Book review of Frank Tipler

Frank Tipler:
THE PHYSICS OF IMMORTALITY (Doubleday, 1994)

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The "omega point theory" of the universe is a rigorous physical proof of the existence of an omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent god and a proof of the likelihood that every human being will eventually be resurrected. The book also contains a physical model of life in heaven, hell and purgatory, all based on information theory, quantum mechanics and relativistic cosmology.
Tipler explores notions as varied as the Bekenstein bounds (the upper limits on the number of distinct quantum states and on the rate that changes of state can occur, i.e. the upper limit on information density), the Taub universe (a universe that contracts at different rates in different directions, in particular collapsing in one direction while retaining the same size in the others, thus leading to an oblate spheroid sphere shape), and the omega point (the final singularity of the history of a closed universe, the point of infinite information, which is neither space nor time nor matter, but is beyond all of these and experiences the whole of universal history all at once); all mixed with Nietzsche's philosophy and Aquinas' theology.
His basic point is that life is information-coding preserved by natural selection: a being is alive if it encodes information and such information is preserved over time by natural selection. Given this definition of life, it is possible to compute how much energy is sufficient and necessary to extend this process till the very end of time. In a Taub collapsing universe, such energy is available for free (as a consequence of temperature difference in different directions, which becomes infinite as the universe approaches its singularity) and life can use it to survive forever. The finite singularity of the universe and eternal life happen to coincide. It is the very collapse of the universe (because it happens at different rates in different directions) that permits life to continue forever. Gravitational shear (collapse at different rates in different directions) is implied by the chaotic nature of Einstein's gravitational equations.
Tipler points out that even cars and ideas are living beings, as they encode information and they can self-replicate, albeit with the help of another being (a factory or a mind). But another being is often required by biological systems (many plants needs a bee to replicate, males need females to replicate and so forth).
Tipler diproves Penrose's proof that machines cannot be intelligent. Tipler's definition of intelligence "is" the Turing test.
Tipler also disproves theorems of eternal return in physics: Einstein's universe (closed, finite and unlimited) implied eternal progress.

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