My work on this project was made possible by the support of George Church, Gilles Brassard, Claude Crépeau, Rachelle Gaudet, Shamil Sunyaev, Jack Szostak, Jim Hogle, Peter Shor and Gerry Sussman. Their feedback, and their students' feedback, helped improve the ideas here. Their skepticism, moderated with cautious encouragement, has kept me productive.
Hilary Putnam suggested I look at Rush Rhees' remarkable book, "Without answers". Bonnie Dlott brought the writing of Ken Wilber to my attention. Asher Lipner suggested I read Scholem's the "Idea of the Golem". A.K. Dewdney's "Computer Recreations" columns, in particular his articles on "Corewar" first appearing in the eighties in Scientific American, have sparked a career-long interest in using computer models as physical, biological, psychological and even theological laboratories.
An alternate thesis to the one I present here, proposed by Roger Penrose in the "Emperor's New Mind" and in "Shadows of the Mind", is that we must develop radically new scientific theories before we can understand the mind. Whether or not all of my hopes for "artificial souls" are fulfilled—Prof. Penrose might still be right—some, non-classical, properties of Life might remain tantalizingly out of scientific reach. Perhaps, secretly, I hope this is true.
This document was intended to be my MSc thesis—now three years late—supervised by Gilles Brassard and Claude Crépeau. It has now become a part of my doctoral research supervised by George Church.
Inevitably it is not possible to thank everyone who has helped me. This work has been an all consuming passion for much of my life; I am in debt to each and every person who has influenced me—Thank You!
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