English

Doomsday: Two Flaws

Popular Physics 2019-10-01 v2

Abstract

Here I argue that the much-discussed Doomsday Argument (DA) has two flaws. Its mathematical flaw stems from applying frequentist probability or faulty Bayesian inference. Its conceptual flaw is assuming that Copernican uniformity applies to a collection of ranked people and their ideas. I conclude that the DA has no predictive power whatsoever.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1909.11031,
  title  = {Doomsday: Two Flaws},
  author = {Mike Lampton},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1909.11031},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

8 pages, 4 figures