Re: Objection to the Doomsday Argument?

From: Hal Finney (hal@rain.org)
Date: Fri Aug 14 1998 - 18:49:03 MDT


phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu, Damien R. Sullivan, wrote:
> On Aug 14, 12:52pm, Hal Finney wrote:
> > So of all those species members who apply the DA to conclude that "doom
> > is imminent" (specifically, that they are about halfway along in the
> > membership of their species), most of them are correct.
>
> Is this the DA conclusion? I'd thought it was that doom really was imminent,
> not that you're in the middle.

I meant that they would be about halfway along a list of all members
of their species, not that they would be halfway in time. As you say,
with exponential growth of the species, this implies that they are near
the end timewise. The conclusion still remains true for the majority
of the species members, over the whole history of the species.

Hal



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