From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Mon Feb 24 2003 - 00:13:06 MST
http://xxx.lanl.gov/list/gr-qc/new
Title: Philosophical Implications of Inflationary Cosmology
Authors: Joshua Knobe, Ken D. Olum, Alexander Vilenkin
Comments: 24 pages
Subj-class: Physics and Society; History of Physics
Recent developments in cosmology indicate that every history having a nonzero
probability is realized in infinitely many distinct regions of spacetime.
Thus, it appears that the universe contains infinitely many civilizations
exactly like our own, as well as infinitely many civilizations that differ
from our own in any way permitted by physical laws. We explore the
implications of this conclusion for ethical theory and for the doomsday
argument. In the infinite universe, we find that the doomsday argument
applies only to effects which change the average lifetime of all
civilizations, and not those which affect our civilization alone.
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