this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The set of all possible universes does not include impossible universes. If you assume all possible universes exist, you've already eliminated universes that are the only universe as impossible.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Aargh! Okay, I'm going to fix this and the fine tuned universe argument all at once.

Nature does not care about your silly numbers and hypotheses. All of our scientific mechanics are models of the observed universe. The ones we call theories are just models good enough to be usefully predictive as to forecast outcomes, allowing us to safely land airplanes, build bridges, make safe pharmaceuticals (or super addictive ones, if we want), split atoms safely to produce power (or unsafely to level cities) and so on.

We care about the math and the numbers because they give us results that are consistent with nature. But nature is doing what it's doing because it's behaving as a giant causal engine (ever-smaller forces that drive observable phenomena, at least until we get to Planck scale). So when it comes to the fine tuned hypothesis, to quote a Texas physicist whose name I can't remember These numbers ain't for fiddlin'

If there are any storm gods at all, anywhere in the world, to the last, they are content to allow lightning to behave strictly according to static-electricity electrodynamics. And ball lightning happens whether or not we have a model that explains it. (Presently, we don't.)

If one or more of the many-worlds hypotheses are true, no given universe cares what its science-savvy inhabitants have determined and whether their mathematical models allow for models that are factual. Facts don't care about your feelings. Facts don't care about your science either. It's more that the science does is best to describe what's going on in the facts.

Irreducible complexity is solved.

PS: This also stabilizes the cosmic horror scenario of Azathoth's dream, that Azathoth gibbers in the center of the universe dreaming its whole, and each and every one of us is a mere figment, who will vanish to oblivion when eventually he awakes: From what we can observe Azathoth has been dreaming consistently for thirteen billion years, and doesn't seem to be in a hurry to wake up, and his dream is profoundly consistent so that the mathematics we use to send probes from planet to planet, eventually into the outer solar system always works. Azathoth has our back!

[–] Classy 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Upvoted just because you referenced the Lovecraft Dream Cycle, epic l

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Azathoth just happens to be really useful to make idealism and the simulation hypothesis plausible. Either way, the mechanics that govern the universe are profoundly consistent and are not as fragile as our own dreams / our own simple, buggy simulations. So yeah.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The multiverse either exists or it doesn't. Individual universes have no influence over that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

so it's basically %50 %50 except for the universe where it is %49 %51

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

That universe isn't the boss of the multiverse and doesn't get to decide that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

there is a universe full to the brim with chickens, all that chicken space.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 day ago

this is stupid. The existence of an infinite number of universes does not at all imply they must represent infinite variability.

[–] [email protected] 150 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Infinite options does not mean all options. Eg in the set natural numbers 0-infinity the set of infinite numbers between 0-1 (or between any other 2 adjacent numbers) is absent.

So you can definitely have an infinite multiverse where in all of them infinite multiverses exist.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1, but none of them is 2.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Don't you love it when people say random, illogical bullshit that sounds vaguely sciency and pretends to be deep?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago

Of course not, I hate jokes

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Oof that reminds me...

When my partner and I had already been living together for a while, we had one of those "cuddle on the couch and deeptalk" days, when she confided that, while she was not religious in any traditional sense of the word, she felt immensely comforted by the thought of an infinite multiverse existing.
"If there's an infinite amount of parallel worlds, then I choose to believe that even if I die here, life goes on in another world, so in a sense my being and existence do not simply vanish completely. Same for you! And hey, even if we both die, we'll get to continue living together in some version of the infinite multiverse!"

It was clearly a thought that comforted her a lot, and at the same time a rather intimate belief that she chose to share with me. So, like the idiot I am, I stared her in the face blankly and went "There's an infinite amount of numbers between 0 and 1, and none of them are 2".

I really regret that. She let me know later that that one sentence shattered the belief for her. Which is sad, because it's such an innocent thought. There's no religious behaviors or conditions or rituals attached to it, it's just comforting.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's comments like this that make me glad I know how to read the room

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

😭

I usually do, I promise. Anyways, that was 6 years ago. We're stil going strong, making the most of life in this universe :)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

That's a nice belief of hers but it also neglects the negatives of what that implies. If each of us had infinite variations of ourselves somewhere in a multiverse, then there are varieties where the two of you continue living a nice happy life together even if one of you dies.

However, there would also be versions where you never met and got together with other people, other versions where you hate each other, other versions where you go through terrible things together or by yourselves, versions where one of you or both are drug addicts living in the street, versions where you become millionaires but don't want to share your wealth, versions where you become supreme leaders and act like despotic authoritarian rulers or versions where both of you just never meet or connect with one another.

If there are infinite variations of ourselves out there, not all of them will be happy comforting stories. Maybe this is one of those versions that are good. Maybe this is one of the best versions.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 day ago (6 children)

"If there is an infinite number of buckets, there must be a bucket where the other buckets don't exist."

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There's a parallel universe in which the fundamental laws of physics are different: the weight of an electron, the gravitational constant, how many fundamental particles there are, the cosmological constant, ...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

And one where I have a goatee and I'm the evil version of myself, right??

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 day ago (2 children)

If there are multiple countries on the planet Earth, that must mean there's a country where the other countries don't exist.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think that's North Korea

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You spelled United States of America wrong.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 day ago (11 children)

Infinite doesn't mean everything. Infinite can include a repeating pattern, even a huge repeating pattern which seems random at first. Not everything you could possibly imagine would necessarily have to exist in the multiverse.

And even if infinite and perfectly random, some things may just not be feasible and just not exist.

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[–] [email protected] 82 points 2 days ago (8 children)

Given an unlimited amount of tries, I can win any major lottery 10 times in a row.

Given an unlimited amount of tries, I still cannot go super saiyan. Believe me, I'm close to that amount of tries!

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[–] Lucidlethargy 18 points 1 day ago

This is illogical. That is all.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 day ago

I know one thing that's absolutely true about the multiverse!

The multiverse is a convenient excuse to reboot superheroes for a new audience to make money.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I have not seen not even on paper a universe which allows casual paradoxes like that comment says

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

because you arent in the universe that has that paper

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Lol, good joke but wrong, even existing an infinite number of Universe, to be stables they need a infinite number of physical conditions, if not they can't exist. A multiverse, even if there are formong an infinite number of universes, most of them are destroyed in the same moment when are not present this conditions, even so it can exist an infinite number of survivor universes with the correct conditions (∞/n = ∞), paradox conditions are not among these (apart of the infinite itself, used in physics)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

Multiverse theory does not necessarily mean infinite universes to cover all possibilities, just multiple universes.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

It's a common trend for people that don't understand that infinite possibilities do not mean every possibility.

The way I usually explain this to people is that the quantity of even number is also infinite, but that doesn't mean you'll ever find a value of three in that infinite range.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Given an unlimited amount of tries, anything that has a non-zero chance of happening, no matter how unlikely will happen. But what has absolute zero chance of happening will still not happen.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

I never realized I til this moment that is a TF2 model.

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