Quantum Angels

Last week I had the privilege to hear John Parmentola speak at the U.S. Army War College’s Robotics Day. A large portion of his talk centered on the predictions made by Ray Kurzweil concerning the progress of computational power. Based on these predictions Parmentola stated that machines will contain enough power for us to enter into totally immersive artificial environments where, “humans will converse with other humans, humans will converse with artificial humans, and artificial humans will converse with artificial humans.” This struck me as something profound because these “artificial humans” will not actually be humans at all. They will only appear to us as humans. There is another place where stories exist about things that are not actually human but appear to us as humans to bring us information from a larger intellect – The Bible. These beings are called Angels. It is further believed that when we inevitably construct quantum computers it will be possible to have enough computational power to simulate an entire universe. Now, putting these concepts together leads to the thought, “Are we just constructs in quantum computer created by another intelligent race?” This concept neither invalidates evolution or creation by a superior intellect. This idea has existed for some time in fantasy (i.e. Tron and The Matrix) but breakthroughs in technology may actually support such a premise.

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