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  3. Proof of the astronomical probability that You do not exist !

Proof of the astronomical probability that You do not exist !

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  • B BillWoodruff

    I've always had my doubts since I was wee tad and heard my parents talking, and my father saying: "but, where did he come from ?:" [^]

    «To kill an error's as good a service, sometimes better than, establishing new truth or fact.» Charles Darwin in "Prospero's Precepts"

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    Ron Anders
    wrote on last edited by
    #20

    Cool. later.

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    • M Mark_Wallace

      The guy obviously hasn't figured out why statistical calculations are never done going backward: You always end up at the same starting point, which is zero. Before the beginning of the universe, the probability of anything at all being as it is today was zero, which is fair enough. But, since then, a lot of things have happened (I think it must be more than eleven), each one of which has increased the probability of everything being exactly as it is now. Ask the Bueller kid: If you prop your dad's sports car up on axle props and run it in reverse, the wheels may go backward, but the milometer remains exactly as it is. i.e. the probability of your father having met your mother remains at 100%; the probability of your grandparents having met remains at 100%, etc. Gawd! that's more than plenty serious discussion, for today. From the rest of the day, the probability of my postings being idiotic is at 120% (and rising!).

      I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

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      BillWoodruff
      wrote on last edited by
      #21

      Mark_Wallace wrote:

      Before the beginning of the universe, the probability of anything at all being as it is today was zero,

      I feel less alone knowing we share such humble beginnings. thanks, Bill

      «To kill an error's as good a service, sometimes better than, establishing new truth or fact.» Charles Darwin in "Prospero's Precepts"

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      • M Mark_Wallace

        The guy obviously hasn't figured out why statistical calculations are never done going backward: You always end up at the same starting point, which is zero. Before the beginning of the universe, the probability of anything at all being as it is today was zero, which is fair enough. But, since then, a lot of things have happened (I think it must be more than eleven), each one of which has increased the probability of everything being exactly as it is now. Ask the Bueller kid: If you prop your dad's sports car up on axle props and run it in reverse, the wheels may go backward, but the milometer remains exactly as it is. i.e. the probability of your father having met your mother remains at 100%; the probability of your grandparents having met remains at 100%, etc. Gawd! that's more than plenty serious discussion, for today. From the rest of the day, the probability of my postings being idiotic is at 120% (and rising!).

        I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

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        Lost User
        wrote on last edited by
        #22

        Mark_Wallace wrote:

        Before the beginning of the universe,

        But there was no before ...

        PooperPig - Coming Soon

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        • L Lost User

          Mark_Wallace wrote:

          Before the beginning of the universe,

          But there was no before ...

          PooperPig - Coming Soon

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          Mark_Wallace
          wrote on last edited by
          #23

          Sure there was. We totally unimportant creatures on a totally unimportant world in a totally unimportant solar system in a totally unimportant arm of a totally unimportant galaxy in a totally unimportant tiny region of the universe don't know what it was like, but the universe doesn't care about our opinion, because it's totally unimportant.

          I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

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          • M Mark_Wallace

            Sure there was. We totally unimportant creatures on a totally unimportant world in a totally unimportant solar system in a totally unimportant arm of a totally unimportant galaxy in a totally unimportant tiny region of the universe don't know what it was like, but the universe doesn't care about our opinion, because it's totally unimportant.

            I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

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            Lost User
            wrote on last edited by
            #24

            Mark_Wallace wrote:

            totally unimportant creatures

            Speak for yourself ;) Depends if the single-big-bang theory is true, really. If Time started with the big bang, then the very concept of 'before' cannot exist.

            PooperPig - Coming Soon

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            • L Lost User

              Mark_Wallace wrote:

              totally unimportant creatures

              Speak for yourself ;) Depends if the single-big-bang theory is true, really. If Time started with the big bang, then the very concept of 'before' cannot exist.

              PooperPig - Coming Soon

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              Mark_Wallace
              wrote on last edited by
              #25

              Time became what it is with the big bang; that's subtly different from starting. Still, why waste energy thinking about it? Sooner or later, someone (possibly on a different but equally totally unimportant planet) will make a time machine, and there'll be another big bang, so every totally unimportant thing we ever do will be gone.

              I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

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              • M Mark_Wallace

                Time became what it is with the big bang; that's subtly different from starting. Still, why waste energy thinking about it? Sooner or later, someone (possibly on a different but equally totally unimportant planet) will make a time machine, and there'll be another big bang, so every totally unimportant thing we ever do will be gone.

