In his famous commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005, with over 40 million views on YouTube, the most watched commencement speech of all time, Steve Jobs’ touched on three heartfelt, compelling personal stories: How he dropped out of college, but not from learning, about what he learned rom Steve Jobs was right when he said: “remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose,” particularly when he said: "Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life:
Seve Jobs knew what he was talking about: “This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades,” he said referring to a successful surgery after his first fight with cancer. In May, 2021, Jobs' wife Laurene Powell Jobs, delivered a commencement speech at the University of Pennsylvania. recalling the memory of her late husband and his 2005 speech: “Steve used to say: ‘Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet – keep looking.’ “Let his words guide you as they’ve guided me. The only way to do great work, is to love what you do. And while you’re doing it … love who you do it for – and love who you are while you do it.”
But Jobs was wrong when he said death is “very likely the single best invention of life.” At best, the statement is anthropomorphic. Unlike saying the Algorithm of Life is the Theory of Everything - a term for the ultimate theory of the universe. A set of equations capable of describing all phenomena that have been observed, or that will ever be observed. Livescience.com for example, lists the
20 Inventions that Changed the world, including the wheel, nails, nuclear energy and vaccines. Death is not one of them.
A theory of everything, final theory, ultimate theory, unified field theory or master theory is a hypothetical, singular, all-encompassing, coherent theoretical framework of physics that fully explains and links together all aspects of the universe.[Finding a theory of everything is one of the major unsolved problems in physics, while String theory and M-theory have been proposed as theories of everything.
Stephen Hawking was originally a believer in the
Theory of Everything, but after considering Gödel's Theorem, he concluded that one was not obtainable. "Some people will be very disappointed if there is not an ultimate theory that can be formulated as a finite number of principles. I used to belong to that camp, but I have changed my mind.
Hawking was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who, was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge and the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, widely viewed as one of the most prestigious academic posts in the world
In 1931, the Austrian logician
Kurt Gödel published his incompleteness theorem, a result widely considered one of the greatest intellectual achievements of modern times. Gödel's Theorem states that in any reasonable mathematical system there will always be true statements that cannot be proved.
While Hawking spoke of his lack of belief in God during his life, according to his wife Adele, Gödel, did not go to church, butvwas religious and read the Bible in bed every Sunday morning. He said, "I like Islam: it is a consistent idea of religion and open-minded." Whereas
Peter John Kreeft a professor of philosophy at Boston College and The King's College is a convert to Roman Catholicism, and the author of over eighty books on Christian philosophy, theology and apologetics.
Death is a terminal illness, as Kreeft posits and something we see as a natural irreversible event it can be viewed as a fork on the road. A major milestone on the way to the end times, then on to eternity. As Jobs might say, keep in mind that the fork on the road keep us focused on what is important to each one of us while we are alive. However, death is not part of the Algorithm of Life, but an aberration, man's last enemy to be conquered. "As a consequence of original sin, man must suffer "bodily death, from which man would have been immune had he not sinned"" (GS § 18).
CCC 1018"It is in regard to death that man's condition is most shrouded in doubt." In a sense bodily death is natural, but for faith it is in fact "the wages of sin." For those who die in Christ's grace it is a participation in the death of the Lord, so that they can also share his Resurrection.-
CCC 1006To rise with Christ, we must die with Christ: we must "be away from the body and at home with the Lord." In that "departure" which is death the soul is separated from the body. It will be reunited with the body on the day of resurrection of the dead.
CCC 1005Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ. The New Testament speaks of judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his second coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith. The parable of the poor man Lazarus and the words of Christ on the cross to the good thief, as well as other New Testament texts speak of a final destiny of the soul -- a destiny which can be different for some and for others.
CCC 1021Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they "see him as he is," face to face:
CCC 1023The Christian vision of death receives privileged expression in the liturgy of the Church: Lord, for your faithful people life is changed, not ended. When the body of our earthly dwelling lies in death we gain an everlasting dwelling place is. heaven.
CCC 1013By death the soul is separated from the body, but in the resurrection God will give incorruptible life to our body, transformed by reunion with our soul. Just as Christ is risen and lives for ever, so all of us will rise at the last day.
CCC 1016The Church's Magisterium, as authentic interpreter of the affirmations of Scripture and Tradition, teaches that death entered the world on account of man's sin. Even though man's nature is mortal God had destined him not to die. Death was therefore contrary to the plans of God the Creator and entered the world as a consequence of sin. "Bodily death, from which man would have been immune had he not sinned" is thus "the last enemy" of man left to be conquered.
CCC 1013Not unlike Steve Jobs, The Church encourages us to prepare ourselves for the hour of our death. In the ancient litany of the saints, for instance, she has us pray: "From a sudden and unforeseen death, deliver us, O Lord"; to ask the Mother of God to intercede for us "at the hour of our death" in the Hail Mary; and to entrust ourselves to St. Joseph, the patron of a happy death.
