God’s Debris is a book I read in my 20s written by Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comic strip. The book has nothing to do with comic strips but shows that the author's mind goes well beyond comic books. The story is fiction but in it he talks about different ways of explaining the world around us … he says that he doesn’t necessarily think the ideas expressed are true, but at the same time … “tell me why this can’t be true”. It’s good stuff.
I read it again recently and still think the “title track” (one idea of many in the book) is amazing. It goes something like this…
Take a minute and think of what motivates you to do things. Just about everything you do attempts to fill a need or solve a problem. We all want money which is really just satisfying your “customers” needs today so someone will satisfy yours tomorrow. It’s how the world goes round. We need food, shelter, the opposite sex, etc. Some are obvious (I’m hungry), some are less obvious (I’m not sure why, I just really like hanging out with my friends (a need to be connected; these people will solve your problems later), etc.)
Let’s take a different perspective. Imagine for a minute that you are God. Before time and space existed. You are omnipotent and omnipresent. You have no needs. We can’t really comprehend that. You go on, wondering what it’s all for and what you can do to fill the days. Hmmm … is that a need sneaking up on you?
You think you know everything but start to wonder what would happen without you or if “without you” is even possible. You wonder if you could destroy yourself. And it starts to nag at you. What would happen? You’re not supposed to be able to die, right? On the other hand, you can do anything you want, right? So which is it? There’s no pain, no fear, is there really a downside to trying? Maybe you’ve just discovered your one and only need … to gain that last piece of knowledge. Could it be the only thing that evades you?
Fast-forward 13 billion years. Life has recently emerged on a humble rock orbiting an average star. One species is dominating the planet, the likes of which is surprising at first. They are not the biggest or the fastest or the most ferocious. But they are the smartest and most communicative. Their advancement is exponential; knowledge and collaboration are their strong suits. They learn and share, then learn and share some more.
They communicate extremely effectively and work together in ways never seen before on the planet. They invent spoken language, tell stories, develop writing, and find more and more efficient ways to communicate with each other. They domesticate donkeys, horses, and other animals to help carry their messages longer distances in shorter times. Their economies explode each time a new communication medium is introduced. Ships, railroad, radio, television, all cause frenzied bubbles in their economies. They even spend their leisure time communicating with each other for no discernable purpose .. they call these gatherings "parties".
Then they invent something they call the Internet. It empowers the flow of information like nothing before it. The ability to assimilate and distribute information is pushed down into the hands of the many. Then Internet 2.0 comes into existence. Blogging, Facebook, Wikipedia, anything that combines knowledge with communication catches on like wildfire. Interestingly, this new 2.0 revolution is a significant departure from the old Internet in the sense that it no longer seems to be about money. 1.0 was all about commerce, 2.0 is purely about connecting; this species no longer appears to care about being paid for their time or work as long as they can collaborate. They give of themselves freely to be part of this next wave of communication. At this point in this young planet’s development, the vast majority of it’s knowledge, and maybe all the known knowledge in the Universe, can be “Googled”.
Inexpensive cameras are put in place to watch traffic, businesses, babysitters. Networks develop to route traffic, water, information, etc. efficiently and autonomously make decisions to optimize the flow of this small world. Robots are built to automate life’s tasks and manufacturing of needed products. Technology is developed that give the planet's occupants control over things in a way that would have been indistinguishable from magic even a century before. The progress is so rapid that the word “miracle” would likely be used by those from a previous time. And each development is based on knowledge that was originally gained by another in a different time and place but is accessible by those that need it. This humble planet and its occupants are now working together in ways never seen before and begin to be indistinguishable from each other ... functioning as one to assimilate all knowledge and decisions into one system. How long before this is more widely known and accepted, even embraced, by all the planet’s occupants, and then by the planet itself?
How long after that will the planet function as one entity that knows all, and the parts become indistinguishable from the whole? What would you call an entity that knows everything that has ever been known, and exhibits a degree of control over it’s environment that any reasonable form of “life” would call supernatural?
Now rewind, back to the time before time, 13 Billion years ago. Is it conceivable that God destroyed himself? Did he explode into tiny pieces in a way that created space and time from one unimaginably brilliant point? Did these bits slowly combine to form planets, stars, and galaxies? Did these systems form in a way that caused life to be inevitable? Are we the current pinnacle of that life, being inexorably drawn to accumulate all knowledge and power that has ever been known?
Is God in the process of reforming? Are we a stop along the way? Are we just cells in a body that don’t yet grasp the inevitable outcome?
Are we God’s Debris?
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