> I think some of us are a bit too hasty to dismiss the possible
> existence of Some Big Smart Entity. Given reasonable assumptions, the
> present existence of such an Entity is inescapable. If you believe that:
>
> 1) Evolution to unlimited power and intelligence has a nonzero
> probability of occuring, given a reasonably complex universe;
> and
>
> 2) Reasonably complex universes have existed, at least
> occasionally, throughout an infinite past;
> (It seems unlikely that our own Big Bang could have been the
> only one to ever occur.)
> and
>
> 3) Given infinite past time, anything having a nonzero probability
> will have happened;
>
> it follows logically that
>
> 4) Evolution to unlimited power and knowledge has already happened.
> That is, the "Big Smart Entity", or "God", or whatever you want
> to call Hir, does in fact exist.
Tipler uses an argument similar to this combined with the Fermi
paradox *against* the extended steady state cosmology in _The
Anthropic Cosmological Principle_. If we accept 1,2,3 and 4, then it
would follow that any such BSE would have developed, including one
which will now manifest in my room wearing a kilt. [Checking] No, it
has not occured :-)
The problem is that you assume 2 to imply that BSEs appear in our
universe; it might be physically impossible to move between universes
even for BSEs.
> Why, after infinite past time, with Some Big Smart Entity having
> surely evolved by now, do we find ourselves in a universe with more
> than a sextillion stars wastefully dissipating their energy; i.e. a
> universe full of chaos and entropy?
Is it really chaotic and entropic? The "Harvester hypothesis" of me
and Jöerg Rhiemeier says that stars are really quite efficient
artefacts inhabited by nuclear life, from that perspective the
universe is quite well ordered.
And as Stapledon suggests in _Star Maker_, BSEs doesn't have to be
nice or interested in efficiency: they might be interested in drama.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
nv91-asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~nv91-asa/main.html
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