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Frank J. Tipler: The Laws of Physics Say The Singularity is Inevitable!

by Socrates on October 29, 2013
Frank-J-TiplerDr. Frank J. Tipler is a physicist and cosmologist perhaps best known for concepts such as the Omega Point or The Cosmological Singularity. He is a professor of mathematical physics at Tulane University and the author of books such as The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, The Physics of Immortality and The Physics of Christianity.
During our 1 hour conversation with Dr. Tipler we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he is both a physics imperialist and fundamentalist; the cosmological singularity, the technological singularity and the omega point; his personal journey from Christian fundamentalism through agnosticism and atheism and back to theism and Christianity; why most physicists are good atheists and bad scientists; immortality; determinism and whether God plays dice with the universe; mind-uploading and [Quantum] consciousness…
The most interesting quote that I will take away from this interview with Frank J. Tipler is:
“If the laws of physics be for us, who can be against us?!”
(You can listen to/download the audio file above or watch the video interview in full. If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation!)
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Who is Frank J. Tipler? (in his own words)
I was born and raised in Andalusia, a small farming town in southern Alabama. At the age of five, while in kindergarten, I became fascinated by the work of Alabama only famous physicist, the rocket scientist Werner von Braun, and decided then that I wanted to be an astrophysicist. With this goal, I obtained by undergraduate degree in physics in 1969 at M.I.T., where I first learned of the Many-Worlds of quantum mechanics, and of the Singularity Theorems of Stephan Hawking and Roger Penrose. In 1976, I obtained a Ph.D. in physics for my proof, using the techniques of Hawking and Penrose, that creating a time machine would necessarily result in singularities in the laboratory. I was hired in 1979, as a post-doc by John A. Wheeler, the great physicist best known for his work on black hole theory, to extend my 1978 proof that in general relativity, time is not relative: a unique rest frame exists. I became Professor of Mathematical Physics in 1981 at Tulane University, where I have been ever since, working to draw the full implications of my earlier work: that quantum mechanics and general relativity require that the Cosmological Singularity – the Uncaused First Cause – consists of Three Persons but one Cause. I have now written up these results for a popular audience, and the book is The Physics of Christianity.
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        • James Redford • 14 days ago
          Hi, Socrates. Thank you for this interview with physicist and mathematician Prof. Frank J. Tipler.
          For those who would like more information on Prof. Tipler's Omega Point cosmology and the Feynman-DeWitt-Weinberg quantum gravity/Standard Model Theory of Everything (TOE), which are mathematically required by the known laws of physics (viz., the Second Law of Thermodynamics, General Relativity, and Quantum Mechanics), see my following article. This article also examines the societal implications of the Omega Point cosmology.
          James Redford, "The Physics of God and the Quantum Gravity Theory of Everything", Social Science Research Network (SSRN), Sept. 10, 2012 (orig. pub. Dec. 19, 2011), 186 pp., doi:10.2139/ssrn.1974708.
          Additionally, in the below resource are six sections which contain very informative videos of Prof. Tipler explaining the Omega Point cosmology and the Feynman-DeWitt-Weinberg quantum gravity/Standard Model TOE. The seventh section therein contains an audio interview of Tipler. I also provide some helpful notes and commentary for some of these videos.
          James Redford, "Video of Profs. Frank Tipler and Lawrence Krauss's Debate at Caltech: Can Physics Prove God and Christianity?", alt.sci.astro, Message-ID: jghev8tcbv02b6vn3uiq8jmelp7jijluqk[at sign]4ax[period]com , July 30, 2013.
          The foregoing resource also provides details regarding the point Prof. Tipler made in his present interview about how modern physics (i.e., General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and the Standard Model of particle physics) are simply special cases of classical mechanics (i.e., Newtonian mechanics, particularly in its most powerful formulation of the Hamilton-Jacobi Equation), and how Quantum Mechanics is actually more deterministic than Newtonian mechanics.
          I find it interesting that Prof. Tipler mentioned (58:56 min:sec ff. of the video) Julian Jaynes in this interview and Jaynes's book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976). A footnote is provided to Jaynes's said book in Ch. 7: "Quantum Mechanics and the Anthropic Principle" of The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1986) by John D. Barrow and Tipler, but I don't recall Tipler elsewhere having mentioned Jaynes.
