1.0 God and The Database

1.1 When I was a child, my mother would threaten me with dire consequences from God who would punish me for deeds, the details of which I don't remember now. I couldn't help wondering where God kept His "notes". This was before I knew of the existence of computers and hard drives, memory and databases and Information Theory. Considering we are 7 billion strong (and growing), God had better be using a reliable and backed up database if He was going to keep track of every individual's every action every second, minute, hour, day, month, year, decade, half century and full century and change, dispensing rewards and punishments without error. This would be a more formidable task than that achieved by the Mumbai DabbaWallahs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala  Forbes Magazine found its reliability to be that of a six sigma standard. More than 175,000 or 200,000 lunch boxes get moved every day by an estimated 4,500 to 5,000 dabbawalas, all with an extremely small nominal fee and with utmost punctuality. According to a recent survey, they make less than one mistake in every 6 million deliveries, despite most of the delivery staff being illiterate. Not being dis-associated and facetious here, just putting things in the context of Information Theory.

1.2 What is God, Where is the database? What is the soul? What is the Self? What is this body? The Buddha and Hinduism have helped me with some answers to these qestions to some extent. Folks who do not want to think about these are at peace by just reading current “god literature” believing in it and not worrying about how (or whether) it is executed (correctly or incorrectly). Just as people before Newton with regard to Gravity. everyone knew it worked and nobody cared to ask why or how.

1.3 Many are well off and do not really care to know the “why” and the “how” of their condition, some think that everything is random and life should be enjoyed as a one-time thing.  The Buddhists tell me this sort of unexamined life is similar to the one led by privileged pets that are fed on caviar and live in airconditioned comfort.  As for me, an explanation of the "system" is necessary. How is karmic connectivity maintained through the multiple sequential lives of the same soul? Are there multiple sequential lives? Or is it the same soul or a part of the "universal soul" and hence actions of one soul affect the "universal"? 

1.4 You need a data repository in order to keep track of, and distribute karmic rewards and punishments. I have a hypothesis as to what this database may be, what’s yours?

I welcome your thoughts and may you heed Steve Jobs' advice to " Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish"

Note: all pictures are copyright J Devasundaram. Do not use without permission and attribution