On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 3:20 PM, Steve Furlong <demonfighter@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Maybe 15 years ago I put together the paperwork for the Church of Cybernetic
> Certainty. The IRS (IIRC; it may have been the NYS tax department) basically
> told me to screw off. On the plus side, it was amusing to put together my
> church's policies and it didn't cost anything to put in the paperwork, and it
> annoyed a bureaucrat.

Several people emailed me, asking if I had any of the paperwork. No, I don't. The computer that had the documents was disposed of when I wasn't looking (It's amazing how much of my stuff mysteriously gets thrown away or goes missing when I'm out of state or otherwise away from home for several days. Truly astounding.) and the backup tapes were encrypted and I can't remember the password. (Lesson for all: Yes, encrypt your backups. No, don't lose the passwords.)

The actual tax department paperwork was nothing much. It was either paper forms sent by the department or PDFs I printed. Just a few pages either way.

The supporting documentation was the credo, rites, and so on. I made up stuff supporting the idea of worship through writing code and collecting donations in exchange for receiving the blessing of working code, and programming education under the name of training in the sacred rites. Don't look for any deep theological meaning, as this was somewhere between a prank and an attempted tax scam. Also, don't look to my work for guidance, as I didn't get anywhere with it.