> I read an interesting short story about the tower of Babylon by writer
> Ted Chiang, in which humanity tries to break through the vault
> separating earth from heaven. They build a tower miles high. After
> they break through several hundred feet of stone, one of the
> protagonists manages to scuttle upwards through the collapsing
> tunnels, avoid the water pouring downward and crawls up to heaven.
> After recuperating from his injuries, our hero discovers he is back on
> earth and has simply crawled out of a hole in the ground near the base
> of the tower.
>
> Is this not a metaphor for the scientific effort of today where almost
> every aspect of the universe and consciousness seems to have a
> dualistic aspect, whereby everything seems to have either a
> commonplace or a mystical interpretation? Consciousness collapsing the
> probability wave and allowing matter to manifest itself or matter
> simply allowing consciousness to develop, universe versus multiverse,
> quantum computing or not, holographic universe projected onto our
> consciousness from higher dimensions, or plain vanilla universe with
> no extra dimensions, the enigma of AI (could it ever really reach the
> same level of consciousness as mankind?)
>
> The point is if a creator wanted to create an almost unfathomable
> universe which would defy the best efforts of humanity to break its
> secrets, then this particular universe seems to be a very good design.
> Will the new, European, large particle collider simply find new
> additional layers of structure which will require even larger amounts
> of energy to explore? If consciousness is part of the structure of the
> universe, could it even be theoretically possible for AIs to develop
> it?
>
> I suppose it all depends on the individual’s interpretation and degree
> of materialism.