many scientists like Kaku believe populate the galaxies.

Well, it turns out that a little known and lately revived piece of research by the great mathematician Kurt Gödel, who showed us the limits of human devised systems of logic and thought, provides proof of God’s existence.  What’s more, this remarkable mathematical work has now been proven correct by a couple of European scientists who, along the way, developed a new automated method for validating the correctness of mathematical reasoning processes.  Bottom line, Gödel has proved there is a God or Intelligent Designer, which now shakes science on two fronts.

The first makes formerly secular humanist scientists scratch their heads and rethink the origin of their cosmologies – yes, the universe may well be a running program in the mind of a super-intelligence or God, which now supports the widespread existence of transcendent intelligences strewn among the stars.  But the more immediately accepted result from the Europeans is their demonstration of an advanced level of reasoning and intelligent behavior that can fit into a relatively inexpensive computer.  Their discovery will definitely speed up Singularity since it gives autonomous machines a much more powerful way to reason about and function in their environment.  In turn, it can accelerate the development of more capable robots and entire systems of interconnected computers that create wealth and a higher quality of life for all – or in Professor Kaku’s hopeful explanation, “Science is all about creating wealth, and not massaging or rearranging wealth” which is the job of lawyers and politicians.   But there are no guarantees, because we humans are quite capable of mucking it all up.

There is much more to all this that does not fit into the few minutes of a radio commentary.  On my website I cover some of it and give you links to expand your own interests.  I hope you will think about the other important things quietly happening on this planet before we again argue about jobs, abortion, climate change, globalism, and the American dream.

My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on Rebane’s Ruminations where the addended transcript of this commentary is posted with links, and where such issues are debated extensively.  However my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR.  Thank you for listening.

[Addendum]  First, let’s make sure no one confuses ‘intelligent design’ (ID) with the fundamentalists’ ‘spot creation’, they are totally different origin theories - explanations for how the universe got to where it is today.  And most certainly ID is not a code for spot creation anywhere except in the fevered minds of certain secular humanists whose arguments against ID have been bankrupted (more here and here).

For those not familiar with Michio Kaku, I strongly encourage watching some of his many interviews on YouTube.  A must would be the one (here) on the Singularity and Intelligence.  Best enjoyed with a glass or two of your favorite grape squeezins.

Professor Kaku also expounds on Gödel’s proof of God here, with more on the topic here, here, and here which include the work of the cited European scientists.

And we should recall the interesting addition to the ID narrative by Stephen Meyer his two volumes – Signature in the Cell (2009) and Darwin’s Doubt (2013) – in which he develops detailed arguments to support the thesis that our 13.7B year old universe does not have the “probabilistic resources” to have created certain of our complex life forms through Darwinian evolution alone.

A more complete discussion/debate on ID is contained in the 22mar13 ‘In the Beginning was Code (aka ID)’ where I was joined by Dr Wayne Hullett disputing the need for the Great Programmer.  Other scientists have joined in to stubbornly argue that there is no need for a creation event (here and here).

Last but not least, I draw your attention to another well-known and now classic work on the topic of cosmic intelligence and the fate of sapients (wise critters) residents of our universe in the seminal and oft-cited arguments of another renown physicist, Frank Tipler, in his The Physics of Immortality (1994).

 

Comments

[Account Deleted]

Thank you for the Ytube link. And yes, by coincidence, I did have a bit of vino already in hand as I watched.
Dangerous information from the leftie perspective. He totally understands the real world in regards to wealth and prosperity.
I like his take on the function of the human brain and what is in store for AI.
Good stuff.

[Wayne Hullett]

http://innotechtoday.com/michio-kaku-clears-god-discovery/

[George Rebane]

WayneH 750am - So we are still between 'science is moot on the existence of God' and 'the language of science (mathematics) accepts a formulaic proof of God's existence'. Thanks for updating Kaku's position.

[Wayne Hullett]

The ontological argument is logical only, not based on a single measurement. I am reminded of a quote, attributed to Voltaire if memory serves, that he was educated by Jesuits, where he learned that a Jesuit could prove anything, and therefor he believed nothing.