          I myself have written on Jaynes and the implications of his theory of the bicameral mind vis-à-vis the widespread belief among the ancients circa three millennia ago and before that they actually directly interacted with the gods. The type of unconsciousness which Prof. Tipler mentioned in his interview in the works of Homer and Chinese writers from the era can also be found very strongly in the Tanakh, particularly the Torah. Jaynes's theory can also explain the superhuman longevity found in the Tanakh as deriving from a time when people would hear the voices of their dead ancestors and pass on the memory (and preserved bodies) of them to their descendants; and the near-lack of a concept of an afterlife in the Tanakh until the Latter Prophets (e.g., Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 12:2).
          I haven't heard supporters of Jaynes mention this as an item in Jaynes's favor before, but muscarinic acetylcholine receptor antagonists, such as scopolamine, provide strong evidence for Jaynes's theory--indeed, perhaps the strongest, since it makes the voice-command state Jaynes wrote about completely reproducible. Lloyd deMause's work on psychohistory also fits well the Jaynes theory.
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            • CM Stewart • 12 hours ago
              I'll give Tipler leeway in connecting his definition of "singularity" to his definition of "god." But he stated he is a Christian, and I didn't hear any connection of his god to his belief that the Bible is factual. In fact, the "laws of physics" (as Tipler puts it) contradict the Bible. Did you get the connection, Nikola?
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                • Socrates Mod > CM Stewart • 12 hours ago
                  No I did not!
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                    • James Redford > CM Stewart • 10 hours ago
                      Hi, CM Stewart. Regarding how physicist and mathematician Prof. Frank J. Tipler's Omega Point cosmology uniquely conforms to, and precisely matches, the cosmology described in the New Testament:
                      The Omega Point is omniscient, having an infinite amount of information and knowing all that is logically possible to be known; it is omnipotent, having an infinite amount of energy and power; and it is omnipresent, consisting of all that exists. These three properties are the traditional quidditative definitions (i.e., haecceities) of God held by almost all of the world's leading religions. Hence, by definition, the Omega Point is God.
                      The Omega Point final singularity is a different aspect of the Big Bang initial singularity, i.e., the first cause, a definition of God held by all the Abrahamic religions.
                      As well, as Stephen Hawking proved, the singularity is not in spacetime, but rather is the boundary of space and time (see S. W. Hawking and G. F. R. Ellis, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973], pp. 217-221).
                      The Schmidt b-boundary has been shown to yield a topology in which the cosmological singularity is not Hausdorff separated from the points in spacetime, meaning that it is not possible to put an open set of points between the cosmological singularity and *any* point in spacetime proper. That is, the cosmological singularity has infinite nearness to every point in spacetime.
                      So the Omega Point is transcendent to, yet immanent in, space and time. Because the cosmological singularity exists outside of space and time, it is eternal, as time has no application to it.
                      Quite literally, the cosmological singularity is supernatural, in the sense that no form of physics can apply to it, since physical values are at infinity at the singularity, and so it is not possible to perform arithmetical operations on them; and in the sense that the singularity is beyond creation, as it is not a part of spacetime, but rather is the boundary of space and time.
                      And given an infinite amount of computational resources, per the Bekenstein Bound, recreating the exact quantum state of our present universe is trivial, requiring at most a mere 10^123 bits (the number which Roger Penrose calculated), or at most a mere 2^10^123 bits for every different quantum configuration of the universe logically possible (i.e., the powerset, of which the multiverse in its entirety at this point in universal history is a subset of this powerset). So the Omega Point will be able to resurrect us using merely an infinitesimally small amount of total computational resources: indeed, the multiversal resurrection will occur between 10^-10^10 and 10^-10^123 seconds before the Omega Point is reached, as the computational capacity of the universe at that stage will be great enough that doing so will require only a trivial amount of total computational resources.
                      Miracles are allowed by the known laws of physics using baryon annihilation, and its inverse, by way of electroweak quantum tunneling (which is allowed in the Standard Model of particle physics, as baryon number minus lepton number, B - L, is conserved) caused via the Principle of Least Action by the physical requirement that the Omega Point final cosmological singularity exists. If the miracles of Jesus Christ were necessary in order for the universe to evolve into the Omega Point, and if the known laws of physics are correct, then the probability of those miracles occurring is certain.