Every action of yours, every thought, should be those of one who expects to die before the day is out. Death would have no great terrors for you if you had a quiet conscience. . . . Then why not keep clear of sin instead of running away from death? If you aren't fit to face death today, it's very unlikely you will be tomorrow. . . .
Praised are you, my Lord, for our sister bodily Death,
from whom no living man can escape.
Woe on those who will die in mortal sin!
Blessed are they who will be found
in your most holy will,
for the second death will not harm them.
CCC 1014While death is the end of man's earthly pilgrimage, the Christian view of death is positive, just "as the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?""
Psalm 42 1. Death is transformed by Christ. Jesus, the Son of God, also himself suffered the death that is part of the human condition. Yet, despite his anguish as he faced death, he accepted it in an act of complete and free submission to his Father's will. The obedience of Jesus has transformed the curse of death into a blessing. CCC 1009
Because of Christ, Christian death has a positive meaning: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." "The saying is sure: if we have died with him, we will also live with him. What is essentially new about Christian death is this: through Baptism, the Christian has already "died with Christ" sacramentally, in order to live a new life; and if we die in Christ's grace, physical death completes this "dying with Christ" and so completes our incorporation into him in his redeeming act:
It is better for me to die in (eis) Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth. Him it is I seek - who died for us. Him it is I desire - who rose for us. I am on the point of giving birth. . . . Let me receive pure light; when I shall have arrived there, then shall I be a man.
CCC 1010You see, for Christians, Death is transformed by Christ. Jesus, the Son of God, also himself suffered the death that is part of the human condition. Yet, despite his anguish as he faced death, he accepted it in an act of complete and free submission to his Father's will. The obedience of Jesus has transformed the curse of death into a blessing.
CCC 1009In death, God calls man to himself. Therefore the Christian can experience a desire for death like St. Paul's: "My desire is to depart and be with Christ." He can transform his own death into an act of obedience and love towards the Father, after the example of Christ:
My earthly desire has been crucified; . . . there is living water in me, water that murmurs and says within me: Come to the Father.
I want to see God and, in order to see him, I must die.
I am not dying; I am entering life.
CCC 1011
Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven-through a purification or immediately, -- or immediate and everlasting damnation.
At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.
CCC 1022Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they "see him as he
is," face to face:
By virtue of our apostolic authority, we define the following: According to the general disposition of God, the souls of all the saints . . . and other faithful who died after receiving Christ's holy Baptism (provided they were not in need of purification
The search for the Theory of Everything is analogous to the Athenian's search for the unknown god. Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: “You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, 'To an Unknown God. '* What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you."
Acts 17:23
Fides et ratio. Latin for 'Faith and Reason
is an encyclical promulgated by Pope John Paul II on 14 September 1998, primarily addressing the relationship between faith and reason. '
The encyclical posits that faith and reason are not only compatible, but essential together. He starts with "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth;" Faith without reason, he argues, leads to superstition. Reason without faith, he argues, leads to nihilism and relativism.
St. John Paul II extolled faith and reason in general as both necessary and harmonious. He also applied this vision to the scientific investigation of the universe. declaring, “Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can bring the other into a wider world, a world where both may flourish.” Many struggle with believing in God because of what they think science says, and many others struggle with accepting the discoveries of modern science because they fear that it leads away from God. Perhaps looking at them together, as St. John Paul II recommended, can help us embrace both.
Human intelligence is surely already capable of finding a response to the question of origins.
CCC 286
Wit the
Knowledge Doubling Curve and Artificial intelligence: The
Knowledge Doubling Curve (KDC) was first described by Buckminster Fuller in 1982 notes that, until 1900, human knowledge doubled approximately every century. By the middle of the twentieth century, knowledge was doubling every 25 years. As of 2013, human knowledge was doubling every 13 months on average – faster in some industries like nanotechnology research. Now, human knowledge is almost doubling every day. Pfizer's Dr Becci Corkill refers to the KDC as the reason consumers should not be afraid of the COVID Vaccine.It can be argued that Artificial Intelligence is a byproduct of the KDC. The traditional goals of AI research include reasoning, knowledge representation, planning, learning, natural language processing, perception, and the ability to move and manipulate objects
The field was founded on the assumption that human intelligence can be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it. This raised philosophical arguments about the mind and the ethical consequences of creating artificial beings endowed with human-like intelligence. Earlier this year Elon Musk and more than 1,000 tech leaders, researchers and others signed an open letter urging a moratorium on the development of the most powerful artificial intelligence systems, citing profound risks to society. The existence of God the Creator can be known with certainty through his works, by the light of human reason, even if this knowledge is often obscured and disfigured by error. This is why faith comes to confirm and enlighten reason in the correct understanding of this truth: "By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear.
CCC 286Since human intelligence is surely already capable of finding a response to the question of origins, is it not reasonable then to conclude that Gödel's Theorem, just like Stephen Hawking's belief that it's not possible to find a Theory of Everything due to limitations in human understanding that all laws are subject to the Creator, including the Algorithm of Life?
