David Hilbert

David Hilbert was one of the world's greatest mathematicians. He invented the space of wave functions used in quantum mechanics. His work also inspired Kurt Godel to prove that any mathematical theory at least as complex as arithmetic must be incomplete if it is consistent. That is, there are true statements in the theory which cannot be proved from within the system. This led to Turing's theorem that we cannot know if certain computer programs will stop. Roger Penrose, in his book, Shadows of the Mind, develops this into the idea that human consciousness cannot be exactly duplicated by a computer program as some researcher's in artificial intelligence assume. If Penrose is right, then Frank Tipler's idea in his book, The Physics of Immortality, that virtual humans can be resurrected in the far future as computer programs, may be wrong.

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