From: Smigrodzki, Rafal (SmigrodzkiR@msx.upmc.edu)
Date: Tue Jan 08 2002 - 11:50:00 MST
J. R. Molloy wrote:
> From: "Anders Sandberg" <asa@nada.kth.se>
>
>>even if
>>the universe turns out to have some nasty properties making the future
>>of life finite, that is still not the end. There is meaning in the
>>finite too.
>>
>
> There is one thing worse than feeling "it's over"
> and that is wishing for it to be over.
> The meaning in the finite may be the wish for an end to it all, because
the
> alternative, that life goes on forever, may be too horrible for old brains
to
> contemplate.
> Everything that can happen has already happened, not just once,
> but an infinite number of times, and will continue to do so forever.
> (Everything that can happen = more than anyone can imagine.)
>
### I find this assertion hard to accept. While the concept of infinite
recurrence has been a part of ontology for thousands of years, it is only
one of many approaches. AFAIK, it is not compatible with the Bergsonian idea
of physical existence being identical to mathematical existence. Since
number theory is incomplete, physical events interpreted as mathematical
objects cannot have all happened already - there is always a Godelian
statement extending the object and providing for infinite change and growth
but not cyclic return.
I think that finite existence might be impossible.
Rafal
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