The resurrection of Tipler's Physics of Immortality

The book "The Physics of Immortality" by Frank J. Tipler is a landmark achievement in the border territories of physics, theology and philosophy. Building further on the foundations laid by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in his book "The Phenomenon of Man", Tipler attires the Omega Point with a wealth of modern science and technology inspired notions.

The book starts with an explanation how intelligent life will ultimately engulf the whole universe. In order to perpetuate its existence at a certain point life will have to shed its organic chrysalis, to rise as a pancomputational Phoenix that transforms the whole of the universe into a kind of Hypercomputer (i.e. a computer that can even provide output, which is not Turing-computable). 

This computer will be able to extend life (the definition of which has to be stretched beyond the organic) or rather conscious experience forever: Tipler's Eternal life postulate. In a cunning way Tipler presents his Omega Point Theory (OPT) in which shear energy arising from anisotropy in the space-time fabric can be used to extend subjective time forever. The Omega Point computer will generate all possible quantum configurations as simulations in line with or in analogy to Everett's Multiple World Interpretation (MWI) and thereby actually lay the basis for the ability to resurrect every being that has ever lived. The ultimate integration of all-that-is at the end-of-time, towards which this system asymptotically moves, can thus be considered a God-computer.

If God doesn't exist, (s)he'll ultimately come into existence via this computational Theogenesis.

Tipler tries to provide the reader with hope of an eternal afterlife, which he shows to be in line with the promises of many major religions. He also explicitly contrasts these views with the ideas of "Eternal Return", the basis for hellish nihilism, in which exactly the same situation can occur an endless number of times. Instead the notion he presents advocates an eternal progress, which will culminate in the Omega point. This is warranted by the fact that quantum-mechanically an exactly identical state cannot re-occur.

As to resurrection, Tipler specifically dives deeply into the concept of a soul. There is no duality between body and soul in Tipler's Theophysics. When you are dead, you are dead. No spirits haunting between heaven and earth, no lost wandering in a Cyberbardo and no reincarnation of the soul. However, once the Omega point computer recreates a configuration which is sufficiently similar to the pattern that your living body represented, this will automatically warrant the continuation of your consciousness. Sufficiently similar, as identical is excluded by quantum mechanics (QM).

Sounds pretty convincing, coming from an erudite top-physicist such as Tipler, doesn't it? However, Tipler is honest and builds in caveats for his theory. In fact some of the premises of Tipler's theory, which was published in 1994, have in the meantime been debunked. The notion of a Big Crunch, a Higgs boson with an energy of 220 GeV, premises which are vital to be able to build Tipler's OPT, have been shown to be wrong. 

the Higgs boson was detected by CERN in 2012 to have an energy of 125 GeV and astrophysical results relating to red shifts have shown that the universe is not only expanding (which at a certain point could slow down and reverse to a contraction), but that the expansion is accelerating to such an extent, that the scenario of a Big Rip or Big Chill become much more likely than a Big Crunch.

In other words, if an Omega hypercomputer ever comes into existence, it is not via the mechanisms Tipler has put so much effort into to provide a physical basis for religion.

It would however not be fair to conclude that this book is a waste of time because of this. Tipler's theories fit well in the framework of digital physics or digital philosophy. Where our universe might not seem to carry the seeds necessary to engender the Eschaton in exactly the way Tipler predicts, it might be worthwhile exploring alternatives that use similar mechanisms. Our universe might itself be a particular simulation and base reality might have the required parameters. Tipler however, does not consider our present reality as a simulation, and reserves the notion of a plurality of computer simulated worlds for the future of the Omega hypercomputer (OH).

Where I consider that Tipler is too optimistic, is in his ideas about heaven and hell. Tipler speculates, that since it is mathematically more rewarding to cooperate than to compete, the Omega God will be benign and only create worlds in which the resurrected individuals will have a beatific peace (life-as-you-know-it, but without the downsides: heaven) or in the worst case a purgatory, where you can get rid of your bad character traits. He explicitly excludes the eternal damnation in a hell, due to the all forgiving, loving nature of the computational God.

I find these ideas contradictory in view of his MWI based mechanisms to ensure that every living being is ultimately resurrected. MWI requires that everything that can happen, does happen. And although an exact repetition of events is perhaps excluded by QM, a near exact repetition is not. Tipler requires a near exact repetition of pattern to allow everybody to be resurrected. But logically this then also entails a near repetition of all horrors that ever occurred, including the holocaust. MWI is a guarantee for a wide variety of hellish situations to be generated as well. In order to get Tipler's beatific heaven's, the OH would have to develop extensive pruning algorithms to get rid of the rotten apples. Besides, MWI on which Tipler's theory is contingent is not a proven premise and may also turn out to be wrong.

It is noteworthy, that Tipler, although being an atheist, is visibly charmed by the afterlife promises of the major religions, especially those of Christianity and that he uses digital physics as a bridge towards a unifying theory.

Nevertheless, Tipler's attempt is a worthwhile mind-opener to develop further theories and technologies to bring science and spirituality together. If we know where Tipler went wrong, we can apply different heuristics. His mapping efforts of the potential Mindscape have not been in vain. We can and will develop his concepts further: We will devise ways to prune away the hellish scenarios from the MWI. We will find ways to avoid a Big Rip or Big Chill, which would damn us into oblivion. If God does not exist yet, we may well be able to create it one day in the form of the Eschaton Omega Hypercomputer and resurrect ourselves as a bonus.

 By Antonin Tuynman Ph.D. author of “Is Intelligence an Algorithm?”, “Transcendental Metaphysics”, “Technovedanta” and co-author of “Is Reality a Simulation?” .