                I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

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                Lost User
                wrote on last edited by
                #26

                or maybe it's already happened :)

                PooperPig - Coming Soon

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                • M Marc Clifton

                  Ah, the way statistics can manipulate reality. On the other hand, the probably that any human exists is 100% -- after all, humans exist. It's irrelevant to ask the probably that I exist because all those humans that exist are "I's" and the ones that don't are obviously "not I." In other words, you cannot have a human exist that is not an "I" (meaning, a unique individual to which we can say "you" to.) Silly statistics. :) Marc

                  Imperative to Functional Programming Succinctly Contributors Wanted for Higher Order Programming Project!

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                  Nish Nishant
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #27

                  Marc Clifton wrote:

                  Silly statistics

                  Three statisticians go hunting together. They see a deer, and the first statistician shoots, but his shot misses by a foot to the left. Then the second statistician shoots, but his shot misses by a foot to the right. The third statistician says "Okay, we got it!"

                  Regards, Nish


                  Website: www.voidnish.com Blog: voidnish.wordpress.com

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                  • M Mark_Wallace

                    You obviously go to different casinos than those I've visited.

                    I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

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                    Member 10707677
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #28

                    I usually go to casinos to visit my money.

                    The difficult may take time, the impossible a little longer.

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                    • M Mark_Wallace

                      You're right. Elegance is simplicity.

                      I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

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                      AXAMLMAN
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #29

                      And Simplicity is Elegant.

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                      • B BillWoodruff

                        I've always had my doubts since I was wee tad and heard my parents talking, and my father saying: "but, where did he come from ?:" [^]

                        «To kill an error's as good a service, sometimes better than, establishing new truth or fact.» Charles Darwin in "Prospero's Precepts"

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                        Rui_Dias
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #30

                        Odds are not applicable once an experiment's outcome is known/becomes a fact. Whoever did that poster wasted his (or her) time and made other waste theirs (including mine!) Be happy.

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                        • K Kenneth Haugland

                          I'm not entirely sure what the meaning of the words are, as per usual in these theorems. But it was said of QM that if you hit a tennis ball and infinite number of times on a wall it will at one point just pass through the wall. The theorem seem to say that QM can influence the result in any way? :doh:

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                          9082365
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #31

                          That seems like a lot of work. Can I not just put the ball on a piece of concrete and wait?

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                          • B BillWoodruff

                            I've always had my doubts since I was wee tad and heard my parents talking, and my father saying: "but, where did he come from ?:" [^]

                            «To kill an error's as good a service, sometimes better than, establishing new truth or fact.» Charles Darwin in "Prospero's Precepts"

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                            9082365
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #32

                            So that's why I can't see my reflection in a mirror?

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                            • R Rui_Dias

                              Odds are not applicable once an experiment's outcome is known/becomes a fact. Whoever did that poster wasted his (or her) time and made other waste theirs (including mine!) Be happy.

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                              9082365
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #33

                              Quote:

                              Odds are not applicable

                              Indeed. Everything evens out in the end!

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                              • B BillWoodruff

                                I've always had my doubts since I was wee tad and heard my parents talking, and my father saying: "but, where did he come from ?:" [^]

                                «To kill an error's as good a service, sometimes better than, establishing new truth or fact.» Charles Darwin in "Prospero's Precepts"

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                                iacopovettori
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #34

                                The real mess comes when you ask to yourself why on the Earth I am entitled to perceive subjectively just that particular human being that was born in those particular circumstances... or even better: the fact that in the whole world existed some very particular circumstances (whatever they were) capable to make "me" feel subjectively "alive". People that realize that this is the real problem may be interested to what I wrote at http://www.iacopovettori.it/laterzaipotesi/eng/ArgumentsProOI.aspx (with some discussions also with professional philosophers).

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                                • 9 9082365

                                  That seems like a lot of work. Can I not just put the ball on a piece of concrete and wait?

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                                  Kenneth Haugland
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #35

                                  :laugh: :thumbsup:

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                                  • B BillWoodruff

                                    I've always had my doubts since I was wee tad and heard my parents talking, and my father saying: "but, where did he come from ?:" [^]

                                    «To kill an error's as good a service, sometimes better than, establishing new truth or fact.» Charles Darwin in "Prospero's Precepts"

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                                    ttennebb
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #36

                                    In the grand scheme of the universe, I do not exist even though I am answering this silly question. No probability about it.

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                                    • D Daniel Pfeffer

                                      Like many before him, the author is confusing pre-hoc and post-hoc statistics. For example: The probability of a couple having four children, all sons, is 1 in 16. Given that they have three sons, the probability of them having a fourth is 1 in 2. In like manner: Given my remote ancestor, the probability of my future existence is very small. Given that I already exist (Cogito, ergo sum), the probability of my existence is 100%.

                                      If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill

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                                      TNCaver
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #37

                                      The original image was published on a Harvard Law blog, so one can perhaps understand the lack of statistical expertise of the blogger.

                                      If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.

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