Satan's False Flag

[BillyDoc]

I've been working on a short story to illustrate a small thing that I see as a major problem with Christianity in particular, and Religions in general. I would like to make the story compelling in its own right, and I could REALLY use a little help there. So, I thought of you here in the lounge. Got time to read a silly little short story with a bit of a bite? You can find the whole thing as a pdf at: http://breakthelink.org/satan.pdf Please comment and tell me how I can make it better! Or, if you disagree with the main premise, tell me why!

Here is a taste:

Satan's False Flag
(c) 2005 William Bradford Cushman

”Satan! Welcome! Its such a pleasure to see you again.” God glowed with anticipation as he rearranged the fields so that this special visitor could be more comfortable. Satan entered and settled himself, then with his curiosity plainly showing in his aura, turned to his host and asked him what the occasion was. God also settled himself at restful ease before replying, taking the time to collect his thoughts. The two had been friends, and competitors in a sense, since they had developed together as youngsters, and each enjoyed the challenges the other presented very much. “I’ve started a new project that I think may interest you, and I’m quite excited about it. I invited you here to explain it to you, to see what you think of it, and to solicit your assistance in a small matter.”

Satan shifted in the comfortable fields and turned his full attention to his host. “Well, God, I have to admit that your projects are always of extreme interest . . . although judging from the little I have heard about it your last experiment didn’t turn out too well for the participants. Is this a refinement on the same theme?”

“Well, yes,” God admitted, “I’m still chasing after the fundamental mechanisms underlying the development of recursive intelligence. As you know it’s clearly beyond question that given an ordered and physically consistent start point with a rich enough mix of physical law it does inevitably develop . . . but how exactly? Anyway, I know that last experiment was a bit ugly, but it did yield some important insights. And now that I have those results and have been able to analyze them I have been forced to think that the starting conditions that I had set up were not complex enough to force the desired result. So, I really have little choice but to re-run it. I do wish to keep things as simple as possible to facilitate the analysis when all is done, and I certainly regret the effect the entities within the experiment experienced. As you say . . . it was somewhat ugly. But I think I understand the problems involved better now. It was a matter of experimental mass, and complexity. To make a short story of it, it looks like I must use three fundamental forces instead of two, and I must also increased the experimental mass sufficiently to enable simultaneous development in several sub-locals.”

“And your starting conditions are again pre-programmed and initially fixed?” asked Satan.

“Yes. As you know very well, at very fundamental levels the concept of randomness loses meaning. The trick here is to vary the magnitude and locus of the forces in such a way that their initial manifestation leads inevitably to the desired result without any further intervention from outside the system at play. In this case the result being sought after is, of course, primordial recursive intelligence. Complexity in such a system comes from the magnitude and initial spatial distribution of the forces employed, but not from the number of forces deployed. And, of course, as in any system everything interacts as a whole, and the rigorous physical structure and interactive rules are maintained and forced upon the system throughout — while giving the illusion of randomness to any intelligence that develops from within the system. That is, there will be the appearance of randomness and uncaused events from the perspective of evolving entities. This will result inevitably from that intelligence’s lack of the necessary complexity and recursive intellectual abilities to fully appreciate all the interactions at play. Remember that I am seeking an understanding of the absolute minimums of recursive intelligence here, so that we may use this information to further refine our own intellectual status. Being, as we are, recursive intelligences ourselves.”

“Ah, yes. I believe I understand the intent of the experiment,” Satan responded, “but you mentioned something to the effect that you needed my assistance?”

And at this point in the conversation God pondered again if he dare ask Satan for his help. They were, of course, dear friends . . . but Satan had an undefinable twist of mind that sometimes made him . . . rather difficult. It was somewhat late to change his mind now, however, so he plunged ahead. “Right again. The fundamental purpose of these experiments is to assist us in understanding our own creation. Our universe had to start somewhere, and be made from something. Was that somewhere and something yet another entity orders of magnitude more powerful and complex than we have become? This argument leads nowhere of course, as we can always posit an ever more complex and intelligent being at every existential level . . . with the result that no such levels have any meaning at all. And I especially dislike this particular argument since we have no evidence of any kind suggesting any other such levels of existence. And evidence must always be the foundation upon which thought is based, my dear Satan, even if the mental interaction based upon this same evidence does provide the more powerful tool. Without evidence, well, you only have wishful thinking, and nothing more. So we must seek that evidence! And in this case, if we are able to design and implement a primordial analog to our own situation from known principles . . . known because we design them in the first place . . . and see how such a system plays out as it interacts within its various elements, well, some clues are bound to surface that shed light upon our own situation.”

“Of course! It is obvious and I heartily agree with the theory behind what you are attempting and am absolutely tingling with anticipation of the possible results of such experimentation . . . but I think that I see a small problem in your fundamental approach.”

“Yes, yes, I knew you would.” God paused to marshal his thoughts. “By setting the initial conditions myself I will no doubt inadvertently bias the experiment toward the desired end point . . . thus invalidating the experiment. I want the experiment to succeed. I am too involved in the result so I am likely to set the initial conditions so that some form of pure recursive intelligence is inevitable, while remaining entirely blinded to contravening variables which could present themselves. It being, of course, knowledge of the contravening variables that is the only real purpose of the experiment. Moreover, if I attempt to ‘sabotage’ the initial conditions even slightly my overall knowledge of the whole system will inevitably lead me to sabotage it completely or there wouldn’t be any point to it, and any such difficulty that I do interject would be something I already was aware of anyway. Nothing would be learned from that. Which is all to say, that I need an independent investigator to attempt the sabotage. Someone who is not focused upon the same variables that I am.”

