Reply to: If the universe consists of an infinite number of parallel universes.....

[NotAllThere]

No toast! Or muffins! We don't like muffins around here! We want no muffins, no toast, no teacakes, no buns, baps, baguettes or bagels, no croissants, no crumpets, no pancakes, no potato cakes and no hot-cross buns and definitely no smegging flapjacks!

Poptart?

[wobbegong]

Given that God is infinite, and given that the Universe is infinite... would you like a toasted tea cake?

No toast! Or muffins! We don't like muffins around here! We want no muffins, no toast, no teacakes, no buns, baps, baguettes or bagels, no croissants, no crumpets, no pancakes, no potato cakes and no hot-cross buns and definitely no smegging flapjacks!

[alluvial]

In the film I was watching last night where a company offered time travel safaris at the time of the dinosaurs, a client accidentally stood on a butterfly and the entire evolution of man was wiped out.

This got me thinking....suppose the butterfly was killed by a lizard, then this would have had the same effect, so just remember before you kill a fly or an ant or a beetle this may just wipe out a future civilisation.

Ooh, I remember that short story. Maybe Asimov or Clarke. If I remember it correctly, there is a carefully calculated path laid out that they can't deviate from but he steps off of it to get a better shot at a T-Rex and squishes the butterfly.

[Paddy]

In the film I was watching last night where a company offered time travel safaris at the time of the dinosaurs, a client accidentally stood on a butterfly and the entire evolution of man was wiped out.

This got me thinking....suppose the butterfly was killed by a lizard, then this would have had the same effect, so just remember before you kill a fly or an ant or a beetle this may just wipe out a future civilisation.

Or you unknowingly kill the only fly that has mutant genes that would have wiped the entire human race within five years

[SimonMac]

Given that God is infinite, and given that the Universe is infinite... would you like a toasted tea cake?

[BlasterBates]

In the film I was watching last night where a company offered time travel safaris at the time of the dinosaurs, a client accidentally stood on a butterfly and the entire evolution of man was wiped out.

This got me thinking....suppose the butterfly was killed by a lizard, then this would have had the same effect, so just remember before you kill a fly or an ant or a beetle this may just wipe out a future civilisation.

[Ignis Fatuus]

If the universe consists of an infinite number of parallel universes where each conceivable option throughout the last 13.7bn of existence is simultaneously played out, wouldn't logic state that in one of those parallel universes parallel universes don't exist?

Clearly that particular universe is not really conceivable, by reductio ad absurdum.

[VirtualMonkey]

i suggest you have a listen to the infinite monkey cage from radio 4 on monday. should be on the iplayer by now.
they had this discussion on there

[alluvial]

Dont bother, in another universe, you already have!

Ah, but in this universe I have now started on a can of Stella. So I shall definately refrain.

[BolshieBastard]

I was going to reply to this thread but I think I better wait until my kidneys have dealt with the excess of red win that I've drunk tonight.

Dont bother, in another universe, you already have!

[alluvial]

I was going to reply to this thread but I think I better wait until my kidneys have dealt with the excess of red win that I've drunk tonight.

[BolshieBastard]

If you have a parallel universe why would everything be slightly different (as they are on telly where everyone has a counterpart).....if there some slight differences millions and millions of years ago this would lead to a totallly different world....i.e. a mutant ape a bit more intelligent than the rest of the clan falls off a cliff so stopping evolution to man.

Things would be different because in those 'other' universes, you have made a different decision. So for example, in one universe you take the decision to go contracting, in another universe you dont and stay permie. In another universe you select a different permie career path, in another you accept one contract but in another, you turn it down. Etc, etc, ad infinitum.

In any number of paralell universes, mankind doesnt exist because the evolutionary branch went extinct, in another homo erectus never developed, in another neanderthals succeeded and homo sapiens died out etc.

[BolshieBastard]

If the universe consists of an infinite number of parallel universes where each conceivable option throughout the last 13.7bn of existence is simultaneously played out, wouldn't logic state that in one of those parallel universes parallel universes don't exist?

If the theory of an infinite number of parallel universes hold true, then yes, one such universe would exist.

And therefore, we would have a paradox.

[kingcook]

Given that God is infinite, and given that the Universe is infinite... would you like a toasted tea cake?

[darrenb]

I don't really understand all the hatred of Sasguru ; he seems a nice enough chap to me.

To me too. In a parallel universe.

about a googolplex permutations removed from our own.