This has been much discussed on this list as the 'White Rabbit' or 'Dragon
universes' problem. I provide a potential solution to it in
http://www.physica.freeserve.co.uk/p105.htm
and subsequent links. I'll try and dig out a more recent alternative which
might conceivably be of general interest.
Alastair
> I think I have an argument against this idea that every kind of universe
> exists in the "plenitude" : if this were correct, we would almost
certainly
> live in a universe that is generic, and complex enough to allow
intelligent
> lifeform (this what Max Tegmark says, for instance). But what about
> universes in which crazy things happen, but not often enough to prevent
the
> existence of lifeforms ? For instance, we could imagine a world governed
by
> the same laws as ours, but sometimes a miracle happens (for instance a guy
> comes from nowhere and turns water into wine). In fact, many people
believe
> that such a world exists, and that we live in it ! These kinds of worlds,
I
> will call them "magic worlds", are much more numerous because of the vast
> amount of magical thing that we can imagine. So it is very improbable that
> we live in a world where there is no magic, as it seems to be the case. I
> think that this rules out the theory of "plenitude". If you want to have a
> coherent theory of "plenitude", I think that you should put much less
things
> in this "plenitude". It seems as though even in this setting you do not
have
> complete freedom : here is what I think : to have an intelligent being in
a
> universe you must have a mathematical structure underlying this universe,
> and perhaps no mathematical structure is consistent with miracles or
magic.
>
> Fabien
>
>
Received on Thu May 11 2000 - 14:00:22 PDT