                      Additionally, the cosmological singularity consists of a three-aspect structure: the final singularity (i.e., the Omega Point), the all-presents singularity (which exists at the boundary of the multiverse), and the initial singularity (i.e., the beginning of the Big Bang). These three distinct aspects which perform different physical functions in bringing about and sustaining existence are actually one singularity which connects the entirety of the multiverse.
                      Christian theology is therefore preferentially selected by the known laws of physics due to the fundamentally triune structure of the cosmological singularity (which, again, has all the haecceities claimed for God in the major religions), which is deselective of all other major religions.
                      For much more on the above, and for many more details on how the Omega Point cosmology uniquely and precisely matches the cosmology described in the New Testament, see my following article:
                      James Redford, "The Physics of God and the Quantum Gravity Theory of Everything", Social Science Research Network (SSRN), Sept. 10, 2012 (orig. pub. Dec. 19, 2011), 186 pp., doi:10.2139/ssrn.1974708.
                      Additionally, in the below resource are six sections which contain very informative videos of Prof. Tipler explaining the Omega Point cosmology and the Feynman-DeWitt-Weinberg quantum gravity/Standard Model TOE. The seventh section therein contains an audio interview of Tipler. I also provide some helpful notes and commentary for some of these videos.
                      James Redford, "Video of Profs. Frank Tipler and Lawrence Krauss's Debate at Caltech: Can Physics Prove God and Christianity?", alt.sci.astro, Message-ID: jghev8tcbv02b6vn3uiq8jmelp7jijluqk[at sign]4ax[period]com , July 30, 2013.
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                          Guest > James Redford • 7 hours ago
                          Hello Mr. Redford, thanks for your input. I'll just take one one your sentences: "If the miracles of Jesus Christ were were necessary in order for the universe to evolve into the Omega Point, and if the known laws of physics are correct, then the probability of those miracles occurring is certain." Are you referring to miracles such as walking on water, turning bread into wine, and reanimating after death? If so, how are those specific miracles "necessary in order for the universe to evolve into the Omega Point"?
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                            • CM Stewart > James Redford • 7 hours ago
                              Hello Mr. Redford, thanks for your input. I'll just take one one your
                              sentences: "If the miracles of Jesus Christ were necessary in order
                              for the universe to evolve into the Omega Point, and if the known laws
                              of physics are correct, then the probability of those miracles occurring
                              is certain." Are you referring to miracles such as walking on water,
                              turning bread into wine, and reanimating after death? If so, how are
                              those specific miracles "necessary in order for the universe to evolve
                              into the Omega Point"?
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                                • James Redford > CM Stewart • 5 hours ago
                                  Hi, CM Stewart. In answer to your first question, yes, those are the types of miracles that I am referring to (though I think you mean turning water into wine, not bread into wine). In answer to your second question, it would take a book-length work to adequately address this subject, which fortunately has already been written and is available for free. For that, see my following article:
                                  James Redford, "The Physics of God and the Quantum Gravity Theory of Everything", Social Science Research Network (SSRN), Sept. 10, 2012 (orig. pub. Dec. 19, 2011), 186 pp., doi:10.2139/ssrn.1974708.
                                  However, in outline the answer to your second question runs thus: It is ideas which are ultimately the most powerful shapers of sapient development. Yeshua Ha'Mashiach is the forerunner and paragon of our own theosis and defeat of death. Furthermore, as one sentence in my aforecited article puts it (see p. 103), "The First Coming was to imbue a necessary social ethic upon mankind in enough degree so that mankind could rise up and create societies leading to our present technological time, as well as to give mankind the promise of immortality and salvation." Again, for the fuller treatment of this issue, see my above article.
                                  Elaborating a little bit here on my previous paragraph, existence is a strange loop (i.e., a self-excited circuit), and so one can veridically think of this as a far more technologically-evolved form of ourself sending back information into the past of existence in order to ensure that the more primitive versions of ourself carry-out the actions necessary in order for us to exist in the first place (cf. p. 111 of my aforementioned article).
