On Thu, Oct 1, 2015 at 2:20 AM, Bruce Kellett <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 1/10/2015 4:08 pm, Stathis Papaioannou wrote: > > On 30 Sep 2015, at 10:10 PM, Bruce Kellett < <[email protected]> > [email protected]> wrote: > > On 1/10/2015 12:44 am, Stathis Papaioannou wrote: > > > In an infinite random sequence of numbers it is possible that my phone > number appears once and never repeats, while other eight digit sequences > appear multiple times; but I wouldn't bet on it. > > > An infinite random sequence of digits has certain well-defined > probabilistic properties. In particular, ll digits are equally likely, and > all sequences of any particular length are equally likely. If that were not > so, the sequence would not be random. So your phone number will occur many > times. But this is not a good analogy because it relies of the definition > of a random sequence of digits. We do not have any comparable uniformity > definition for a collection of universes. > > > A good guess is that the universe is infinite and every configuration of > atoms repeats. If it is not infinite then a given configuration may not > repeat. It could also be infinite but only some patterns repeat - others do > not. There might be infinite copies of Mars, but only one Earth. That would > be strange, but possible. That's what I thought you were proposing to fill > an infinite universe with. > > > Such would be a completely unevidenced guess -- no better than any other. > No it is a consequence of inflation, which has a lot a of evidentiary support. > Even if the universe is infinite, there may be patterns (of zero measure) > which do not repeat. > We know the pattern containing you and Earth is possible. So why do you think it would only happen once in an infinite universe filled with an infinite (and exponentially growing) number of Big Bangs? As inflation implies. In any event, it was never my intention to ague this is true, only that it's not so clear that we don't need to consider the consequences of there existing exact duplicates of our conscious states out there, whether that be in other simulated realities, in our own universe very far away, in future mind upload scenarios, in the many worlds of quantum mechanics, in the landscape of possible string theory universes, or in the Marchal/Tegmark/Standish conceptions of all computational, mathematical, or informational structures. Jason Your example of universe with many copies of Mars but none of Earth is not > really what I had in mind. The evolution of complex structures such as > galaxies, stars, planetary systems, and the like depends on the initial > conditions. You might not get the necessary clumping, or dark matter might > not be sufficiently common to aid clumping, or ...... So you could get an > infinite number of repeats of uniformly rather dull universes, with only > one with the complex structure we see, sufficiently complex for suitable > planets to form, and for life to evolve on these. Much less intelligent > life, or copies of oddities like you and me! > > Bruce > > -- > 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. > -- 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.
