Knobe, Joshua and Olum, Ken and Vilenkin, Alexander (2003) Philosophical Implications of Inflationary Cosmology. [Preprint]

Preview

PDF cosmology.pdf Download (56kB)

Abstract

Recent developments in cosmology indicate that every history having a nonzero probability is realized in infinitely many distinct regions of spacetime. Thus, it appears that the universe contains infinitely many civilizations exactly like our own, as well as infinitely many civilizations that differ from our own in any way permitted by physical laws. We explore the implications of this conclusion for ethical theory and for the doomsday argument. In the infinite universe, we find that the doomsday argument applies only to effects which change the average lifetime of all civilizations, and not those which affect our civilization alone.

---

Export/Citation:

EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL

Social Networking:

Share |

---

Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Knobe, Joshua Olum, Ken Vilenkin, Alexander
Keywords:	Inflation, Cosmology, Philosophy of Physics, Doomsday, Ethics.
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology General Issues > Ethical Issues Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Depositing User:	Joshua Knobe
Date Deposited:	23 Apr 2003
Last Modified:	07 Oct 2010 15:11
Item ID:	1149
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology General Issues > Ethical Issues Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Date:	2003
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/1149

Available Versions of this Item

• Philosophical Implications of Inflationary Cosmology. (deposited 23 Apr 2003) [Currently Displayed]
  • Philosophical Implications of Inflationary Cosmology. (deposited 19 Dec 2004)

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item