Serious question: Can somebody explain to me, if an infinite number of universes exist, why do we assume that every possibility must exist within the set? Like, why can’t it be an infinite number of universes in which OP does not win the lottery?
Your intuition is correct here. OP is wrong. An infinite set of branches of the wavefunction does not necessarily imply that everything you can imagine must happen somewhere in that wavefunction.
I mean, Cantor said so, not I. But an easy example
Imagine a list of all whole numbers. 1, 2, 3 on up and up. Obviously this list is infinite - numbers do not end.
Now imagine a list of all real numbers - that is, all numbers plus their decimal amounts between each while number. 1, 1.1, 1.11, 1.12, 2, 2.1, and so on. This list is also infinite - but it is also inherently larger than the infinite list of only whole numbers. It has more numbers.
That’s like saying am infinite number of feathers is lighter than an infinite number of bricks. Neither is heavier than the other - they’re both infinitely heavy.
You’re measuring a quality of the two objects, not the quantity, which might make a difference. I’m just sharing something I learned that I think is cool:)
Umm…logic? Statistics? If something has a chance of happening, even the smallest possible chance conceivable, it will happen given infinite time and iteration.
Well, but if there are other “me”s, then there must be some set of common events that must occur in each universe containing a copy of me in order for that individual to qualify as me. In that case, isn’t it entirely possible that those particular things that must be in place preclude certain other possibilities that make it such that there is no chance that some otherwise conceivable events could occur?
Sure, and that would fall under “can’t happen, won’t happen”.
And if we’re getting that philosophical about it, what qualifies as “you”? Arguably, that’s just you, since you represent a single culmination of events and possibilities. All other variations would technically be someone else with a mostly similar history. You could consider a “spectrum” of you’s, but again, where is the cutoff? Trying to define that gets pretty tricky.
I agree with all of that. But the bigger point is that there are things that can’t/won’t happen that we can’t predict, so this means we can’t assume that “there must be a universe in which X happens to me”.
In respect to the lottery, every (lottery valid) combination has a chance of happening and we are assuming infinite variation, so if someone buys a lotto ticket for say “1 2 3 4 5”, that will be the picked numbers in at least one variation.
Ok, that makes sense. I would agree that for any truly random circumstance, when given infinite iterations, all possible combinations will eventually occur.
Serious question: Can somebody explain to me, if an infinite number of universes exist, why do we assume that every possibility must exist within the set? Like, why can’t it be an infinite number of universes in which OP does not win the lottery?
Your intuition is correct here. OP is wrong. An infinite set of branches of the wavefunction does not necessarily imply that everything you can imagine must happen somewhere in that wavefunction.
Fun fact: you can have multiple sets of infinities and even though all are infinite, that does not mean they are all equal. See Georg Cantor.
If you say so :)
I mean, Cantor said so, not I. But an easy example
Imagine a list of all whole numbers. 1, 2, 3 on up and up. Obviously this list is infinite - numbers do not end.
Now imagine a list of all real numbers - that is, all numbers plus their decimal amounts between each while number. 1, 1.1, 1.11, 1.12, 2, 2.1, and so on. This list is also infinite - but it is also inherently larger than the infinite list of only whole numbers. It has more numbers.
That’s like saying am infinite number of feathers is lighter than an infinite number of bricks. Neither is heavier than the other - they’re both infinitely heavy.
You’re measuring a quality of the two objects, not the quantity, which might make a difference. I’m just sharing something I learned that I think is cool:)
Murphy’s Law (edited a bit by the Nolan brothers)- If something can happen, it will happen. On the scale of infinity, this is particularly inevitable.
But what evidence is there for this being true?
Umm…logic? Statistics? If something has a chance of happening, even the smallest possible chance conceivable, it will happen given infinite time and iteration.
Well, but if there are other “me”s, then there must be some set of common events that must occur in each universe containing a copy of me in order for that individual to qualify as me. In that case, isn’t it entirely possible that those particular things that must be in place preclude certain other possibilities that make it such that there is no chance that some otherwise conceivable events could occur?
Sure, and that would fall under “can’t happen, won’t happen”.
And if we’re getting that philosophical about it, what qualifies as “you”? Arguably, that’s just you, since you represent a single culmination of events and possibilities. All other variations would technically be someone else with a mostly similar history. You could consider a “spectrum” of you’s, but again, where is the cutoff? Trying to define that gets pretty tricky.
I agree with all of that. But the bigger point is that there are things that can’t/won’t happen that we can’t predict, so this means we can’t assume that “there must be a universe in which X happens to me”.
In respect to the lottery, every (lottery valid) combination has a chance of happening and we are assuming infinite variation, so if someone buys a lotto ticket for say “1 2 3 4 5”, that will be the picked numbers in at least one variation.
Ok, that makes sense. I would agree that for any truly random circumstance, when given infinite iterations, all possible combinations will eventually occur.