syzygy comments on Open Thread, March 16-31, 2012 - Less Wrong

2 Post author: OpenThreadGuy 16 March 2012 04:53AM

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Comment author: syzygy 16 March 2012 08:20:36AM 0 points [-]

Isn't this true about any conceivable hypothesis?

Comment author: Grognor 16 March 2012 08:50:08AM *  4 points [-]

Yes, but most hypotheses don't take the form, "Why am I thinking about this hypothesis?" and so your comment is completely irrelevant.

To elaborate: the doomsday argument says that the reason we find ourselves here rather than in an intergalactic civilization of trillions is because such a civilization never appears. I give a different explanation which relies on the nature of anthropic arguments in general.