The Fabric of Reality

7

Tipler replies: Deutsch’s mile-high cathedral is poor choice for a counter-example, because the cost of such a building relative to our current resources is much too high. Given the fact that no government or commercial mile-high building has yet been built, in spite of the obvious prestige going to the builder — and dictators like Saddam like to build monuments to themselves, and have billions of dollars available for this purpose — it is clear that constructing a mile-high building would be at the very limits of current technology. It might even be beyond us today. But eventually that mile-high cathedral will be built. When he is resurrected, Deutsch’s ancient master builder could do it himself — as an inexpensive spare time hobby.