THE TRANSFORMATIVE MACHINE
At first glance, any connection between theology and computers appears remote at best. Theology is concerned, by definition, with divine realities, or, at least, with moral ones. Its focus and intention are to articulate visions of revelation and salvation, of God's loving will enacted in history through events of divine reconciliation. Computers are machines with souls consisting of long strings of 0's and 1's in a magnetic medium, and wills made of software programs. As efficient augmentation to the computational powers of the human brain, they are tools capable of accomplishing prodigious practical tasks, but nothing of transcendental significance. Only a rich imagination could conjure a connection, surely artificial, between the divine and digital domains. Further glances, however, bring things more into focus to reveal what is actually the profound effect of computers directly and indirectly upon theological thought.
The Computer; A Window to Complexity
Despite its obvious similarities with other machines, the computer is actually a radical device that either extends the range of the machine taxonomy into entirely new territory or eludes it altogether. In fact, the ease with which the computer satisfies the definition of tool, machine, and automaton is a clue suggesting that it is as much none of them as all of them. The utter distinction in the nature and character of the computer is to be found in its virtually unlimited ability to imitate or model any machine whatsoever. Computers may act as mechanical clocks and typewriters, machines rendered completely obsolete with the invention of microprocessors. To employ a traditional theological concept, the computer transcends all other instrumental artifacts by occupying a category that includes them all. Computers are concrete abstractive devices of nearly unlimited power. They are more plastic, more protean, than other devices in their ability to transform, even self-transform. In this sense they transcend traditional machines in their uniqueness, inclusiveness, and potential.
In his book, Science and the Modern World, published in 1925 (1), Alfred North Whitehead was the first to see that "The reason we are on a higher imaginative level [in science] is not because we have a finer imagination, but because we have better instruments. In science, the most important thing that has happened in the last forty years is the advance in instrumental design." (2) The benefits are more than practical "These instruments have put thought on a new level." Whitehead concludes with, "The gain is more than a mere addition; it is a transformation." (3)
Freeman Dyson argues similarly (4) [He] points out that conceptual revolutions in science are rare. Indeed, he can discover only seven in the last five hundred years. They were inspired by Copernicus, Newton, Darwin, Maxwell, Einstein, Freud, and the physicists who brought in the quantum-mechanical revolution. But during this same period science has progressed through about twenty tool-driven revolutions. He mentions only two: the Galilean revolution resulting from the use of the telescope in astronomy, and the Crick-Watson revolution resulting from x-ray diffraction to determine the structure of big molecules in biology. One could speculate that the microscope and particle accelerator would qualify for this list as well.
An outstanding candidate for induction into this scientific instrument hall of fame is the computer. Of course, computers perform countless tasks with accuracy and a lightening speed that surpass any human capability. Their contribution is to make possible very complex instrumentation for science in all fields from astronomy to neuroscience. But the computer also qualifies as a revolutionary instrument in its own right. The telescope and the microscope revealed dimensions of reality previously unsuspected. The computer has carried this tradition forward. The telescope provided a window to the immensely large, the microscope to the immensely small. The computer is a window to the immensely complex.
Isomorphism, Computers, and God
In systems sciences shared features between apparently dissimilar objects are known as "isomorphies," from the Greek isos, meaning equal, and morphe meaning form. Systems of any sort--conceptual, physical, social--are said to be isomorphic if they share some deep structural and process uniformities. Systems that are similar in pattern or that display corresponding relationships in their operations may be utterly different in their material make up, organization, and forms of energy. Deep formal correspondence may relate vastly different concrete systems and processes, from the decay or radioactive atoms and certain financial transactions. (5)
Isomorphism may be found widely employed in human thought. Metaphorical speech, so important in everyday discourse, derives its power by articulating surprising connections between objects that are apparently very different. Metaphors work (in less formal ways than mathematics, of course) because of real underlying and shared features of a systemic nature. These features, when recognized, give rise to novel disclosures. The difference is that, while metaphors work primarily through insight and intuition, isomorphic systems often carry the framework of their own disclosure.
We have spoken earlier about the uniqueness of computers with respect to other machines. Their uniqueness and power are based in their ability to simulate the behavior of objects or events by faithfully replicating their dynamic structures, primarily in logical and mathematical symbols and relationships. By simulating deep properties of a system in terms of a symbol system that duplicates its features, the computer stands in for the real thing-a weather system, ecosystem, or biological system-- to disclose knowledge about it that would be otherwise hidden or unavailable.
The deepest and most fundamental impact of the computer is in the way it is altering our understanding of reality itself. The power of the high-speed computer lies in its ability to process information rapidly and in great quantity: to "crunch" numbers by executing mathematical and logicaloperations with great rapidity. The result is a virtual world, isomorphically akin to the world of everyday experience, but made of bits rather than atoms. This world can be altered at will, simply by instructing the computer to signal changes. The prevailing belief about the material world, that it consists of inert and immutable matter, is replaced by a new plasticity. Matter melts into massive information to be molded not as clay in the hands of the potter, but as signals transmitted by a programming agent. That matter gives way to messages is the premise and ontological anchor of this study. Thus the computer is not only a tool; it is the chief exemplar of the picture of reality it reveals.
The aim of this study is to identify and hopefully articulate deep isomorphic principles that might account for and give understanding to the relation of God and the creation. The source of these ideas will be the systems and informational sciences. While the intention is obviously metaphysical, the project may be read as an exercise in constructive metaphorical theology. All the elements are there: an appeal to the current historical situation and the need for an adequate model of God; use of images drawn from the world to liken to and illuminate divinity and allow for articulation; and insistence on the provisional character of these models. Or it may be read as an exercise in constructive, imaginative metaphysics with its emphasis on rational-empirical criteria for the justification of the models and its commitment to the premise of general systematic parallels or isomorphies existing between God and creation permitting metaphysical extrapolation from the world to God to take place.
We will draw substantially from Claude Shannon's theory of communication. The selection is not arbitrary, but neither is it dictated by irresistible logic. We will argue that the theory can be generalized to describe not only the power of computers and communications systems, but also to describe the world at large in terms of its ontological foundations. These foundations are really isomorphies or broad structural principles found universally, and perhaps even applying to every possible world. The thought process of moving from a specific theory of communication with limited intentions and application, to a cosmological [and theological] framework is certainly an act of constructive speculation.
Endnotes
1. Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World (New York: Macmillan, 1925). 114.
2. Ibid.
3. Freeman Dyson, "George Green and Physics, Physics World, (August, 1993): 33-38.
4. Ibid. 33.
5. Ludwig von Bertalanffy, General system Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications (New York: George Braziller, 1968), 33-34.