Picking up a point, briefly: In my Imagining Science course we have been talking about simulations of reality. Artificial life, computer simulations of human behavior, v.v. . . Halfway through class the other day I asked, What is the difference between a simulation & reality? My assumption is that there is a fundamental ontological distinction between a simulation & reality. That is, Flatland gets its ironic twist from pretending that a simulation can be treated as a reality. Same goes for A.K. Dewdney's The Planiverse & other literary works of this sort. The fun of this book & of Flatterland, is that they wink at us concerning ontology.

I haven't named my laptop, though sometimes I call it fuckhead. (This is unfair of me--when I curse the machine I am almost always cursing the Microsoft software the machine is "running." The machine itself is just doing what it's told.) There is a lot in your post I want to respond to, but it's been a long day so I think I will take these points up in the morning. Nota: v.v. stands for van van in Vietnamese--it means & so on & so forth or etc.