RSR's Software Invention: The Omniscient Display.exe

* RSR's Display Program: Can auto-generate every page of every book ever written! No joke! Read on...  

* A Software Program to Inform Philosophical Discussion: The Real Science Radio hosts have fun describing Bob Enyart's software invention. Its stunning features make it a "software invention" rather than a typical example of "software development." Bob promises to resign his radio program of 25 years if he is not being truthful about what his program can do. For example, it displays the pages of books. All books. Software engineer Fred Williams discusses the source code published below with this RSR show summary, and the truncated version of Display.exe, below, which runs in your browser. Of course the program is not actually omniscient; but rather, as the guys list its many features, it merely appears to be omniscient, virtually. :)

Previously Posted on TheologyOnline: Publicly disclosed on television June 2, 1998 and before. (We don't know if anyone else has ever invented this, so this post may help to answer that question.)

Software Feature #1: I've written a software program that displays the code of OTHER software programs. You don't have to have the other program available, neither the source (obviously), nor even the executable code. You just run Display and it will show the source code of any other program.

RSR's display.exe example outputSoftware Feature #2: 12-6-09 My program also displays the pages of published books. Every book. And you don't have to have any such book available. The program itself displays the pages of any book.

Software Feature #3: 12-7-09 My program also displays published texts, translated into other languages.

Software Feature #4: 12-8-09 Display.exe presents a universal mathematical proof demonstrating that human creativity is not infinite but finite.

Software Feature #5: 12-11-09 Display.exe will display the text on scrolls.

Software Feature #6: 12-15-09 Yes, Display.exe will display sheet music. (A TOL'er called the radio studio, and I agreed to answer this here. I apologize that we've been too busy to keep up with this thread. On Jan. 1, 2010, we'll post to TOL either a typical output page from Display, or the program's own source code, depending upon interest.)

Software Feature #7: 1-3-10 Photos & Captions: In response to Stripe who wrote, "looks like it'll produce just about anything you want it to... in text only form... " Thanks Stripe for weighing in on this. It will display not only the text of books, but also their photos (with captions), graphs, and charts.

The startling implications of Display.exe are far beyond anything the Supreme Court may rule in their current intellectual property case.

-Bob Enyart

* Display.exe Source Code

Public Class Form1
....Dim n As Integer
....Dim HistoryWritten As Boolean
....Dim upperbound As Integer = 10000001
....' Set binary array to needed length + 1
....Dim MBit(upperbound) As Boolean

....Sub ZeroOutArray()
........For n = 0 To upperbound - 1
............MBit(n) = 0
........Next
....End Sub

....Sub Count()
........n = 0
........Do
............If MBit(0) = False Then
................MBit(0) = True
................For n = 0 To 100000
................Next
................DisplayArray()
............Else : HistoryWritten = True
................For n = 0 To upperbound - 1
....................If MBit(n) = False Then
........................HistoryWritten = False
....................End If
................Next
................If HistoryWritten = False Then
....................n = 0
....................MBit(n) = False
....................Label1.Visible = False
....................Do While MBit(n + 1) = True
........................n = n + 1
........................MBit(n) = False
....................Loop
....................MBit(n + 1) = True
....................n = n + 1
....................DisplayArray()
................End If
............End If
........Loop Until n = upperbound
....End Sub
....' History dump... world, that is.
End Class

Here's an example output page from Display.exe. By the way, the program doesn't have to start from the beginning, but it could start from any point, for example, the user could begin with this image and have the program run forward to the see the next images. Or, it could run backward. Either way.

Replies To Comments: made over at the Display.exe thread at TheologyOnline.com...

Granite: If I am not being honest, I will quit my daily radio show of 18 years running on the most powerful U.S. Christian station.
csuguy: The source code is displayed in the program's native code, whether Lucid, C++, BASIC, Turbo Pascal, Java, PHP, Assembly, etc.
AMR: Over the years we've used Patton Boggs (Clinton's lawyers) for patent work. Your cost estimates of course are for after the USPTO rejects your original application.
noguru: my software displays the source code for ANY program, written in any language, whether no longer available, proprietary, etc. I doubt there's another such program.
fool: fool, where could TOLers look to authenticate your challenge?
AMR: There's no cat in 'the bag' AMR, but Display can show you the cat in the hat
kmoney: "I don't think it's possible. This is some joke..." No joke. I've written the program, and yes, it makes a point.
MR & aa: To assuranceagent (see also entire post)...

Originally Posted by Bob Enyart

Regarding MR's comment about Display.exe being perhaps a metaphor for open theism, the program is not a metaphor but a mathematical proof. But to the extent that philosophers or theologians could use it as an argument, assuranceagent has a point... An open theist... asked: "If by appearances, Display.exe will be more readily used as an argument for those who promote a settled future (as opposed to an open future), then why promote it?" I answered, because it is true. And acknowledging truth, regardless of how it cuts, brings us closer to the one who is Truth. -Bob

* Functioning Truncated Display Program: Here is a functioning Display.exe program, although with its output truncated. With this version, you can see the program actually running, but you're only able to see it on a tiny screen with the size of the pixels greatly enlarged for demonstration purposes.


This number makes a cross: 923237879.
This number makes a happy face: 903347121.
Please note: Max is actually 2147483647.

* This Truncated Version: The functional though truncated version above of Display.exe is available for download from KGOV.com. It will run in a programmer's Virtual Basic software development environment. In this "lite" version, the "upperbound" constant is reduced from its value of 10000001 down to only 101 and as in the the demonstration version above, the size of the pixels is exaggerated. Display lite helps the user understand the method that the full program uses to demonstrate universally that human creativity is not infinite but finite.