                                  Coming back to your first question, traditional Christian theology has maintained that God never violates natural law, as God, in His omniscience, knew in the beginning all that He wanted to achieve and so, in His omnipotence, He formed the laws of physics in order to achieve His goal. The idea that God would violate His own laws would mean that God is not omniscient. In traditional Christian theology, miracles do not violate natural law--rather, they are events which are so improbable that they can only be explained by the existence of God and His acting in the world. As Augustine of Hippo wrote concerning miracles [The City of God, Book 21, Ch. 8],
                                  ""
                                  For we say that all portents are contrary to nature; but they are not so. For how is that contrary to nature which happens by the will of God, since the will of so mighty a Creator is certainly the nature of each created thing? A portent, therefore, happens not contrary to nature, but contrary to what we know as nature.
                                  ""
                                  That is, traditional Christian theology has maintained that if we had the ultimate physical law, then we would be able to explain how God's existence and His miracles are possible [cf. Romans 1:19,20; Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica, 1st Part, Question 2, Arts. 2-3]. According to the known laws of physics, we now have that ultimate physical law, the Omega Point/Feynman-DeWitt-Weinberg quantum gravity/Standard Model Theory of Everything (TOE) correctly describing and unifying all the forces in physics, and so we are now able to explain God's existence and His miracles. Within the Omega Point cosmology, miracles are physically allowed via the Principle of Least Action, as the universe is logically forced by the known laws of physics (i.e., the Second Law of Thermodynamics, General Relativity, and Quantum Mechanics) to evolve into the Omega Point final singularity, and so any event which is required in order for this evolutionary process to occur is certain to occur. Thus, a miracle within the known laws of physics is an event which is so improbable that it can only be rationally explained due to the end-state that said physical laws require the universe evolve to.
                                  The English word miracle etymologically means "object of wonder" [John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner (Eds.), The Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 2nd ed., 1989)]. The Old Testament words translated as miracle are in the original Hebrew [James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1890)]: oth (‫אות‬), "sign", "token"; mopheth (‫מופת‬), "sign", "wonder"; and pala (‫פלא‬), "marvelous", "wondrous". The New Testament words translated as miracle are in the original Greek [op. cit.]: dunamis (δÔναμις), "power", "mighty work"; semeion (σημεØον), "sign"; and teras (τèρας), "wonder". So the meaning of these words in their Biblical context has nothing to do with violating natural law.
                                  For more edificatory content regarding this matter, in the below resource are six sections which contain very informative videos of Prof. Tipler explaining the Omega Point cosmology and the Feynman-DeWitt-Weinberg quantum gravity/Standard Model TOE. The seventh section therein contains an audio interview of Tipler. I also provide some helpful notes and commentary for some of these videos.
                                  James Redford, "Video of Profs. Frank Tipler and Lawrence Krauss's Debate at Caltech: Can Physics Prove God and Christianity?", alt.sci.astro, Message-ID: jghev8tcbv02b6vn3uiq8jmelp7jijluqk[at sign]4ax[period]com , July 30, 2013.
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                                    • CM Stewart > James Redford • an hour ago
                                      How do you know the original Bible referred to "water into wine" and not "bread into wine"? For that matter, how do you know the Bible is entirely factual? Just because the Bible or Quran or Talmud contains a scientifically sound statement doesn't mean the entire Bible or Quran or Talmud is factual.
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                                        • James Redford > CM Stewart • a few seconds ago
                                          Hi, CM Stewart. You said,
                                          ""
                                          How do you know the original Bible referred to "water into wine" and not "bread into wine"? For that matter, how do you know the Bible is entirely factual? Just because the Bible or Quran or Talmud contains a scientifically sound statement doesn't mean the entire Bible or Quran or Talmud is factual.
                                          ""
                                          The Bible is not "entirely factual". For the details on that, see my following article, particularly Sec. 7.4.2: "God's Relation to the Old Testament", pp. 46-47:
                                          James Redford, "The Physics of God and the Quantum Gravity Theory of Everything", Social Science Research Network (SSRN), Sept. 10, 2012 (orig. pub. Dec. 19, 2011), 186 pp., doi:10.2139/ssrn.1974708.
                                            see more
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