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There is no actual evidence of an infinite universe. If anything the most likely situation is finite but comtinuosly expanding. > The fact life started once,

There is no actual evidence of an infinite universe. If anything the most likely situation is finite but comtinuosly expanding. > The fact life started once, makes it likely it has done so before us and will keep doing so. When I say time doesn't matter, I mean it could take billions of eons, and in the context of the universe that doesn't matter. This is still entirely wrong, on the basis of basic thermodynamic principles that are relatively well empirically supported. Even if life has emerged before us, the probability of it happening again only decrease over time. And also: low probability in finite domain doesn't magically imply high probability in an infinite domain. That's not how math works.

ramblerman 7y ago
> There is no actual evidence of an infinite universe. The drake equation and fermi account for that, using something like "The universe has 10 million, million, million suns". Most of these ideas are probabilistic based on sizes that are just immense beyond comprehension. But I still find them more grounded than the pre-Copernican hubris that we are somehow central to all this. > And also: low probability in finite domain doesn't magically imply high probability in an infinite domain. That's not how math works How do you figure that?
- 1propionyl 7y ago
  A vanishingly small probability on a finite sample still implies nothing beyond a vanishingly small probability over an infinite population. To analogize: the vanishingly unlikely probability of landing a dart precisely in the center of the bullseye on a finitely sized dartboard implies nothing more than the same for an infinitely large dartboard. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost_surely https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost_surely (in particular the mathematical concept of "almost never")
  - ramblerman 7y ago
    > See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost_surely https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost_surely (in particular the mathematical concept of "almost never") You're confused here, did you read the mathematical definition of your own article? It has nothing to do with what you think, it starts with the presumption of P(E) = 1 or P(E) = 0 for almost never. That's not what we are talking about with small probabilities.

ramblerman 7y ago

> There is no actual evidence of an infinite universe. The drake equation and fermi account for that, using something like "The universe has 10 million, million, million suns". Most of these ideas are probabilistic based on sizes that are just immense beyond comprehension. But I still find them more grounded than the pre-Copernican hubris that we are somehow central to all this. > And also: low probability in finite domain doesn't magically imply high probability in an infinite domain. That's not how math works How do you figure that?

1propionyl 7y ago
A vanishingly small probability on a finite sample still implies nothing beyond a vanishingly small probability over an infinite population. To analogize: the vanishingly unlikely probability of landing a dart precisely in the center of the bullseye on a finitely sized dartboard implies nothing more than the same for an infinitely large dartboard. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost_surely https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost_surely (in particular the mathematical concept of "almost never")
- ramblerman 7y ago
  > See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost_surely https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost_surely (in particular the mathematical concept of "almost never") You're confused here, did you read the mathematical definition of your own article? It has nothing to do with what you think, it starts with the presumption of P(E) = 1 or P(E) = 0 for almost never. That's not what we are talking about with small probabilities.