Re: [asa] CSI Forensics WAS Staggering drunk WAS Romans 1:20

But this silly "low probability events happen all the time argument" is completely vacuous.?

I hesitate to chase this rabbit trail, but Dick's statement about the?"likelihood that the specific particles that ended up being you" is also incorrect because in quantum mechanics the particles are indistinguishable, so there is no ontological difference between having one electron or another in your body.? The wave function describing the universe is a superposition of all possible particle exchanges.? Thus, you have a superposition of all possible electrons in your body including the exchanges with those particles comprising the planet Mars and nebulae on the other side of the universe.? You would be no different if the particles were exchanged, because every exchange is already written into the wave function.? Thus, the identity of individual particles is a meaningless concept.??It is vacuous to?discuss whether one or another electron is located at a given place and time.? You can only discuss the probability of the overall pattern of electrons.

So much for the rabbit trail.? I agree that the meaningful error is the one Iain points out.

Phil

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Received on Fri Nov 23 13:12:53 2007