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Limitations of Revelation
It is often difficult for readers of the science component of the book to comprehend the revelatory restrictions, simply because these restrictions are not spelled out until more than half-way through the book--and then in a paper called 'The Real Nature of Religion' which comes long after most of the cosmology has been presented. Consequently there is a great divergence of opinion among readers concerning the authoritative nature of material that can be catagorized as auto-revelation, divine revelation, or material definitely declared to be "not inspired."
On page 1109 they inform us that, "Mankind should understand that we who participate in the revelation of truth are very rigorously limited by the instructions of our superiors. We are not at liberty to anticipate the scientific discoveries of a thousand years....We full well know that, while the historic facts and religious truths of this series of revelatory presentations will stand on the records of the ages to come, within a few short years many of our statements regarding the physical sciences will stand in need of revision in consequence of additional scientific developments and new discoveries....Let it be made clear that revelations are not necessarily inspired. The cosmology of these revelations is not inspired. It is limited by our permission for the co-ordination and sorting of present-day knowledge."
In order to shed a little light on this topic, we have made the purpose, and the limitations, of revelation a main theme in this issue of Innerface. We realize that we have not covered every viewpoint, nevertheless we do hope that these contributions will be helpful.
Human Brain versus Computer
Don't worry, even a decade or two from now you'll still be able to pat the latest and biggest computers and whisper, "You poor dumb beast." The most powerful computer on the planet is your brain and that is not going to change. Even the computer memories of the early 21st century will have no more than 109 transistors (10 billion). Your brain contains around 1011 neurons. Each neuron contains approximately a thousand dendrites thus allowing some 1014 interconnections to other neurones and, at the speed with which biological membranes function, around 1016 interconnections per second. This is around a billion times greater than the most powerful network computers now built. The entire world telephone system--the most complex machine on the planet--carries only 1011 calls per year. Whatever anyone tells you, computers are not going to start matching human intelligence any time soon--neither will they match us in stupidity--a sobering thought.
New Scientist Supplement, October 1994.
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