If the heavens, despoiled of his august stamp could ever cease to manifest him, if God didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent him. Let the wise proclaim him, and kings fear him.
Voltaire
(Will Sawin pointed out that this also works if you replace “God” with “computers”; I agree, since in the limit they mean the same thing.)
Insofar as the heavens manifest computers. Though I suppose we can treat that part as pure poetic frippery. Of course, if we do that, the quote also applies to high-speed cargo rail.
I’m not sure what Aquinas would make of the idea that one perfection of God is “high-speed cargo rail-ness”. Computers are a lot more like gods than trains are; hence Leibniz’s monadology, which is about both God and computer programs. A similarly compelling metaphysics involving trains instead would be kinda hard to pull off, I imagine.
I’m not claiming that trains are particularly like gods, I’m claiming that “If high speed cargo rail didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent it” is also true.
Voltaire
(Will Sawin pointed out that this also works if you replace “God” with “computers”; I agree, since in the limit they mean the same thing.)
Insofar as the heavens manifest computers. Though I suppose we can treat that part as pure poetic frippery. Of course, if we do that, the quote also applies to high-speed cargo rail.
I’m not sure what Aquinas would make of the idea that one perfection of God is “high-speed cargo rail-ness”. Computers are a lot more like gods than trains are; hence Leibniz’s monadology, which is about both God and computer programs. A similarly compelling metaphysics involving trains instead would be kinda hard to pull off, I imagine.
I’m not claiming that trains are particularly like gods, I’m claiming that “If high speed cargo rail didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent it” is also true.
Ah, that makes even more sense.