From: Damien Broderick (damienb@unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Tue Apr 01 2003 - 19:42:53 MST
At 05:14 PM 4/1/03 -0800, Lee Corbin wrote:
>But God, during my fifteen minutes alone with him,
>would be able to explain all kinds of things to me
>that would fit, and be exceedingly enlightening.
What questions would people here pose to a deity claimant (or surrogate)?
Some that occur to a cerebral list like this one might be, `Give me a
one-paragraph proof of the 4 color theorem', or `what is the Final Theory
physics equation, if any (with footnotes explaining the terms)?' or `Kindly
jot down the algorithm for a self-organizing benevolent SI'.
Other folks might ask, `How can we best attain world peace?' or `How can I
be happy?' or `What are the winning lotto numbers next Saturday?'
I came up with a few questions I proposed to a group of alleged `remote
viewers' who claimed the ability to precognize the future with fair
accuracy. I asked for the current catalogue designation of the first star
yet to be identified as inhabited by SETI, or when and where the next major
earthquake will devastate some region of the globe. Consider
scale-invariant power laws in nature and society. If Per Bak and the other
1/f power law guys are correct, earthquakes are almost the canonical
instance of strictly unpredictable macro events, for completely
understandable reasons. If a time traveller or ET scientist or god can
manage a few of those, it'd be impressive (as a way of checking
credentials, and, as a bonus, of mitigating human misery).
Damien Broderick
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