Excerpts from Reality Inspector 2

Copyright © 1982 John Caris

ZAC, he thought, was a strange name. He recalled the line from Genesis: "And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." He wondered whether people saw computers as living creatures? The name ZAC moved through his mind triggering off thoughts. Did the name actually refer to the essential nature of the thing named? Certainly, in the days following Adam many people had believed that names contained magical power--power to control the thing named. But modern people usually took the position that names were only arbitrary labels, unlike those in medieval times who had believed that everything had its own proper name. In Tibet, supposedly, the monks were daily recording the many names of God. And when they finished, when all the names were recorded, then the world would end. Would those monks accept modern technology and use a computer to speed up their work?