Moore's Law, the end of aging, and being a god.

I just read a science fiction novel named Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristoi_%28novel%29

It has many interesting concepts that it explores, virtual reality, psychological aspects, social norms, etc.. One of the things that it explores is the concept of a human being being "improved" through genetic engineering, spiritual/psychological practice, and technology to the point where the question of whether they are gods or not becomes a legitimate issue. The book was published in 1992 and I think it highly illustrative of the pace of technological progress that I think it legitimate to think that people living today might be faced with such issues.

Moore's Law is that inexpensive computing power (as transistors on an integrated circuit) doubles about every two years. This trend has been maintained since the 1950's and although there are questions about an end point if this trend continues cheap computers with the computing power of the human brain are about twenty years away. This means that a computer would have the power to provide every sensation that a human brain experiences. Programmed adequately (probably by computers) entire lives, entire universes could be simulated by computer without detection by the person of the simulation.

Just recently researches at Harvard genetically altered mice (which have 99% of the same genes as humans) and produced not just a slowing down of the aging process but a dramatic reversal of it. The fastest growing area of science is in biology, over the next few decades it would be remarkable if scientists do not actually work out the aging process(es) and develop methods to prevent it. It is quite reasonable to believe that near immortality may be available to people within the next few decades.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/nov/28/scientists-reverse-ageing-mice-humans

If you add the capability of humans interacting directly with computing power through thought and sensation, something that is already happening, then you have the real possibility of an immortal with the ability to change the world experienced by people with a thought.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/7622279/Japanese-scientists-develop-thought-controlled-machines.html

Imagine a universe that seems as real as this one in which an immortal entity outside of the universe can enter and change the universe with the power of their thought. To those within the universe everything feels as real (or perhaps in the future more real) as this universe does to us. How is that immortal entity different from God?

This leads us to consider what would we do with the power of God? Would we consider the simulated people inside the simulated universe as real? Would we care how they acted? Would we be loving? or stern? or capricious? Would we watch from a distance, or act? Would we start off being involved and then get bored with our world and only stop by from time to time?

When I think about these matters the thing that strikes me the most is how much our universe resembles what I might expect humans to create in such a scenario. For a start the physical structure of the universe apparently consists of discrete, finite bits of energy/matter known as quarks. This seems intuitively weird, and yet fits exactly with the idea of the computer bit, the smallest unit of computing information, the 1 or the 0. Perhaps the improved computers of the future have transistors that not only have on or off (1 and 0) but also up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom? What we discover of the physical properties of the universe seem to mesh quite nicely with what we would expect from a simulation.

I think modern video games, particularly massively multiplayer online role-playing games, give a very good idea of the beginnings of what such invented universes would be like and the motivations of those who would make them. The evolving character of Jahweh, the dramatic interventions, the decline in magic, and so on being an excellent match with what I might imagine of a twenty first century human with the ability to create worlds.