Mirror Worlds: The Universe in a Box?

Abstract

A highly-reflective model of Earth’s visible and intangible aspects has been outlined by David Gelernter (1991) in his book “Mirror Worlds”. As the title makes clear, the book’s central metaphor is the computer as a mirror of the world. Gelernter suggests that the progress of computing will inevitably produce a single vast, distributed computer system containing a complete mirror image of the whole of reality. Gelernter’s predictions of the “downloadable” world, the digital mirror of our reality, will permit individuals to investigate reality without leaving home, simply by “traveling” in the digital mirror:

Capturing the structure and present status of an entire company, university, hospital, city or whatever in a single (obviously elliptical, high level) sketch is a hard but solvable research problem. The picture changes subtly as you watch, mirroring changes in the world outside. But for most purposes, you don’t merely sit and stare. You zoom in and poke around, like an explorer in a miniature sub. (ibid.: 15)