From: Richard McGough (richard@biblewheel.com)
Date: Thu Jul 03 2003 - 16:21:19 EDT
George wrote:
>Richard McGough wrote:
>
>> Truce, George?
>
> Okay with me.
Excellent.
George wrote:
>
> Let me note a couple of non-quantum mechanical matters which raise questions about Tegmark's claim.
>
> First, a relatively minor technical point. A flat space (as our universe appears now to be) is
>not necessarily infinite. It could instead have the topology of, e.g., a 3-torus. This possibility is well known & a number of people have looked for observational evidence for it, but it often gets ignored in discussions. If this were the case & the periodicity interval small in comparison with the huge distance Tegmark requires to replicate our observable universe then there would be no replication.
>
I had similar thougthts. I think this is an important point. Since there are multiple models that could fit the evidence, I don't see how Tegmark could ever _prove_ his case (in a scientific sense).
> The second concern is more philosophical & more serious: Can our present theories really be extrapolated to the tremendous extent required by his theory - i.e., out to 2^[(10^118)/3] Hubble lengths? It's like the "prediction" that in 10^330 seconds (or something like that) all the air molecules in my study will collect on one side of the room. Is this really a scientific prediction?
>
This hits the core of the issue. As noted by Don Winterstien in post http://www.calvin.edu/archive/asa/200307/0055.html, "No one has come close to establishing the existence of parallel universes, and I suspect no one ever will." I think very few prople will be convinced by arguments like Tegmark's.
> Wild speculations are sometimes interesting & may even be true. If sciam had said on its cover, "Infinite Earths in Parallel Universes May Really Exist" it would have been OK. But leaving out the "may" was irresponsible.
>
My point exactly.
Good talking George,
B'Shem YHVH Shalom,
-- Richard Amiel McGough Discover the sevenfold symmetric perfection of the Holy Bible at http://www.BibleWheel.com --
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