In another thread Rolf mentioned a variant of the Doomsday Argument where the
universe is infinite:
<< ...This variant DA asks, "if there's currently a Galactic Empire 10000
Hubble Volumes away with an immensely large number of people, why wasn't I born
there instead of here?" >>
The implication of the question seems to be that the questioner (Q) could
have been born in either of the two populations at random, and, assuming the
number of people in the Galactic Empire is sufficiently immense, the
probability that he could have been born on Earth is close to nil.
But Q could not have been born in either of the two populations; he could
only have been born on Earth, and his failure to realize this suggests that he
has ignored his own material and biological nature.
Q is a material object and a living organism. He is composed of atoms from
Earth's interior that could in no way be part of a remote Galactic Empire. Q's
birth occurred because humans reproduce sexually, and his birth occurred on
Earth because his parents lived on Earth. Q could not have been born in the
Galactic Empire because he could not have been born anywhere but on Earth.
If Q could only have been born on Earth, then the probability that he would
have been born on Earth is 100%. The answer to Q's question, "...why wasn't I
born there instead of here?", is that the probability of his having been born
there is 0%.
Gene Ledbetter
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