On 14 September 2014 10:32, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote: > On 9/13/2014 1:10 PM, LizR wrote: > > Well, me neither, but it includes infinities - atoms would probably > collapse - etc. > > The Hilbert space for an atom, even a hydrogen atom, is infinite > dimensional. >
Of course, but Newtonian physics makes *everything* infinitely fine-grained, while quantum physics places limits on what can do what. For example it seems unlikely to me that you can have life without some digital information storage mechanism that is based on some version of quantum physics (like DNA)....but who knows for sure? > > But just a guess hence the provisos. Personally I would imagine most > mathematical universes wouldn't support life though. > > Sure, but you'd guess that about physical universes too just from > observing how rare life seems to be in our universe. > I might, but if I was looking for life-bearing universes in (say) the string landscape, I wouldn't actually try to do it by physical examination, even if granted the godlike powers required to do so. I would more likely start with whether the laws of physics in each universe allow the formation of a range of elements, whether they make the formation of large scale structures likely, what complexity of chemical compounds they make available, etc. I wouldn't look for life in the level 2 multiverse with a telescope! > It's hard to say anything useful though because there's no canonical > measure to apply. I've had this discussion with proponents of fine-tuning > arguments too. They pick on some variable and say it's "fine tuned", but > with respect to what measure. The notional variable range is infinite, so > whether it's "fine tuned" or "coarse tuned" depends on how you slip in some > intuitive measure. > Yes, I agree, this is the problem with this sort of discussion. The question is whether we can actually reach any meaningful conclusions based on the information we have available, or whether we might as well be writing technobabble for "Star Trek" and "Doctor Who". I don't know the answer. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
