>I read a story once (again, can't recall exactly where/who), in which a
>particular experiment, if run successfully would have destroyed the
>universe. The only realized this after many trials -- power failures etc.
>kept getting in the way. They realized that they had to be in one of those
>universes in which life continued to exist.
It's a thought experiment at the end of Hans Moravec's MIND CHILDREN.
Damien Broderick