Satan had to laugh at God’s description of his problem, but in kindness he said: “Well, that isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but it’s close enough. For an entity of your intellectual capacity there can be no so-called randomness, that’s true. ‘Ignorance of causality’ is a better term than ‘randomness’ in any case, and I would hardly call you ignorant. You will have designed the system to produce recursive intelligence, and having designed it to do so . . . it will. Thus proving nothing at all, and not adding to our communal knowledge. I agree it would be a waste of time. On the other hand, as you point out, the fundamental reason to be interested in recursive intelligence in the first place is to enhance our own recursive intelligence recursively. We both agree that this is a good thing, in the sense that it enhances our interests. So, how can we solve this problem?” Satan paused, and his aura danced about as he thought. “I believe I have it.” He soon announced, and God winced inwardly at the rapidity of this response, for he knew Satan very well. “The point of recursive intelligence is to enhance the interests of the entity using it, so it follows that factors that inhibit such intelligence are also of interest for the same reason, so they can be carefully avoided! Your bias is toward the enhancement of recursive intelligence, so if you set the initial conditions for such development I feel assured that such development would occur. But tell me, are these initial conditions of yours complex or simple?”

“They are simple in principle, but extremely complex in practice because of their magnitude, plurality of instance, and extensive interaction after initialization. The initial setup procedure is, therefore, quite delicate.”

“Alright, very good, that serves my purpose well. This is what I propose.” Satan paused, and God could not help but note a certain disturbing gleefulness surge in Satan’s aura. Satan’s glee had become a somewhat worrisome sight to God, as He had learned of Satan’s propensity for trickery and jokes on many previous occasions --- and Satan was clearly excited about some prospect for his “fun” now. “You will set these three forces and initial conditions in any way you see fit to achieve the recursive intelligence you are looking for. Do the absolute best job you can! We both know that these conditions will be biased in favor of the result you seek, so there is no doubt in my mind that they will produce the desired outcome if they are left as you initially set them. I, on the other hand, have no such bias toward that particular end result. To me this is a simple intellectual exercise and nothing more, a simple game to be played. And I am sure it comes as no great surprise to you that, taken as an intellectual exercise it could give me extreme pleasure to best the famous God at his own game.” God knew that this was true, and braced himself for Satan’s proposal. “So, after you have set the initial conditions and forces as optimally as you can, let me study them. I will seek a weakness and subtly modify the initial conditions to exploit any opening I might find. If you can detect my modification, you will win the first round of our little contest by default and I must try again. That would clearly mean that my little manipulation lacked subtlety. Should it turn out, however, that you cannot find my modification, then it is clearly subtle enough to be of interest and the experiment must be run. We will then see if I am successful in preventing recursive intelligence from developing. Or, rather, preventing recursive intelligence from generally occurring. I think that a few cases of positive development would be necessary to prove that the conditions you set were sufficient for such development. Would this be of interest to you?”

“Oh yes my dear Satan. And since you have come to the same conclusion that I have in regard to this matter it will not surprise you in the least to find that the initial condition and force descriptors for the experiment are all here ready for your perusal. You may edit them as you will on that machine over there. I shall absent myself while you work” God started to leave, then turned back. “Of course since we are playing a game we should set some stakes on the outcome to make it more interesting, as I know you do love this sort of thing. Do you have any ideas about what would be appropriate?”

God did not have to wait long, as Satan’s response was exactly as he had anticipated, albeit with trepidation. “Actually I do indeed have some ideas along those lines.” He replied.

Satan glowed gleefully. “I know that you would normally terminate an experiment upon completion in order to recover the materials expended, even though these are usually trivial. In this case, however, let’s add a codicil to our contest contract to see if we can increase the amusement factor somewhat. I propose the following: If I should win I shall require a further service from you. Namely, to those entities within the experiment that do achieve true recursive intelligence, if that should indeed happen, you must provide a joyful and fulfilling environment in which to practice this boon in perpetuity. I believe we should refer to that place as ‘Heaven.’ To those that prove susceptible to my influence, provide the opposite in perpetuity and let’s call that place ‘Hell.’ You can leave the whole thing running in a box somewhere out of sight without too much difficulty. If, on the other hand, none of the entities that evolve achieve recursive intelligence at all, then I will have been a little too heavy-handed and we must obviously terminate the whole thing and start over again . . . with you declared openly as the winner! Agreed?”
“Agreed!”

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When all preparations had been completed, the two friends again met in God’s laboratory. “Well, I must say, my dear Satan, that whatever you have done to the initial conditions was subtle indeed, because I can’t find it! Which is, of course, perfect for our purposes. I knew I could depend on you. All is in readiness as far as I can see, so shall we begin?”

“By all means please do so. But in fairness I feel that I must warn you that if things go as I have planned . . . you may be in for a very rude shock.”

“Oh, tut. What kind of shock can come from a mere experiment in recursive intelligence? Especially one specifically directed at primordial recursive intelligence. If you refer to the possibility that I may be forced to leave the thing running in some corner for perpetuity . . . well, I admit to no annoyance at all from that possibility. It will make a fine curiosity to amuse my guests with.”

“Alright then. Start the thing and let’s see what happens!”

So God started his experiment

(the rest is at: http://breakthelink.org/satan.pdf)