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> First, why should I even assume N is finite? Our current understanding of physics dictates that the (observable) universe has a finite size and a finite life
by Denvercoder9 3y ago
> First, why should I even assume N is finite?
Our current understanding of physics dictates that the (observable) universe has a finite size and a finite lifespan, from which it logically follows that there can't be an infinite amount of humans.
- dataflow 3y agoIf that's genuinely the basis for this reasoning, it only makes the argument seem even more dubious to me. If the statistical argument is really so sound, it shouldn't have to rely on our understanding of cosmology. Also, is there no phenomenon here where a sufficiently large N becomes increasingly indistinguishable from infinity?
- zeroonetwothree 3y agoThe entire universe could very well be infinite, with infinite “Earths” and “humans”. In which case the argument doesn’t work since you can’t choose uniformly from an infinite set.