Perhaps one of  the most beneficial discoveries civilisation
          could make is  to  realise  that  events  cannot  be  solely
          attributed to chance and coincidence, for we might live in a
          universe that is ordered - a 'cosmic computer'.

          This  cosmic  computer   would   interconnect  everyone  and
          everything to form  a  unity.  since  it  includes  infinite
          'subuniverses' such as  what  I call hyperspace (forming the
          so called metauniverse  and  possibly  partly accounting for
          dark matter), the  cosmic  computer's connections would make
          it  infinitely powerful  and  give  it  infinite  artificial
          intelligence.

          In my previous  letter  to Science Wish List, I stated 'Many
          scientists think the  universe  is the ultimate computer . .
          .' Today I'd  like  to  further  explore that idea - the 1st
          exploration was inspired by the article 'How Mac Changed the
          World' (TIME magazine  -  Jan.  31,  '94)  and the book 'The
          Death and Life  of  Superman'  by  Roger  Stern - the 2nd by
          'Your Remote Control  May Have "Hidden" Buttons' tan article
          my brother Darryl  had published in ELECTRONICS AUSTRALIA in
          April of 1993)  and the movie 'My Stepmother is an Alien' (a
          comedy

          about sending a  radio wave to a planet in another galaxy to
          save it from an increase in its gravity).

          MAC

          To paraphrase a sentence in the article 'How Mac Changed the
          World', it seems  possible  that  any  good  historian (of a
          century from now) will trace the universe's ancestry to this
          statement by Palo  Alto Research Center's (P.A.R.C. is about
          20 miles south  of  San Francisco, USA) Alan Kay - 'The next
          stage of the  machines  (computers) is for them to disappear
          (as objects).'

          If science is  correct  when it speculates that the universe
          may be the  ultimate  computer,  highly intelligent parts of
          the Cosmic Computer,  viz  peoples could learn to manipulate
          actual reality's material objects and immaterial information
          with the same  magic  we  use  to  manipulate  the  world in
          virtual reality.

          When we can  do  this,  computers will disappear (as objects
          within the universe).  Then we'll go beyond what's on-screen
          and step directly  into cyberspace. That's how we can change
          the world and use shape-shifting powers and, in the words of
          former Apple chairman  Steven  Jobs,  'put  a  dent  in  the
          universe' (why stop  at  making  dents - the power to wisely
          transform reality would  make  us  messengers  of God and we
          could go back in time to create the universe).

          (elec)TRON(ics)

          At first I  naturally  assumed a radio transmission like the
          one in 'My  Stepmother  is an Alien' is obviously impossible
          in reality -  but then I realised I might be wrong. And this
          is why:

          1) In computers, a pulse of electrical energy may correspond
          to what is called a BIT tBInary digiT).

          2) If, as some scientists speculate, the universe is a giant
          computer; an infinitesimal  pulse  of electromagnetic energy
          would make up  what  could be called a 'bit of space' (and a
          'bit of subspace', too).

          3)  When  a   remote  control  is  used  on  the  electronic
          components of a television, the remote's infrared beam could
          be said to  reprogram  the set's brightness, volume, channel
          selector, etc.

          4) so a  radio  wave  with the correct properties might when
          transmitted  to a  planet  in  this  'electronic'  universe,
          reprogram its surrounding bits of space and subspace.

          5) Since Einstein  concluded that gravity is a result of the
          curving  of space-time,  reprogramming  bits  of  space  and
          subspace should result in the altering of gravity.

          [end of 'MacTron Time']