Steve
03-24-2003, 08:57 PM
(with thanks to David Brin for the inspiration)
Omniscient. Omnipotent.
There is nothing you don't know; nothing you cannot do.
How boring that must be!
Millenia ago, our ancestors would sit around the fire at night. Beyond the circle of flame and heat was...nothing. Darkness. The sounds of wild animals, ferocious beasts kept at bay by the fire. Strange sounds in the wilderness. Small wonder, then, that a menagerie of imaginary beings, fairies and sprites; djinns and leprechauns; elves and gnomes, sprung up from the collective imaginations of generations of people, living barely better than the animals so fearful of the flames.
How far we've come. Computers and electric lights; central air and airplanes; modern agriculture and modern medicine. How much better we apprehend our world, how much better we understand the workings of our universe.
Our quest is for knowledge. The outcome is power unimaginable to those early generations. Now, project the trend far into the future, five hundred, a thousand years from now. The quest has continued, unabated. The powers have grown, exponentially. Five thousand years, almost all that can be known, is. Ten thousand years from now: Mankind's understanding of the universe is complete. We know, as individuals, all that there is to know. We have the power that accompanies such knowledge, to change ourselves, to change the world, to change the Universe.
We have become gods.
How boring that would be.
No mystery or terror left in the world. No anger, nor hatred, nor love. There is no want, there is no need. There is no purpose.
Omniscient, there is nothing left to know. Omnipotent, there is nothing that cannot be done, or that has not been done. There is no guesswork, no chance. Free will exists, yet the outcome of any decision is easily predictable, and predicted, making the decision, itself, almost unnecessary, even the decisions and actions of others. Omniscient, remember?
God must be bored!
Omniscient. Omnipotent.
There is nothing you don't know; nothing you cannot do.
How boring that must be!
Millenia ago, our ancestors would sit around the fire at night. Beyond the circle of flame and heat was...nothing. Darkness. The sounds of wild animals, ferocious beasts kept at bay by the fire. Strange sounds in the wilderness. Small wonder, then, that a menagerie of imaginary beings, fairies and sprites; djinns and leprechauns; elves and gnomes, sprung up from the collective imaginations of generations of people, living barely better than the animals so fearful of the flames.
How far we've come. Computers and electric lights; central air and airplanes; modern agriculture and modern medicine. How much better we apprehend our world, how much better we understand the workings of our universe.
Our quest is for knowledge. The outcome is power unimaginable to those early generations. Now, project the trend far into the future, five hundred, a thousand years from now. The quest has continued, unabated. The powers have grown, exponentially. Five thousand years, almost all that can be known, is. Ten thousand years from now: Mankind's understanding of the universe is complete. We know, as individuals, all that there is to know. We have the power that accompanies such knowledge, to change ourselves, to change the world, to change the Universe.
We have become gods.
How boring that would be.
No mystery or terror left in the world. No anger, nor hatred, nor love. There is no want, there is no need. There is no purpose.
Omniscient, there is nothing left to know. Omnipotent, there is nothing that cannot be done, or that has not been done. There is no guesswork, no chance. Free will exists, yet the outcome of any decision is easily predictable, and predicted, making the decision, itself, almost unnecessary, even the decisions and actions of others. Omniscient, remember?
God must be bored!