Philosophical Implications of Inflationary Cosmology
Physics and Society
2010-12-06 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
History and Philosophy of Physics
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.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.physics/0302071,
title = {Philosophical Implications of Inflationary Cosmology},
author = {Joshua Knobe and Ken D. Olum and Alexander Vilenkin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0302071},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
25 pages; v2: revised version to appear in British Journal for the Philosophy of Science