Why simulate human thought?
editHumans are always making errors but logic, on the other hand, is a tool that can be used to eliminate human errors. Logic can help humans reach error free conclusions. The first conclusion I was inspired to reach was whether God existed or not. This interest began as a child when introduced to Jesus Christ in Seventh Day Adventist Vacation Bible School. Although I still have the plaster casts of a lion's head (but have since lost the other bible story castings) I vividly remember the two ladies who introduced me to Christ and the idea that Christ is the Son of God or as others proclaim is God. From this beginning many years ago I have questioned everything as to the existence of God although I have always believed in God but perhaps with a different comprehension than your own.
Less than ten years after being introduced to Christ I was introduced to the idea that computers were superior to man. I recall asking then what conclusion had computers reached about the existence of God. The answer I was told (and by a Presbyterian minister no less [BTW I was at that point attending Presbyterian church]) was that computers said they did not have enough information. (Hence the most likely reason for my current interest and participation in the Wikipedia.)
Within the next ten years what I actually came to realize is that in order for a computer to reach a conclusion as to the existence of God that a computer would have to be able to think like a human being so I began to search for a way to get a computer to do just that. I wanted to use Boolean algebra but the Soviets at the time were already well into the use of logic as the basis of their system. Then by chance I discovered a book on digital electronics entitled “Digital/Logic Electronics Handbook” by William L Hunter (Tab Books, Blue Ridge summit, PA) that described a method of reducing logical equations to minimum form. The method is called the Harvard Chart Method of logical equation reduction (pg 112-113). It was said that the method was suitable for reducing to minimum form equations with a number of variables greater than five and it appeared that the method could be computerized and could reduce to minimum form equations having an unlimited number of variables limited only by the capacity of the hardware on which it was run. But binary logic was not getting the Soviets anywhere and was actually making them sound like idiots so I concentrated on a way to convert the method to handle multiple states.
In less than a few weeks I was able to make the modification and began testing the capability of the program. One test involved assigning meaning to the multiple state symbolic variables. The meaning I decided to assign was "happiness" for the dependent variable and "love" and "money" as the meaning of two independent variables and then "none," "lots," and "some" as the states of each. Mind you this was a very rudimentary and limited test but was required due to the limited amount of memory (4K) and speed (4mhz) of the computer I had available at the time. (TRS-80 Model I).
I then asked several people to define happiness in terms of no, lots or some love and money, converted their definitions to multiple state logical equations and then applied the multiple state logical equation reduction program. Sure enough as the program spit out the results each person remarked that it was just like they had turned to a friend and said "I believe in such and such.." and their friend had replied "...oh you mean this and that." It was fascinating. The first artificial intelligence program based on multiple state logical equation reduction.
I published the computer program in 1981 and went on to other things.
But what about using the program to determine whether God existed or not? Hummm I had almost forgotten my original application. So beginning in about 1990 I began looking for hardware capable of scaling up the program. I went to Harvard and to MIT and to the University of Syracuse and to Florida State University before I was ever asked how much computer time and memory I would need. Since I had never really asked that question myself I sat down and determined that memory size for the multiple state Harvard Chart matrix would be equal to the number of bytes per logical state times the number of states per independent variable raised to the power of the number of independent variables raised to the power of two which as it turns out would limit me to only 32 variables and 32 states on the largest machine then available to me.
It appeared that I had reached another plateau and the idea sat on the shelf again until 1996. One day in 1996 I decided to look at the program again and all of the sudden it hit me. I already had the answer! There would never be a computer or person capable of reducing an infinite number of logical equations having an infinite number of variables and an infinite number of states to minimum form instantaneously and as a matter of fact only God fit that definition. Only God is capable of reducing an infinite number of logical equations having an infinite number of variables and an infinite number of states to minimum form instantaneously by definition. The idea that there might be such a situation is sort of like the "something" that can replace a vacuum in the idea that nature abhors a vacuum. Some entity must be able to do it and the logical entity is God. There is therefore no logical barrier to having faith in God as the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. I have accepted as a personal religious belief, despite arguments to the contrary, that Jesus Christ is God.
Excel to Wiki test
edit| Field# | Field Name | Data Type | Field Description |
| 1 | COUNTRY CODE | nchar(3) | Three-digit national prefix for dialing TO listed country FROM another country. |
| 2 | IDD PREFIX | nchar(4) | Three-digit international prefix for dialing FROM listed country TO another country. |
| 3 | NDD PREFIX | nchar(3) | Three-digit intranational prefix for dialing WITHIN the same country. |
| 4 | NPA | nchar(3) | Three-digit North American Numbering Plan Area Code. |
| 5 | NXX | nchar(3) | Three digit local telephone number exchange. |
| 6 | COUNTRY | char(2) | Two character ISO 3166-1 country code. |
| 7 | STATE | char(2) | Two letter USPS state abbreviation. |
| 8 | CITY | vchar(35) | Name of city. |
| 9 | ZIPCODE_POSTALCODE | nchar(7) | ZIP code or postal code. |
| 10 | COUNTY | vchar(25) | Name of county. |
| 11 | LATITUDE | nchar(4-10) | Signed decimal representation of latitude. |
| 12 | LONGITUDE | nchar(4-10) | Signed decimal representation of longitude. |
| 13 | TIME ZONE | nchar(3) | Signed integer representation of offset from UTC. |
Templates:
CSV
COUNTRY CODE, IDD PREFIX, NDD PREFIX, NPA, NXX, COUNTRY, STATE, CITY, ZIPCODE_POSTALCODE, COUNTY, LATITUDE, LONGITUDE, TIME ZONE
wikitable
| COUNTRY CODE | IDD PREFIX | NDD PREFIX | NPA | NXX | COUNTRY | STATE | CITY | ZIPCODE_POSTALCODE | COUNTY | LATITUDE | LONGITUDE | TIME ZONE |
Detailed examples. (Data provided by the global community.)
CSV
+1,011,1,813,231,US,FL,TAMPA,33610-1029,HILLSBOROUGH,28.015502,-82.437883,-5
+1,011,1,336,443,US,NC,GREENSBORO,27401-2012,GUILFORD,36.081033,-79.786939,-5
+1,011,1,716,884,US,NY,BUFFALO,14213-2227,ERIE,42.912778,-78.888068,-5
wikitable
| +1 | 11 | 1 | 813 | 231 | US | FL | TAMPA | 33610-1029 | HILLSBOROUGH | 28.015502 | -82.437883 | -5 |
| +1 | 11 | 1 | 336 | 443 | US | NC | GREENSBORO | 27401-2012 | GUILFORD | 36.081033 | -79.786939 | -5 |
| +1 | 11 | 1 | 716 | 884 | US | NY | BUFFALO | 14213-2227 | ERIE | 42.912778 | -78.888068 | -5 |