How God Makes God

A toolbox for understanding emotions and the creation of wealth

by Peter Small

A CD-ROM for the Mac

Note: The CD-ROM, "How God Makes God", referred to here is no longer available but an archiving site provides a functioning (if slow) copy at: https://archive.org/details/HowGodMakesGod )

On a cursory level, this CD-ROM isn't very impressive. It's in black and white, with no sound or glitzy presentation tricks. The balloon style dialogues and the fidgety pseudo animations drive some people mad and the navigation controls leave a lot to be desired. A few careless spelling mistakes and grammatical errors show how unprofessionally the whole thing has been put together (even though it took four years to complete). If you have strong religious convictions you may even be offended by the contents.

However, if you like exercising your mind, you might find it very entertaining; after all, it did win a major award, has received many rave reviews and in some areas even has a cult following.

The main attraction is the way in which it introduces and explains abstract concepts in an understandable way. If you liked the style of Lingo Sorcery you will certainly appreciate the way in which complex conceptual frameworks are are explained here.

The general idea is that each of 204 scenes presents the reader with a new concept. These 204 concepts progressively add together to build a complete conceptual framework to provide a new way of looking at life. It analyses life in terms of probability and game theory and describes the genetic and biological elements in terms of computer programming concepts.

Although covering fairly sophisticated ideas and theory the style is light hearted, even humorous at times, with no arcane language or mathematics. Difficult concepts are explained using drawings and games.

These are some of the main conceptual areas covered:

a) Understanding the patterns which emerge in probability theory by playing various games of chance.

b) Seeing money creation strategies in terms of trying to increase efficiency by competing for and arranging acts of cooperation.

c) Understanding John Maynard Kenynes' perceptive model of economic activity.

d) Putting a strategy for creating wealth into a games theory context.

e) Understanding the concept of risk taking and working out how to take calculated risks.

f) Learning the essential corner stones of finance and the theory of money.

g) Understanding the simple ideas behind discounted cash flow, compound interest and exponential growth.

h) Comparing optimum strategies for creating wealth with the rules of major religions.

i) Seeing how rules can evolve in the same way that biological features can evolve in an organic structure.

j) Seeing the cell as a biological computer.

k) Looking at biological structures as information carrying networks of communicating cells.

l) The mathematical concepts driving evolution.

m) Seeing instinctive behavior patterns as being driven by combinations of evolved emotions triggered by environmental stimuli.

n) Using genetic algorithms to demonstrate how patterns of emotion and behavior can evolve to form a control system.

o) Speculations on the evolution of intelligent machines

It is a lot to go through - it takes about 14 hours to read - but it is not as heavy as it looks. It builds up like a detective story, allowing you to compare your own developing thoughts with those of two guides who discuss with each other the implications of the succession of new ideas and concepts as they are presented.

The fun is in seeing if this exercise of the mind can make any significant difference to the way you look at life and also to your conception of computer programming.

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