X-Message-Number: 25515
From: 
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 10:09:47 EST
Subject: infinite nonsense

Mike LaTorra quotes cosmologist Alexander Vilenkin to the effect that, even  
if the number of "universes" is infinite, the total number of possible 

histories  is finite. (This again, supposedly, leads to the idea that "you" 
exist, or 
have  existed or will exist, in countless instantiations and variations.)
 
One of the flaws here is the assumption that all the "universes" are  

essentially the same, which is very far from established, even if in fact there
is 
more than one. Some cosmologists envision universes that differ even  in the 
magnitudes of the physical constants, and beyond that even in the  laws of 
physics. 
 
It's all somewhat reminiscent of medieval philosophers speculating about  how 
many angels could dance on the head of a pin. We don't yet have the  
information or even the language to discuss such things intelligibly.
 
Robert Ettinger 






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