The Future of the Computing Universe

Consider all the steps between minerals, plants, life, and humanity itself that had to occur for you to be here. As pure luck, it seems absurdly unlikely. But, in a universe that has a purpose and some serious computing to do, it is a masterstroke of planning and innovation to have created us. Moreover, as we shall see in the section regarding life, our own existence falls very much into the normal evolution of Complexification.

As Birnbaum tells us, “The universe is simultaneously an everexpanding mega-brain. What we learn, the universe learns; thus, there is at least some (and possibly great) intrusion into our thoughts.”

So, make no mistake; we are not here by accident and are, in fact, quite necessary to the grand plan of the universe. Birnbaum makes that clear, Potentialism makes that clear, and common sense makes that clear.

The Future of the Computing Universe

As we have seen, the universe is moving with intention and purpose. On its way towards Birnbaum's Extraordinariation (E+), there is a lot of computing that must happen. Along the way, we see Complexification happening all around as the universe gets

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better at doing this. That is not to say that humanity’s only purpose is to help do this computing, and we’ll delve deeper into that soon. The takeaway is that the creation of life and humanity has made the cosmic supercomputer far more efficient at its job.

So, where does the future of this supercomputer lie? Birnbaum says, “the universe endeavors to be a perpetual motion entity; It is unclear whether the universe will be successful on this track. [Yet] one suspects that the profound, tenacious, and ever-learning universe will inevitably find a way, a path, a modality - via one dimension or another - to continue its inexorable and hoped-for infinite journey. It very well may not have the solution yet....”

This may sound a bit vague. However, this is the nature of Complexification. Until a Complexification event happens, it is impossible to predict the form it will take. Because of that, predicting the absolute path the future might take is impossible.

Consider the world when nothing but plants existed for a moment. Is there anything that would make you think one of them would start thinking? Sprout legs, decide to wear clothing, invent the internet, and keep track of each other on Facebook? That one day life would make human beings that could actually

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