Gerig, Austin (2012) The Doomsday Argument in Many Worlds. [Preprint]

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Abstract

You and I are highly unlikely to exist in a civilization that has produced only 70 billion people, yet we find ourselves in just such a civilization. Our circumstance, which seems difficult to explain, is easily accounted for if (1) many other civilizations exist and if (2) nearly all of these civilizations (including our own) die out sooner than usually thought, i.e., before trillions of people are produced. Because the combination of (1) and (2) make our situation likely and alternatives do not, we should drastically increase our belief that (1) and (2) are true. These results follow immediately when considering a many worlds version of the ``Doomsday Argument'' and are immune to the main criticism of the original Doomsday Argument.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Gerig, Austin austin.gerig@sbs.ox.ac.uk
Keywords:	doomsday argument, many worlds, multiverse
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Thought Experiments
Depositing User:	Dr Austin Gerig
Date Deposited:	28 Sep 2012 12:41
Last Modified:	28 Sep 2012 12:41
Item ID:	9333
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Thought Experiments
Date:	September 2012
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9333

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