Below is an excerpt from "Modern Cosmology: God and the Resurrection of the Dead" by Professor Wolfhart Pannenberg
Professor Wolfhart Pannenberg
When Christian theology conceives of the universe in terms of creation, the universe gets described from the point of view of God, not reversely God by extrapolation from the universe. The fundamental assertion of the doctrine of creation is, that its every existence - from God's point of view - is "contingent". That means: neither existence nor essence of our universe are "necessary" from God's point of view. The universe could be different or not exist at all. It is an implication of the idea of God that he himself cannot be non-existent: That is to say, when God exists, he does so by himself. The universe, by contrast, is contingent. Its existence is a manifestation of God's free decision and its existence continues to depend upon him. In that sense it is created. If the universe would exist "necessarily" as God does, then it would be a correlate of God from eternity and the existence of the universe could not be a manifestation of the freedom and love of God the creator, but it would be a condition of God's own identity, a condition, that would not be within his power.
Tipler is describing a kind of super colossal digital graveyard of the walking dead, that remains stuck in a materiality.
Tipler's book is actually a capitulation to religion. The book masquerades as a kind of step-up, beyond religion, but actually it only displays the bankruptcy of modern physics, and science in general, in trying to explain everything through scientific materialism.
Why Tipler, and company, piggheadedly refuse to accept a creator/designer God, beyond the material realm, is their own personal problem, and phobia, and should be recognized as such, while you read their books.
The "Physics of Immortality" is proof of Weizenbaum's statement that too many scientists are worshiping a God of science/technology, which in this case is the Computer AI God.
The Gnostics would call this kind of Computer God, just another Archon, or Demiurge, that keeps us all prisoners in the material realm.
Tipler tried to storm heaven; tried to build a modern day Tower of Babel, but he only suceeded in proving the hollowness, the Sagan-like hubris, the confounded, unmerited, arrogance of Science/Technology that is drunk with a power-complex.