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Machine code is an abstraction, too. In a Judeo-Christian context, God seems to operate in very abstract terms. "Let there be light" is a highly abstract instruction. In some other religions and mythologies, there isn't a single God giving the instructions from outside, so it seems difficult to make the comparison there. Abstraction is like a lever, and by first-order logic there is no way to avoid using an abstraction whenever we communicate, whether internally via vocalized thoughts, via hn or by some really old books. Maybe that's why humans want to believe that abstraction is so powerful. Thankfully, we're not totally wrong. But thank you for making me imagine a world where the "Let there be light" statement has been meticulously explained in as much detail as possible. "Then, He realized that adding an extra electron to Hydrogen was not such a good idea; the entire universe shattered, and, after a brief moment of embarrassment, he comforted himself with the fact that no-one will ever know of his folly. He continued calculating the correct speed-constants for a particle he made called a photon, which wasn't exactly a particle, but it was small and didn't carry a lot of weight, it was everywhere, and it was mostly directional -- so he figured it might be useful for some sort of massively parallel input apparatus, and his creations can use it to understand all sorts of things about their environment and themselves. Eventually, humans will suspect that light is a wave, too; but that wasn't quite right, either. God made is difficult to figure out for copyright protection reasons, but here's a hint, and get your notebooks out: ..." |
The more I think about this, the more I realise it might be the most abstract instruction. It's actually kind of beautiful.