Doug, What you say rings true! Thanks for a breath of fresh air. Norman ----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Porpora" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2004 1:32 PM Subject: Strange Anthropic Probabilities
> Hi all, > > I have a query about Tegmark's argument I hope some of you might be > able to address. > > First, let me say I am not a physicist or computer science person but > a humble sociologist with some lay physics knowledge on this topic. > > Let me also say I find it a morally ghastly proposition that each of > us is duplicated an infinite number of times in an infinite number of > universes. If so, why ever bother to do the right thing? Some > infinite set of me's will be doing the wrong thing, so why not be one > of them? > > So I have been thinking of possible counter considerations. Here is > one: Is it possible that the parametric coincidences required for > the existence of advanced (beyond microbial) life are so improbable > that (i) even in the right kind of universe, advanced life is likely > to occur only once; and (ii) it requires an infinite number of > universes even to get one occurrence of a me-ish person? > > I am wondering whether probabilistically, (ii) is a coherent > theoretical possibility. It seems to suggest a probability that would > be represented as (1 / infinity) or perhaps as the limit as N goes to > infinity of 1 / N. > > Then, according to this scenario (I think), the likelihood of a > me-ish person is equal to the limit as N goes to infinity of N * (1 / > N) = 1. > > As I say, I am just a sociologist, not a mathematician. So I don't > know whether what I am suggesting is plain nonsense. It is certainly > speculative, but no more so than Tegmark's scenario. > > Thanks for any feedback. > > doug > -- > doug porpora > dept of culture and communication > drexel university > phila pa 19104 > USA > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >
