Time need not end in the multiverse

New Scientist ^ | 8/11/11 | Amanda Gefter

[LibWhacker]

GAMBLERS already had enough to think about without factoring the end of time into their calculations. But a year after a group of cosmologists argued that they should, another team says time need not end after all.

It all started with this thought experiment. In a back room in a Las Vegas casino, you are handed a fair coin to flip. You will not be allowed to see the outcome, and the moment the coin lands you will fall into a deep sleep. If the coin lands heads up, the dealer will wake you 1 minute later; tails, in 1 hour. Upon waking, you will have no idea how long you have just slept.

The dealer smiles: would you like to bet on heads or tails? Knowing it's a fair coin, you assume your odds are 50/50, so you choose tails. But the house has an advantage. The dealer knows you will almost certainly lose, because she is factoring in something you haven't...

[hummingbird]

Oh, man...that's where I lost that hour this afternoon...heh...heh

Thanks, LibWhacker!

[delacoert]

The older I get, the more time I have spent younger.

[NoLibZone]

Como?

[FormerACLUmember]

This stuff always makes my little head spin.

[Norm Lenhart]

Pick up a coup of “Hyperspace” by Michu Kaiku. You will save a fortune on alcohol I assure you ;)

[Norm Lenhart]

Grrrr....COPY....evil fingers....

[TheZMan]

*sigh* Read through the article. While I understand the point they’re getting at I just can’t comprehend why anyone would actually care.

[yup2394871293]

That’s good. I’ve been worrying about that all day.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks LibWhacker.

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[AndyTheBear]

OK, if there really are an infinite number of multiverses...or an expotential number expanding out every possibility...and presumably abiogenesis and evolution have happened in an expotentially expanding number of these universes...then certainly there would be an exptotential number of such universes that happened to evolve any possible type of life. Pink unicorns in some (invisible to us, don't you know...not in our universe)...little creatures that just happen to speak English and look human but are only 6 inches tall and fly on butterfly like wings and have cute tails...ferie tails to be exact...

Thus this "science" leads us to invisible pink unicorns and fairy tails being exponentially plentiful...all without the bother of any real tests of these wonderful "theories"...uhm...the king has no clothes.

[onedoug]

I think of Emily Dickinson´s poetry.

[Salamander]

Holoping

[Smokin' Joe]

The dealer knows you will almost certainly lose, because she is factoring in something you haven't...

Yep, Pilgrim, either way, you're going to take a nap.

[SampleMan]

Excuse me for saying this, but this is precisely the type of elevated thinking that makes people stupid.

[Condor51]

... It all started with this thought experiment....

Sorry guys. No time for that experiment.
I'm playing with Schrödinger's cat.

[Lady Lucky]

If there are all these multiple universes, it increases the chances that this one is all mine. There are so many conclusions to be drawn from that.
Anybody got a pencil?

[allmost]

Thanks for the ping. It's quite amazing how varied the speculation of the uncertainty principle has become. The simple postulate excludes observer information, not reality itself. The concept has distorted into: 'Everything can happen so it must happen.' Which is, in reality, absurd. The observer effect is not taken into account in the article either. A true sci-fi/fantasy extrapolation of the measurement limitations.